I had always heard this was the ultimate digital cable, but damm, $325!!! I decided to give it a try anyhow just to see. After sending back the soft and mushy sounding Cardas Lightning cable, I got an Illuminati. Wow, what a big soundstage, details, sweet highs, but something was missing. The bass seemed a little on the light side. After a quick swap back to my old cable, a Mod Squad Wonder Link II, I realized I hadn't lost any bass, but the tonal balance had shifted to a lighter sound since I had more highs now. As I listened to this cable some more I slowly gained some bass, but not enough. I called my dealer and he said that this cable takes for-ev-er to break in since it's solid silver. OK, I put the transport on repeat with track 9 of the XLO test disk, and ran it 24/7. (I didn't peek either, I played no music that week)
That seemed to do the trick, the bass picked up and there was a little more warmth in the midrange, I was very happy now.
I would recomend this cable to anyone who can bear the thought of parting with this much money for a cable. It's perfect.
A 5 for sure.

Interesting spread of reviews here. I bought the cable because I knew I needed a good digital cable and just about any good digital cable would beat what I had at the time. Plus the cable has received some good reviews, so...

I got the wire from the Cable Company (extremely nice folks, customer service is an example for the rest of the industry) and plugged it in. I'd read the reviews about the cable needing a long break-in time and sounding bright or mushy in the bass, etc. but I didn't hear these. As soon as I plugged that sucker in it made my system about 20% better sounding off the bat.

Highs, which had been a problem before, got much more pronounced and detailed yet not harsh at all, midrange images stabilized more, high-bass and low-mid frequencies got an immediacy and punch that was not there before, and it also seemed as if I got an extra octave of bass.

I knew that the digital cable in my system was suspect because I was using a mediocre Tributaries composite video cable at first and then switched to an older AQ Lapis silver cable I had laying around. The Lapis made a huge
difference in the sound, much for the better, just a tad for the worse.

I had expected the D60 to make a difference then, especially for it's price, but I had also expected a long burn-in time, etc. Well, if this is what I get now I can't wait for what I get with a 3 month burn-in.

I can't say what this cable will do to your system as each stereo setup has it's own idiosyncrasies -- it might make it stand up and salute (as it did in mine) or not. In my setup, however, it's more than worth the money. Probably the best investment I've made, money-wise.

I'd urge anyone to try it out -- see what it does for you. You never know with these goofy electrical circuits...

5 stars for value
4 stars for performance (there has to be something better -- can't go giving 5 stars to everything)

Associated equipment:

Sony DVP-S7000 DVD player as transport
D60 cable to preamp
Lexicon DC-1 v3.0 as DAC/preamp
Kimber PBJ to amp (gotta upgrade these!)
Plinius SA-100 amplifier (great amp)
Linn K400 bi-wire speaker cables (another upgrade)
Joseph Audio RM22si speakers (amazing bass from these little chaps)

Similar Products Used:

Tributaries video cable, AQ Lapis