Dave's Cables Interconnect Cable Tour (New Tour With Speaker Cables: Page 10)

DaveC113 · « **Reply #20 on:** 9 Jul 2013, 10:52 pm »

Quote from: mjosef on 9 Jul 2013, 10:40 pm

Interested in your top-of-the-line IC, curious how it compares with my 4K/6k/9K$$$ superduparumpa wires.

Honestly, the D2 with EC-UPOCC copper signal wire is better than the Duelund silver wire if neutrality is your goal... and it's going to be competitive with anything out there for only $300. The DD/D3 cables are different but not necessarily better. The EC-UPOCC wire is the key to making top of the line cables at reasonable prices and it is the most neutral wire I have ever tested, and I've tried a lot of wire...

I would be very interested in hearing your impressions!

There's lots of interest, so I may need to run 2 simultaneous tours to avoid keeping people waiting for months...

hrosenba · « **Reply #21 on:** 10 Jul 2013, 12:00 am »

Hi Dave,
I'm also interested; located in Los Angeles. We share listening priorities (timbral accuracy on horns and strings.) Might you be including a longer pair of unbalanced (e.g. 2 meters) D2's for use between pre- and power amp, in addition to 0.5 or 1 meter pair between source and pre?
Thanks and happy listening,
Harvey

etcarroll · « **Reply #22 on:** 11 Jul 2013, 05:44 pm »

Count me in, at 19363 between the NY and Mid-Atlantic groups. Ideally would like 2 pr of half meter ICs, with RCA connectors, to go Purity One Pre to Dahlquist LP-1 sub xover, then LP-1 to amp.

But I'd love to hear whatever becomes available.

Gene

nature boy · « **Reply #23 on:** 11 Jul 2013, 07:27 pm »

Dave,

This is a very generous offer. 1m single ended RCA terminations will work in my system. Please plug me into the list for the Mid-Atlantic region, zip code 19707.

NB

fridays · « **Reply #24 on:** 12 Jul 2013, 03:36 am »

Count me in

DaveC113 · « **Reply #25 on:** 12 Jul 2013, 04:15 pm »

Great, Thanks for your interest everyone! So far I have the following for the tour:

Charles Xavier
launche (xlr)
JerryM
ganjamon
ZLS
pfarthing (xlr)
Chris Adams
BobRex
mdfoy
jbtrio
dflee
hanguy
mjosef
hrosenba
etcarroll
nature boy
fridays
Mike B.

Please send me your address and phone number if you haven't already, and specify if you would like to receive an XLR cable. I plan on splitting this into 2 tours so people won't be waiting so long, only one will have an XLR cable. I am most likely just going to send out 1 meter cables, only one person has asked for longer, and that's difficult to accommodate because I rarely sell IC cables longer than one meter. But if several people need longer cables I will consider it.

Also, the D3 is not ready for prime time yet so it won't be going out... it costs a lot to make and takes A LOT of labor to construct... and it isn't that much better than the D2, there isn't enough difference to justify the much higher price.

Mike B. · « **Reply #26 on:** 12 Jul 2013, 06:52 pm »

Please count me in. I sent you a e-mail. Thanks

DaveC113 · « **Reply #27 on:** 16 Jul 2013, 05:04 pm »

OK, I think I have a plan...

We have 17 participants, so it looks like I will do 2 overlapping tours so this doesn't take 6 months. I will start the first one now without the XLR cable for the east coast folks:

Chris Adams (VT)
Charles Xavier (NY)
jbtrio (NY)
mjosef (NY)
etcarroll (PA)
BobRex (PA)
nature boy (DE)
dflee (NC)
~~OzarkTom (MO)~~
jonbee
hrosenba (CA)
hanguy (CA)
bradmorris1
paul79

The second tour will start in one to two weeks and will have an XLR cable in the box, it will move from east to west:

launche (NC)
rklein (OH)
ZLS (IL)
fridays (IA)
genjamon (KS)
pfarthing (WA)
~~Mike B (OR)~~
~~Jerry M (CA)~~
Vulcan00
shaizada
drmike
mikeeastman

I am excited to get the ball rolling!

Chris Adams, you have a pm.

dflee · « **Reply #28 on:** 16 Jul 2013, 05:09 pm »

Thanks for allowing us to play with your products in our homes. What will be the time between users?

Don

DaveC113 · « **Reply #29 on:** 16 Jul 2013, 06:36 pm »

No problem Don, I look forward to hearing everyone's impressions of the cables.

I suppose I should spell out the requirements...

1. Please keep the cables in good shape, don't kink or bend them sharply and remove them by pulling only on the connectors and not on the cable. The locking RCAs used on the D2 and DD ICs don't need much torque to tighten them, if you tighten them too much and they take more than a tiny bit of force to unscrew the locking collet, please hold the rear section of the connector with one hand while unscrewing the locking collet with the other hand, this will prevent torque from being put on your female RCA jack, thus preventing the jack from rotating.

