Very Detailed-fast

Nothing at the price

Further to my 1998 review, I returned back to my Blue Heavens, to find that,some of the ills referred to in other reviews may be due to less than ideal ancillary equipment (particularly to the bright signiture of the cables).

I'm finding the cables very "homogeneous"; within the audio spectrum, and very detailed.

In my present system, I tend to prefer the Nordost to the Audioquest Lapis 3, which I'm finding soft and disjointed in the lower frequencies. This is just an opinion, which I presume, is very system-dependent.

Similar Products Used:

Audioquest, Kimber

Everything!

odd colour-er...thats it(!)

I picked up 3 metres of this cable up for £90 (s/hand) from Signals in Ipswich, UK (01473 622866).
This is lovely stuff. You cannot fault it. Mine is quite a average system, but it still shines!
If you can't afford £60/metre retail, get the Flatline gold @£9 a metre and work up! You really can't beat Nordost!

The only thing that I found with my system:
Arcam 8ppower amp
Rotel 870bx pre
Pioneer Pds505precision cd player
Sony Mdsje530 Md
Denon 750 tape
MS30i classic speakers on ATacama se24 stands
VDhul d102mk3 between cd and Rotel
Cable TalkStudio 2 between amps

is that the combination of the Blue Heaven i/connect and speaker cables got my system unrealistically bright.
But, what the hell, get the vdh phono leads and spend the rest on cds!

Rory

Similar Products Used:

Chord Legend, Chord Rumour, Chord Odyssey, Nordost Flatline (All speaker cables)

Too bright

I know many people mistake detail for brightness. But with these it is unmistakable. Everything people say about how silverplated copper is bright is all too true with these cables. My tube integrated amp is already a little on the dark and mellow side so I was hoping these would liven that up, but Whoa! too much. I couldn't stand to listen to the cymbals on Dave Brubecks time out, too "tizzy". Burn didn't seem to help alot. The rest of the cables qualities were not too bad. Decent bass, nice soundstage etc. i would only recommend for a really dark system.

MIT terminator 4 1
MIT trminator 2 2
Hero 2.5
Nordost Blue Heaven 3
Truth link 3
DH Labs 3.1 (they are cheaper and not as bright)
Por-silway 4
Silver bullet 6.0's 5

Ultech UCD-100 CD player
Jolida 502 A Integrated amp(Raytheon, Mullard and Svetlana tubes)
Hales Revelation Two speakers
Silver bullet 6.0's interconnects
Pure Silver Sound Sextet speaker cables
PSB Stratus Silvers

Similar Products Used:

Mit Terminator 2 & 4, Kimber Hero, DH Labs, Harmonic tech truth link, Silver Audio silver bullet 6.0's

Open, airy, Air, clarity, space, openess, focus

Suprise me since the very first day! Excellent soundstage. Open and airy presentation. it does almost everythings right.

Neutrality, detail, spaciousness, musicality

Some may find it slightly leightweight

These cables are very good value for money. Most cables work as filters, giving a "different" or "warm" sound. These Blue Heavens however are so neutral, they will highlight any deficiencies in your equipment (indeed, also BRIGHTNESS). So don't flaunt the cables for being bright (they are a little leightweight, mostly because the bass is less soggy than the bass from most other sometime bulky cables, which store energy), but also take a look at your equipment. I think it suits my MartinLogan speakers and Parasound amp perfectly, without ANY brightness. It's all a matter of matching, but with Nordost, it's mostly what you throw into it, comes out of it... Burn-in is very important with these cables. In my setup it took about 80 hours, which is just about what the manufacturer recommends. Amazing...

Just my opinion though. If it doesn't work in your system, go ahead and try some other cables that work more as filters, "balancing" the sound until it's listenable...

Similar Products Used:

Sonic Link, Van den Hul, Cardas, Wireworld

sweet midrange

Lack of bass, bright highs

I have not experienced the same problems as the gentleman who gave them a 1 rating, but I have had problems. This silver plated copper hybrid sounded bright or harsh in my system. I have since gone to pure silver interconnects and the problem dissappeared.

