Digital American and Spirit Interconnects

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Hi-Fi Obsession

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Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« on: 31 Jul 2015, 11:13 pm »
Hi Everyone,

Today I ordered some Spirit XLR interconnects and a Digital American.  The ICs are the final link to complete my TWL loom, replacing some Coincident Extremes.  The DA will replace my Ten Plus feeding a Schiit Gungnir DAC. 

I have heard much feedback on the DA and I expect great things, but my purchase of the ICs was to complete the collection and gain that "synergy".  Can anyone share their thoughts on the Spirit cables?  They are by far the least reviewed of any TWL product.

Rob

rpf

Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #1 on: 1 Aug 2015, 03:21 pm »
When you say you're completing a TWL loom, does that mean you have the TWL speaker cables?  If so, the ICs sound exactly like those.

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #2 on: 1 Aug 2015, 05:52 pm »
Yes, I have the SCs and several power cords.  Thanks for your input!

Jon L

Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #3 on: 1 Aug 2015, 06:08 pm »
In my case, the IC's probably caused the least initial reaction compared to power and speaker cable, but the more I use them, comparing to other interconnects, the more I like them.  It may even be my favorite TWL  :thumb:

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #4 on: 3 Aug 2015, 12:48 am »
Jon L, what have you compared them to?

rollo

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #5 on: 6 Aug 2015, 02:38 pm »
  The Spirit Ic's are neutral in character. Not hyped in any part of the frequency range. No exaggerated sibilants with female vocals. balesss is tight and very well articulated. sound stage is big and deep.
  Over the years I have had Tara, Cardas, Mapleshade active, Daves Cables, Audience, Bluejeans, Stealth , JPS and Crystal IC's and speaker cables in my system.
 To date all were colored in some way. The Spirit IC does no harm but will expose all as they are like a microscope. You get what you put in meaning components.
   The RCA connectors are the bomb. Tight as a crabs arse. My experience with break-in has been 400 hours for all TWL products. If one is not willing to break them in properly one will NEVER hear the final result. yes good out of the box but much much better after 400 hours.
   If one has TWL products such as speaker cables and powercords adding the final link of the loom is IMO worth every freaken penny.


charles

Ern Dog

Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #6 on: 7 Aug 2015, 05:22 am »
I bought a pair of the Spirit IC's a few months ago just to see/hear what all the hoopla was about TWL products.  Pete offered me a killer deal on a demo pair.  I agree with Rollo's assessment.  What I notice most is the frequency range extension I hear.  There is more sparkle and shimmer on the top end as well as fuller bottom end, with more growl.  I have an all tube system with Coincident speakers.  I'm using the Spirit between MHDT Stockholm dac and Melody 101d preamp.  For power cables I'm using a loom of Sablon Gran Coronas.  It would be fun to hear how the TWL power cables compare to Sablon.  Also on my list is Rick Shultz High Fidelity IC's, and those are a bit spendy for me, but they have a strong following.  I'm soon also experimenting with Beldon 8402 IC's coming in the mail next week.  I'm a sucker for great cables that don't cost an arm and a leg.  I don't feel an allegiance to any manufacture and let my ears guide me.  Thumbs up to the Spirit IC's.

Ernie
Ashland, Oregon

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #7 on: 9 Aug 2015, 05:08 pm »
Really happy to hear your comments Ern Dog and Rollo. 

I got my Digital American and Spirit interconnects on Thursday.  They went in Thursday night at 7pm.  The sound through Friday night was not good.  I had previously made some modifications to my bypass my speaker's binding posts and was experiencing a new level of transparency and presence, when I put in the TWL brand new, it all went away.  Warm blankets were over the speakers.

Yesterday I started to hear things opening up.  By night time, they had made significant strides and were able to entertain me and my wife until 3am.  "One more track, just one more track..."  This was with 50+ hrs on the DA and about 15-20 on the interconnects.

