Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[User211]

Does it sound similar to the KAV250a Jerry? I sometimes regretted moving that on until I got the Luxman.

Luxman.

It's taken me 7+ years and a whole load of amps to find out that the only amp that can drive Apogee Duettas properly is a 60 Watt Luxman. It's the only amp that seems to have enough power!!! Plus a whole shedload of other virtues.

Anyway Jerry I sent you a PM a while back and no answer.

Have you decided you hate me?

[JohnJo]

Luxman.

It's taken me 7+ years and a whole load of amps to find out that the only amp that can drive Apogee Duettas properly is a 60 Watt Luxman. It's the only amp that seems to have enough power!!!

60 watt with a 1250VA (watt) transformer though

[User211]

60 watt with a 1250VA (watt) transformer though

And power output that leaps into lower impedances.

We're spoiling it...

[jandl100]

Have you decided you hate me?

Of course I hate you.

Actually, I just forgot to reply.
It's an age thing, getting forgetful as well as bald.

[Roy S]

[jandl100]

Some cable ramblings, by popular request, the ins & outs of the last few months' interconnect journey.

EDGE cables - available dirt cheap on eBay and used by some 'high enders' on AOS who don't really believe in cables. These are good! Fine resolution and clarity, just a little grainy up top I think. A bit 2D. But very good. I happily used these for quite a while and I keep them for 'spare'.

Esoteric Audio USA Airlitz - they aren't especially transparent or detailed or dynamic. But there's something about them that I really enjoy. First impressions were "Wow, I like these!". Perhaps a nice spaciousness and musical enthusiasm, they just allow the music to flow with an impressive vibrancy. Hmm. Keepers, but I'm still not sure why, as they somehow don't tick the usual hifi boxes.

Blackbird Audio Spitfire (no relation ,available on Amazon) - I got onto this via a headphone extension cable recommended by a friend, which impressed me for its clarity. Same kind of sound with the interconnects - good clarity and 2D focus, doesn't really dig that deep into the texture of the sound but for £20 or so I'm not complaining! A very good budget cable.

Morrow Audio MA2 and MA4. Interesting designs, the range starts with the low cost MA1 at $60, thru MA7 at $3k and then two more even more costly. The main difference seems to be the number of individually insulated 'SSI' cable strands used, MA1 having 8 strands and the top model having 288!
MA2 (14 strands) came along first - very natural tonally and an ability to dig into the ambient cues on a recording which helps it come to life which is very unusual at the price ime.
More recently a pair of used MA4 (48 strands) came up on eBay. Very impressed, a huge amount of fine detail and somehow very 'solidly grounded', for want of a better term, the soundstage/imaging is somehow locked into place.

Black Cat Neo Morpheus. Without doubt this sounds like a 'high end' cable. There seems to be a bit of a trade off between precise image focus and deep texture, presenting a slightly diffuse image but a gutsy insight into tonal timbre and small scale dynamic inflections. Overall, a powerful, gutsy and dynamic sound. Bloody good, I did put these up for sale due to the imprecise image focus, but am now keeping them medium/long term for their excellent overall capability. Could well synergise nicely with kit yet to come along!

DNM Reson - about as simple as a cable can be, and dead cheap. But sounding very lucid and clear with very good detail. Also good focus laterally, but a bit 2D in my system (which does 3D very well when fed appropriately). Without doubt a superb value.

And some balanced/XLR cables by BetterCables. Yes, really. Came along on eBay and some good user comments online so I took a punt. Very very good! Excellent clarity and vividly present, with precise uncluttered focus. Difficult to compare XLR and RCA cables in my system, at least, as I suspect my Benchmark DAC is better at balanced output than single ended. Definitely keepers for when XLRs are needed.

RS Audio Duet - a hybrid of silver and palladium. Don't ask me why they chose palladium as a conductor. Maybe because it sounds damn good? That's the cable that's connected up as I type this. The best cable so far, for me. Difficult to criticise until something better comes along!

[southall-1998_mk2]

Just checked out the DMN website. Their prices on cables look pretty reasonable.

S.

[Alex_UK]

Thanks for sharing, Jerry! I thought I was all settled on cables but now I am pondering!

[brian2957]

Very informative Jerry , thanks

[Bigman80]

I feel left out [emoji23]

If I'd know you were doing a cable tryout, I'd have sent you some of mine to throw into the mix!

Next time [emoji4]