Classe .3 CDP
Sonic Frontiers Line 1
Classe C200
Mirage MRM-1

Viva la Canada! All this canadian stuff sounds great and costs little (relatively)

I rate the cable 3 on sound and only a 2 on value considering other much better cables that cost as much or less

Similar Products Used:

Kimber Hero, MIT-330, Silver Audio silver bullet 4.0's

Great soundstage, good bass

Tends to be slightly bright in the treble

I was pretty satisfied with these cable during the first part of my audition at home. They sounded good but $560 was a little too much at the time. I also had a pair of Analysis Plus Silver Ovals ($599) on hand for the last few days of my audition period. I noticed the Nordost were slightly brighter than the AP cables, but overall they were very similar. I have decided to wait and try some pure silver cables, which are about $150-200 cheaper from Pure Silver Sound. If they are as good as their interconnects I will probably be done with my search.

Equipment

Musical Fidelity X-RAY 24/96 CD Player
Musical Fidelity X-P100 Preamp
Musical Fidelity X-AS100 monoblocks
PSB Goldi speakers

Similar Products Used:

Kimber 4PR, 4TC, Analysis Plus Silver Oval

Huge soundstage(front-back & l/r),Bass clamp,speed,pace,swing,They are the sonic glue to my system

they give you what you give them;I give 'em tubes they give me that palpable presence.I give 'em fast SS, its one Phat pocket!

Ok, so you use NOS tubes, got that wet soundstage(ie real) but the music seems to lose some pace - these are the glue!

So those MIT hoses slowed the grove,left Buhana(Art Blakey) without his HUGE pocket;Gave you "space"around the players but shrunk the soundstage.

These are the glue;like PC (Paul Chambers) to BE (Bill Evans) & Philly Joe. They sweeten the mids with tubes (or great Jfets)and still provide the pace. No midbass slow down here(well you can only do so much for Infinity & Dcm).They give almost perfect impedence matching for the equipment its coupling(SPM and Quattro fil are perfect impedence buffers), so that the music shines through!
Used .6m on the CD player (1m was a little to smooth)and 3m single biwire with Zplugs. Made the Polks come alive (even prefer the BH/Polk 2000p combo to the rt3000p/BH - I just love something about a good 2way 6.5 incher)But I have to say that Cardas Cross is just as good a cable, just depends on the system/components they will be matched to(great for bright/harsh equipment(Bat & Rotel).

Audio Refinement Cd Complete
Yamaha kxw 592 (cass)
Yamaha rx770(heavily modified with AQ FPR silver wire throughout the preamp/amp; and replaced the preout/main-in jumpers with AQ FPS solid silver jumpers)
(old)Elac TT(heavily modified)/Rega Rb600/Grado Reference MM
Polk Rt2000p
Nordost Blue Heavens(int(.6m - cd/1m - TT) & sp)
Vibrapods/pulsar points

Similar Products Used:

Monster, Cardas Cross, Mit T4,RS Gold(heee heee)

Air, clarity, space, openess, focus, smooth

Not sure if any (good enough for me)

I havent listened to many cables at all but these are great. When going from regular monster type cables to these my system is now the best ive heard. Imaging came into tight focus and more 3D. Air around objects and space is awesome, my system has opened up. The cables are very clean. To me its all about system matching, and these cables do fine in my system, and it blows away all other cables I've owned. Theres probably better but we have to stop somewhere. Musicians are now in the room with me. I think these cables could possibly be bright in some systems but Im not sure. If you want cables that are clean and fast try these, the price is exspensive, but compared to other cables not bad.

Similar Products Used:

Soliloquy 5.3 speakers, Arcam Alpha 9 CD, Sim Audio Moon W3 amp, Threshold T-Zero preamp

Fast, superb soundstage and timing, clarity

Needs to be partnered with extreme care.
Cable difficult to run

Reviewed this in my Krell 300i/250cd system with Kef Reference 2's (using the low bandpass filter) and Siltech SG3 balanced interconnects. I was expecting to lose all clarity from the bass and overload the UniQ driver on the 2's completely. Suprisingly the bass became tighter and clearer although possibly not quite as deep (not too much of an issue in my small room) and the focus, clarity and staging were incredible. After about 65 hours use the Blue Heaven is definately becoming more "confident" in all aspects. I would agree with the previous reviewer regarding AT LEAST 80 hours run in.

I also tried the Red Dawn in my system and this was far too bright.