I tried quite some cables for my combination and finally I found my best combination in system which is consisted of Musical Fidelity A308 integrated, Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista CDP and Anthony Gallo speakers. Before trying Cardas Golden Cross RCA ICs i tried the following: Nordost Blue Heaven, Nordost Red Dawn, Nordost TYR, Van Den Hul The First, Oyaide Across 750RR, Oehlbach NH-1. Nordost i found to analytical and a bit dry. They are fast and you enjoy them as they are so opened. But after some time maybe this is too much. All of these Nordost cables had the same character. I think that Nordost are best in warm systems. Van Den Hul was a bit dull, Oyaide Across 750RR was best before I tried Cardas Golden Cross. I borrowed Cardas Golden Cross ICs from my friend. These cables brought exactly what i enjoy most. No sibilance, no spiting sounds, fullness of the instruments, creamy musical enjoyment and pleasure that you can listen all recordings you have at home for hours and hours. These cables are really all about music and that matters for me. Really enjoyed these cables and now I'm searching for some second hand to grab them.

Full sound and as detailed as required for musicality. Bass freaks: you will like this one.

Cost, but what the heck

To me, Cardas Golden Cross IC has become an extension or part of my CD player (Rega Jupiter). What it does for CD playback is to bring about about a richness and dimensionally of tone that I only knew from high quality LP playback. I would hesitate to categorize this cable as warm or bright. It just sounds right and I go to a lot of live concerts and play a couple instruments myself. After using the Quadlink for over 15 years (with great results) and experimenting with other cables in it's price range, the Golden Cross is quite a revelation. I do not enjoy the hyper detailed bleached out sound over the long haul and many of the competitors sound this way to me. The Cardas sound in emotional, and in my opinion what real music sounds like.

Customer Service

superb

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Most recent is Analysis Plus, which I also like, but not as much

Long break-in Very big connectors (rca)

This is about the IC. I wonder if home trial of Cardas cables is a waste of time. Why? Because the changes of the break-in or burn-in or whatever you call it, in the sound are so racidal and take such a long time. At least 1000 hours. I bought my 1m pair used, they were air mailed and handled and twisted and so on, and it took the above number of hours to relax. You would think they had been broken-in already, being used for several years, but no! These cables have to be left alone for (a couple of) thousand hours and played, before they are what they are. What are they? Everything people have written below.

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van den Hul The First

Bass. Mids. Zero glare or harshness. Clean.

Lacks top end excitement.

NB: Australian Currency. An interesting cable. It seems to enhance the bass depth and detail, midrange seems fairly neutral, top end a little tame. For some, the lack of hardness up top is a great thing. For me, while I appreciated the lack of harshness, I missed the sparkle, air and excitement of the top end. I use a warm, energetic sounding Exposure CD player, warm sounding Perreaux SM6P Reference preamp, and Mass Technology active speakers. I also use a Whise subwoofer - precision bass! Once the Cardas Golden Cross interconnect was burnt in (3 days continuous), I found the combination a little bland. Clear - Definitely. Warm - absolutely. Detailed - yes. Clean, yep. Lack of harshness and glare > Bonus. It just lacks a little enjoyment for my taste. But, I will be keeping it for reference.

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Elite Ultra DNA. Elite DNA. Neotech. QED. Elite Hextreme. Elite Hextacy.

Uhhhm....everyone thinks you're an audiophile.

Totally masks the sound.

After buying into the Cardas Golden Cross 'hype' I did indeed buy a 1.5m length of it (RCA) to connect my Linn Ikemi CD player to the Mac C100 preamp. Just for fun one night, my audiophile girlfriend and I placed some Analysis Plus Crystal Oval interconnects there instead and compared some of our favorite and familiar tunes. The Golden Cross left everything too muted and dull! For instance, a Celtic violin piece came across so realistically without the Golden Cross you could hear the raspy rosin sounding bow across strings effect the musician was trying for. It was almost totally absent with the Golden Cross. We also substituted TMC interconnects and could not tell the difference between it and the Analysis Plus....but both of these totally beat the Golden Cross very soundly! Thank God everyone out there believes this is great wire so I could resell it and recoup the money! If you don't like the sound of your components, change them! Don't buy overly muted/colored wires to compensate.

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TMC yellow and white Analysis Plus Crystal Oval Nordost Quatro Fil and Valhalla (about as far from Golden Cross as it gets!)

Great on digital

Stiff outer jacket and too smooth for power hungry pieces.

