Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Cardas Audio Clear Single-Ended Interconnect Cable by Luminator

Model:	Clear Single-Ended Interconnect
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$800 termination + $520/half-meter
Description:	Single-ended line-level interconnect
Manufacturer URL:	Cardas Audio

Review by Luminator on September 20, 2011 at 09:16:27
IP Address: 38.122.6.26 Add Your Review
for the Clear Single-Ended Interconnect

As people were reading my posts about the balanced Cardas Clear interconnect, they wondered about and begged for the single-ended version. After these same people read my formal review here on Cable Asylum of the balanced Clear, they demanded more. They wanted to know more about Samantha. They wanted to know more about Margaret [they got a heavy dose of her from my Digital Asylum review of the Cambridge Audio Azur 840C]. They wanted to know about other girls. They wanted to know more about the Nordost VIDAR and Audio Dharma Cable Cooker. They wanted more music. They wanted details of the single-ended Clear. They wanted comparisons of balanced versus single-ended. And on top of all that, they wanted pictures !

I have already fulfilled most of the above demands. So unlike most of my reviews here on Audio Asylum, the sordid details, salacious stories, and nitty gritty photos are in the posts, not here. That means you absolutely must click on the posts below in order.

Homebase - KJ
The Final - Limpets
So So Def Base All-Stars - Baker Beach
Mane Attraction - Hair and mirrors
David Foster - 1st sample
America's Greatest Hero - dCS Puccini
Emotions - Cooking additional samples
Contraband - Old school
Friends & Lovers - XLR vs. RCA
Wonderland - Other cables
Metallica - Mirrors on ceiling
Butchered At Birth - Contact cleaners
C.M.B. - Cooked vs. un-Cooked

Again, despite the RCA and XLR being of different design, overall, the Cardas Clear interconnects perform the same and are interchangeable. This really hit home, when I inserted the Classe' CP-500 preamp into the chain. By being honest, the Clears correctly identified the CP-500's balanced inputs (and not the outputs!) as "buffing" or curtailing the upper midrange. Thus, music via the balanced inputs, while appearing "refined" and "smooth," caused listeners to strain their ears, as they tried in vain to hear details, details which the CP-500 masked. The impatient or uneducated audiophile would incorrectly blame (a) the source, or (b) the cables. But when we re-inserted the Jeff Rowland Criterion, the upper midrange was (compared to the CP-500) restored.

Once again, I am being a bit lazy. But if you re-read my review of the balanced Clear, the single-ended version performs the same. So the comparisons to other cables hold true for both the balanced and single-ended Clear.

And to my female readers, yes, I will eventually blog about boys/men. I am not exactly sure how to approach them, from a writing perspective, so e-mail me your suggestions, comments, and pointers. And once again, no, I didn't have a camera until this century/millenium. Any pictures I took prior to 2000 were from my classmates' cameras. As I've long since lost touch with them, there's no way for me to get or retrieve those old photos. And no, you really do not want to see photos (old or new) of me.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

Product Weakness:	print on outer jacket can rub off; dust can cling to outer jacket; like all cables, requires a cable burn-in device to unlock true potential
Product Strengths:	comes in Ziploc bag; old school blue outer jacket; peforms the same as the balanced version, but is $300 cheaper; RCA is friction-fit, not locking-barrel; RCA can fit into tight quarters; flexible; low mass places no strain on components' RCA jacks; only needs 3 days of Cook time

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: numerous
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): numerous
Sources (CDP/Turntable): numerous
Speakers: numerous speakers and headphones
Cables/Interconnects: MIT Oracle .2 series; Nordost Valhalla and Odin; Tara Labs ISM The One; Wireworld Platinum Eclipse; XLO Limited Edition
Music Used (Genre/Selections): rock, pop, R&B, dance, Hawaiian, show tunes, TV
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	numerous
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	numerous
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	numerous
Speakers:	numerous speakers and headphones
Cables/Interconnects:	MIT Oracle .2 series; Nordost Valhalla and Odin; Tara Labs ISM The One; Wireworld Platinum Eclipse; XLO Limited Edition
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	rock, pop, R&B, dance, Hawaiian, show tunes, TV
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner