The good Karma cable thread

[Bigman80]

can these be moved on to the next person on the list please.

Drop me down a space mate. I'm not available for the next week.

[bronzeage]

Cables on their way to next on the list after big man80.
Thanks for the loan, it was fun comparing, and I fixed some issues I did not know I had.

A final summary: these are not as good to my ears as the Venus, but they are nicely balanced, and could be just the job for others, obviously it comes down to what they might cost. They remind me a lot of TQ ultra black.

[YNWaN]

They are on their way to me apparently. I will post here once they arrive and with my thoughts (once I have tried them ).

[YNWaN]

I think the postman tried to deliver these cables today - when I was out (he definitely tried to deliver something). I’ll go and pick the undelivered item up tomorrow and we shall see...

[karma67]

cool,i look forward to your findings

[YNWaN]

Just to let you know, I have now collected the cables and all is as it should be . The short cable is way too short for me to use so I won’t be reporting on that I’m afraid. In fact the longer one is still pretty short but I should be able to move stuff around a bit.... I hope....

[karma67]

no worries mark,do what you can with them,i hope you like them.

[YNWaN]

Well, amazingly I haven’t just sat on my arse today (though I have done quite a lot of that). Instead I have taken a couple of pictures of the Karma cable - I’ve also moved my pre-amp and phonostage a bit closer together, plugged in the longer ofvthe Karma cables and am actually having a listen!



I really rather like the carbon fibre sheathing, which is very soft and flexible.

The records I have listened to so far:



She Drew The Gun, This Mortal Coil, Massive Attack, Ritual Howls and The Civil Wars.

My first impressions are a very open sound and good detail. Slightly from the mouth as opposed to from the chest in balance. Bass is very tight and tuneful - more dry than rich in texture. The dynamic of small scale pieces is first class. At present I have a small question mark over textural weight (if that makes sense?). Or, to put it another way, is there sufficient swing and wallop? I’ll play a different selection of music tomorrow but, at present, I have to say I’m pretty impressed .

[karma67]

WOW! thanks for the kinds words,im pleased you like them so far.
ive just had a listen to my original pair again,ive been using some neotech UP-OCC Copper cable as a base reference for a few weeks and id have to agree that the karma cable does bring some background detail up a notch,i also 'get' what you say about the bass,it seems weak on some tracks and good on others but when there is prominent bass, its there and well defined compared to the neotech.

personally i think where karma cable excels is norah jones type music,acoustic guitar,female vocal type of stuff.
big clarity and detail.
its early days though so once you've had a good listen if there are improvements to be made im happy to try and achieve them .

[alphaGT]

cheers chaps!
im glad you liked them,im also pleased that my findings matched yours,its taken a few weekends to get the right blend so to speak but i think the mk 6 versions are spot on,they certainly beat anything ive heard to date at least.
once i get the outer sleeving sorted i'll get a loan pair together if anyone's interested.

Just a thought. I’ve made a few of my own cables in my day, and I borrowed the ground shield from a large diameter cable TV type cable. I cut it into lengths and snatched the plastic centers out. Then pulling the new centers in is the tricky part, but working with just the 90% coverage, stainless groundshield, I could expand it enough to stretch over my cables, and then covered that with a braided cloth covering. They came out looking very professional, I attached the ground shield on one end, and was pleased with the results.

Russell