2. Since there are a lot of people on the tours, it would be nice if you can send the cables on to the next person in 7-10 days.

3. Shipping will be UPS ground, please insure the package for $890. Shipping charges will be paid by the person shipping the cables.

4. Please share your impressions of the cables here, comparisons with other IC cables you might have are welcome.

I am sending out the first package to Chris Adams today.

launche, I will let you know when the 2nd tour package will be sent out, it should be in a week or so.

Chris Adams · « **Reply #30 on:** 17 Jul 2013, 07:27 pm »

Looking forward to that nice package from UPS.

Dave, are the cables broken in and if not, how long?

rklein · « **Reply #31 on:** 17 Jul 2013, 08:33 pm »

I too appreciate the opportunity to try your cables.

Thanks for making this happen.

Regards,

Randy

DaveC113 · « **Reply #32 on:** 17 Jul 2013, 10:26 pm »

Quote from: Chris Adams on 17 Jul 2013, 07:27 pm

Looking forward to that nice package from UPS.

Dave, are the cables broken in and if not, how long?

The cables have about 100 hours on them, the D1 a little more. They will still change a bit, but not by too much. It would be ideal to get 200+ hours on them.

I'd advise anyone to give them a few hours to break in after going through shipping and installing them.

Randy, no problem, I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.

DaveC113 · « **Reply #33 on:** 23 Jul 2013, 03:10 am »

The D1 XLR cable is done, I'm thinking of sending it out now as it'll be another week + before the single ended ICs are ready to ship, I'm still waiting on some parts. Thanks Launche and pfarthing for trying it out!

I am aiming to get the single ended ICs delivered to Launche on Aug 5th.

I posted pics and info on the XLR cable in the Path of Least Resistance thread here:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=116380.msg1244520#msg1244520

dflee · « **Reply #34 on:** 4 Aug 2013, 05:44 pm »

What's the status on tour one?
Cause Dave's not here man.

DaveC113 · « **Reply #35 on:** 4 Aug 2013, 05:54 pm »

I'm here!

Chris Adams has the 1st set of cables and is going to send them to Charles Xavier on Monday (tomorrow), he will post his impressions when he gets the chance as he is still checking them out.

The 2nd set of cables will go out to Launche tomorrow... it is a little late going out, but the cables have had a decent amount of time to burn in and Launche is out of town until tomorrow anyway. The DD interconnect with Duelund silver wire needs quite a long time to burn in.

DaveC113 · « **Reply #36 on:** 5 Aug 2013, 03:29 pm »

OK, cable set #2 is going out to Launche today and will get to him by Friday... and Chris Adams will send cable set #1 to Charles Xavier today as well.

Chris Adams · « **Reply #37 on:** 5 Aug 2013, 11:14 pm »

I didn't get a chance to listen as long as I wanted to. What I heard I liked. If you go to Dave's website and read the descriptions of each cable, they are on the money, at least in my system. The D1 could cost twice it's price at least, an absolute knockout for the money. I could be very happy with it. But, wait, the D2 for twice the price is even better. Neutral, extended, smooth, detailed, spacious, you get the idea. Not a harsh bone in it's body.

I liked the D2 so much, I bought two pair from Dave as well as a pair of 11 gauge speaker wires. The physical quality of these cables is better than anything I've seen costing much more money and while sound quality is subjective and system/room dependent, knowing the silly amounts I've spent in the past, I think I'm done (at least for a while

).

Forgot to mention the DD cables. Not for my system. Similar to D2 but the D2 was smoother on upper mids and highs. It's possible it needs more burn time. I ran music and burn in disc for six days 24/7, so I think the copper cables are good to go.

DaveC113 · « **Reply #38 on:** 6 Aug 2013, 12:04 am »

Thanks for posting Chris!

Maximum value for the money is what I'm going for, the D1 is intended to be a moderately priced cable that puts high end performance within reach of anyone. The D2 and DD are meant to compete with anything out there regardless of price.

I do think the DD needs a very extended burn-in (~500 hours) and have been advised that's the case for all Duelund products. Some harshness in the highs will be the last thing to settle down. I have the DD in my line up because it has a significantly different character vs the D2. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other, it depends on the system and personal preference. The DD cable is fairly ruthless and incredibly fast, but does not lean toward cold or thin, in fact the opposite... if you haven't heard really good silver cables this is going to be interesting to listen to. In the right system it will be great, but in some systems it might be a bit much. My system uses 2 ICs, DAC > preamp > amp... I like having one each of the D2 and DD in there.

pfarthing · « **Reply #39 on:** 7 Aug 2013, 07:08 am »

Woohoo. I made the list

-- looking forward to this. I'll be comparing your RCA cables to my balanced ones; should be interesting!