I also have some ZenWave Audio D4 Interconnects in the house for demo, and at this stage the D4 are superior.  I realize this is an unfair comparison with so few hours on the Spirit but I'm just sharing.  My wife and I did some comparos last night and the differences are slight but noticeable even to her.  We heard more low-level detail with the D4 and a tighter, more precise presentation.  At first the D4 sounded lean in comparison but listening even for a little bit, you realize that they are extraordinarily accurate and neutral.  The Spirit sounded fatter but just in the last day they've already improved.  I am optimistic about what the next several hundred hours will bring.  I am very familiar with the sound of the Coincident Extreme XLR interconnects but the Spirit are very promising as an upgrade.  I expected a "lateral" move to complete the loom but I believe I can expect more, now.  But boy oh boy did the first 24 hours make me nervous...

Jury is still out on the Digital American.  It is powering my Schiit Gungnir and I won't swap out for an A/B with the 10+ until I'm sure it has settled in. 

PS Ern Dog - I have had the Sablon PCs in house for demo.  I much prefer TWL.  The Sablons really provide a wallop on the lower end but they just sounded slow to me.  My system wasn't anywhere near as good as today when I heard them, I was only a year or two into the hobby, but they weren't for me.  IMHO, YMMV, etc, etc.  Also, interesting about the Belden... this has been a hot topic over in the Decware forums along with the WE 16ga wire, which I am using for speaker wire and "internal" cabling between my crossover and drivers.  Perhaps you've seen this?  http://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1428695666

PPS Ern Dog - I have the High Fidelity Cable CT-1E digital cable between my Baetis Audio Revolution II and the Schiit Gungnir.  It is an amazing cable.  I did a digital cable shootout last fall and this one was a clear winner.

PPPS - Yes, I just said I'm using vintage Western Electric speaker wire in place of my TWL American SC.  Funny how things work out, here I am trying to complete my loom and then I stumble upon something that derails it.  Last week I got an idea in my head that I just HAD to bypass my speaker binding posts... so I had 20ft of the WE wire leftover and decided to modify my crossover boards to accept bare, tinned wire underneath the Cardas posts.  Wow.  I really couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I had one channel wired up with the WE and the other in normal configuration with the TWL American SC w/ Cardas spades.  I queued up some mono recordings and listened to one channel at a time A/B for like 2 hours.  Conclusion: I don't care how good the TWL speaker cables are, they cannot compete with the WE wire bypassing the posts.  No contest.  So here's what I'm thinking now, what if I were to run the TWL bare wire and just remove the spades?  Hmmm.... Pete, are you out there?

Ern Dog

Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #8 on: 9 Aug 2015, 09:10 pm »
I've been listening to the vintage  16g WE wire for 2 weeks now. I heard about it over on the Audiogon forum, where there is also quite some buzz about it. For $1.49 foot it's hard not to test it out.   I thought it sounded pretty darn good for the price. My Beldin is still breaking in and sounds like crap new. I'm sure it will improve with time.

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #9 on: 14 Aug 2015, 12:58 am »
Update: over 150 hrs on the Digital American and approaching 50 hrs on the interconnects. They have fully opened and are sounding very natural and detailed.  I'll update after this weekend and will have more comparisons to ZenWave D2 Ultra and D4 interconnects and the Ten Plus power cord!! :-)

I've also decided to send my American Speaker cable to Pete to be "un-terminated" so I can compare to the Western Electric Wire.  Good times ahead!

RPM123

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #10 on: 14 Aug 2015, 03:43 am »
PPPS - Yes, I just said I'm using vintage Western Electric speaker wire in place of my TWL American SC.  Funny how things work out, here I am trying to complete my loom and then I stumble upon something that derails it.  Last week I got an idea in my head that I just HAD to bypass my speaker binding posts... so I had 20ft of the WE wire leftover and decided to modify my crossover boards to accept bare, tinned wire underneath the Cardas posts.  Wow.  I really couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I had one channel wired up with the WE and the other in normal configuration with the TWL American SC w/ Cardas spades.  I queued up some mono recordings and listened to one channel at a time A/B for like 2 hours.  Conclusion: I don't care how good the TWL speaker cables are, they cannot compete with the WE wire bypassing the posts.  No contest.  So here's what I'm thinking now, what if I were to run the TWL bare wire and just remove the spades?  Hmmm.... Pete, are you out there?