After rewiring my system with Cardas Golden Reference interconnect I decided to try one of their Golden Cross power cords. For many years I had been using Aural Symphonics Missing Link on my BAT VK D5 cd player and Line 3 SE preamp which plug into a PS Audio Power Plant. My BAT VK500 power amp uses PS Audio Lab Cable. I tried it on every piece of equipment including the Mirage subwoofer. In all cases, except cd player, it softened the sound to a point where the attack of instruments was not to my liking. I should note here that my system is not at all bright (tubes in cd and pre). It did, however, bring a pleasant improvement to my BAT VK D5. Backgrounds were blacker and I have a cleaner windows into which I can hear the differences between instruments. Voice is more "real" and involving. There was even an increase in micro and macro dynamics. I can only guess that too much of the "Cardas sound", which I like in interconnects, in higher power requirements is not a good thing. It does appear to offer benefits in lower power digital requirements where perhaps digital grunge is somehow filtered. Do audition this cable if you are in the market for quality aftermarket power cables. Your system may benefit from the smoother sound.

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Missing Link, Lab Cable

Ability to reduce digital glare while getting the hell out of the way of the music !!!!!!!

The only weakness I can thing of is cost. You do however, get what you paid for.

I own Magneplanars and because of this I found it difficult to bring that "magical soundstaging" to life. I tried many cables and settled on these. I had my cousin, (read extreme audiophile), over and he brought the Cardas Golden Cross 1.5m interconnect with him. Once installed and warmed up (for about 2hrs.) We all sat and listened. The Maggies absolutely came to life. The highs were sweet and crisp, no metal sound here ! The mids were liquid, smooth and ultra revealing and the bass, (If you know Maggies, bass is hard to reproduce without a wooly flavour) for the first time was clean and articulate. The first thing I noticed was how the cable allowed the Maggies to throw a soundstage that was deep and wide. If I closed my eyes I felt the speakers had dissapeared. Yes they are a warm cable however, most systems that I have heard reproducing digital, can use all that warmth that Cardas brings to the table. I also have tried them on some tube equipment, and have found them to be able to get out of the way and allow for frequency extremes to be reproduced without the etch and glare of some other cables. Highly recomended. Of course all systems are prone to "synergism" and ALL cables absolutely and positively MUST be auditioned. Impedance matching is the key to sonic nirvana, but you already knew that, right ???

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Kimber, MIT, Aural Symphonics (great cable), Audioquest.

Warmth at it's best without loss of the highs, very solidly build.

Can be too warm in the 'wrong' system, so listen to it before you buy.

This is a one of the most 'civilized' cables that I have heard. I think the word civilized describes it better, rather than saying 'warm', 'coloured' or whatever. In my system is serving very well between the CD transport, a Pioneer DVD 717 and the DAC, and Audio Alchemy D.I.B. When I used it between my passive preamp. a Creek OBH 12 and my two monoblock push pull valve amplifiers (custom build), it was a bit too warm, for my liking, and it became even more so when I used my Linn Sondek LP12 as a source. A very pleasant sound indeed, but one feels that some information in the high registers is muted. Keep in mind that I am talking about a pair of valve amps. that already have a warmish sound on their own. But is suits the output of the digital source better than any other cable that I tried, so I would imagine that, for any bright system that needs to be 'tamed', without any loss of information, this would be an ideal cable. Very well constructed, and in the right system would be hard to beat, unless one spends 'silly' money.

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Madrigal Reference 1 Van den Hul Throughline MIT Terminator 3 Monster Cable ( various ) Audioquest Ruby.

Warm, atmospheric presentation of the music. Good bass, makes music fun and involving.

Not completely transparent and not neutral.... Lack of Ultra details, but still brings a lot of informations compared to other cables in the same price range.

This review is for the Cardas Golden Cross IC. I used a 0.5M IC between my YBA Integre DT and my Sugden SDT-1 Player and my first feeling, compared to the Cardas Quadlink I had before was: "Wow, these cable brings a touch of magic here!". This is a really good cable and a really good value for system that doesn't exceed 10K. The bass is more present, everything is more clear. On the second hand, these cables aren't neutral at all. They do have a sonic signature: Bass is implified, middle are more presents and voice seems to separate from the music, which make the music very involving. Well... They do color the sound, but the result in my setup was really great. Of course I could compare them against my Siltech FTM-4 Gold G3 IC, but it would be really unfair since the siltech cost a lot more than the Golden Cross. Give the Golden a listen in your setup, you will certainly be impressed. But if price is of no matter for you and your goal is to achieve ultra details with an ultra transparent cable and are ready to pay the price, than maybe you should try some Siltech cables. Cheers and have a good time listening to music :)

Similar Products Used:

Cardas Quadlink, Van Den Hul, Siltech FTM-4 Gold (My reference cable... Totally unbeatable except by Siltech G5 models...)

warmth without sacrificing detail, dynamics, soundstaging and imaging, VERY MUSICAL

lack of ultra-detail may bother some

I absolutely love this cable. Warm without sacrificing detail, superb imaging, wide and deep soundstage, an unmistakable fullness and body to the music, excellent dynamics. Most importantly, it just sounds so musical. The only notable quality that may put some off is the lack of ultra detail that some may crave. The Golden Cross will not give you the razor sharp transients that other cables offer. Ideal for matching with solid state components. Amazing.

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Kimber PBJ, Cardas Microtwin