From 6 Moons:
"Now let’s take a quick look at the Triode Wire Labs Company. This American cable firm was founded by Peter Grzybowski, a graduate engineer who had worked for over 24 years in the power generation industry. After many years of audiophile experimentation on various conductors, grounding and shielding techniques, he decided to use a particular kind of copper wire that was designed a few decades ago by Western Electric and specified for use in the construction of theater amplifiers including 300B designs and Westrex recording equipment. The name of the company derives from this."

Apparently Pete is already using WE wire in his speaker cables.  :wink:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/triodewire/1.html

Ern Dog

Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #11 on: 14 Aug 2015, 05:02 am »
Update: over 150 hrs on the Digital American and approaching 50 hrs on the interconnects. They have fully opened and are sounding very natural and detailed.  I'll update after this weekend and will have more comparisons to ZenWave D2 Ultra and D4 interconnects and the Ten Plus power cord!! :-)

I've also decided to send my American Speaker cable to Pete to be "un-terminated" so I can compare to the Western Electric Wire.  Good times ahead!

I'm interested in hearing your impressions of the un terminated speaker cable.

Good times for sure.  I love this hobby!

RPM: Nice detective work.

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #12 on: 14 Aug 2015, 01:21 pm »

Apparently Pete is already using WE wire in his speaker cables.  :wink:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/triodewire/1.html

Yep, knew that already ;-) That was part of the draw in trying the vintage wire!

rollo

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #13 on: 19 Aug 2015, 04:57 pm »
  No connector no matter what type introduces resistance. If one is willing and can use no connectors do it. Neutrality is when each recording sounds different. It also means no coloration of any kind meaning, lean, bright, rich, etc.
   Happy comparing.


charles

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #14 on: 20 Aug 2015, 03:38 pm »
The speaker cables are on their way back to me.  Will get them installed this weekend with some comparisons to the vintage WE wire.  More soon.

Rob

KLH007

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #15 on: 20 Aug 2015, 03:59 pm »
The speaker cables are on their way back to me.  Will get them installed this weekend with some comparisons to the vintage WE wire.  More soon.

Rob

It will be interesting to learn the differences between the 2 wires, can the direct soldered to xover connection dwarf the changes between the 2 wires? Don't keep us in suspense too long Rob.

Hi-Fi Obsession

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Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #16 on: 20 Aug 2015, 04:19 pm »
It will be interesting to learn the differences between the 2 wires, can the direct soldered to xover connection dwarf the changes between the 2 wires? Don't keep us in suspense too long Rob.

I've determined that WE 16ga unterminated wire, bypassing speaker binding posts, surpasses spade-terminated (both ends) TWL SCs via binding posts.  By a long shot.  Removing two sets of connectors and a set of posts is very audible, even with "inferior" wire.

Before I remove the hard-wired WE from the crossover (which is a bit of work) I will install the TWL as normal and simply wrap the wire around the speaker binding posts (the Cardas posts have no through-holes).   This will be an interesting comparison between the two sets of unterminated cables, but the TWL will still be transmitting through Cardas binding posts.  If the TWL wins in this scenario, bypassing the posts will be icing on the cake.

Rob

Ern Dog

Re: Digital American and Spirit Interconnects
« Reply #17 on: 23 Aug 2015, 05:07 am »
I'm using my Spirit IC's between pre and amp, combined with the Beldin 8402's between dac and pre.  This combo is the best I've ever heard my system sound!  Huge soundstage with a very natural tone.  Intoxicating listening to music.  My first listen to the Beldin was not good.  With break in, it sounds like a totally different cable now.