Last night was the first time I got the 'Holy Shit!' effect due to an audio component swap in awhile....and the worst part is I can't tell you exactly which product model it is -- I'm not sure. My last wow factor came when the EAR2 was plugged in.
So I have some questions....
I grabbed an interconnect from Stealth Cables, a RCA -> XLR interconnect they had made for a customer but that they weren't sure exactly which model it was, but that it was solid silver and they didn't want to take it apart. They said that at the worse it could be FLR, but it was most likely an M7, maybe better, maybe worse, but it was a custom job and they really didn't remember what it was based off of.
I bought it primarily because the EAR2 cave is so tight. I have a MkII EAR2, so the connection layout is a little different for the better. The XLR connection aims straight down, and I thought I could possibly get a little space back in there without serious cable bends if I used an XLR. Volume control is currently SE/RCA output only, so when I saw the converter cable I grabbed it on a whim.
Also in the back of my mind was something else. Even though its to my understanding that there isn't any difference, I had a vauge memory of reading ICEPower literature stating that going through the XLR interface meant also going through some anti-aliasing filter and some of stuff.. I was assuming there's no difference between the RCA and XLR connections and what circuitry it goes through in the finished EAR2, but I had this thought it the back of my mind as well of possible improvement.
Anyways -- when I put the cable in the system, I let the system run for an afternoon while I was running around, and then through the night. I finally had time to listen to music a bit last night with my girlfriend.
Listened to a couple familar recordings and a couple new ones.
Two things right off the bat -- the first was subtleties -- lots and lots of them. Microdynamics and the subtle details came through like never before, mainly with the human voice. Every little ripple in a wavering held note, the subtle breathiness came through with such greater clarity.. This type of change I'm used to with cable swapping -- your 'more vs. less detail', 'more warmth', 'more warmth at the expense of detail', things like that...
The second set of changes that I'll group together were what really blew me away -- this involved presence, seperation, image size, and soundstage size. Sense of presence and recording location/space came through better than it ever has by a long shot. Images sizes seemed to grow a bit, but were much clearer and better focussed.
Instruments and multiple voices were seperated better to the point of noticing additional vocals and layers added into the mix that I previously didn't notice. This is another factor I'm used to with cable swapping.
The biggie -- soundstage size. Its seemed to literally double. Items at the front of the stage, say a vocal jumped closer to the listening position in an absolutely pleasing way. Width doubled with images on good live recordings being way left and right. Depth increased significantly. Height improved. Loved the more intimate presentation without sacrificing depth and actually significantly improving it.
There's the entire 'you are there' vs. 'they are here' debate on preference. Thing was this -- I felt like I'd just moved many rows closer to the performance, or rather than the performers had moved closer to me in the 'they are here' sense, but this combined with the amount of additional presence I was receiving, the big stage, and the wrap around effect gave me a whole lot more of the 'you are there' feeling as well.
The improvement was huge, to the point that my girlfriend commented on all sorts of things -- more enjoyable, better clarity, feels like the speakers just grew, the fact that sounds sounded spookily like they were coming from the other side of the wall, and basically that everything sounded so much more real -- partially in detail, but mainly in presence and how everything was presented to you. She's a music lover, not an audio nut. Its changes like these where I get encouragement to buy rather than the typical 'You're nuts, but do what you have to do...'
Fact of the matter is I don't really care whether some of the improvements I'm receiving by design or by side-effect -- its bringing a lot more enjoyment and making me want to try another run of the stuff between CDP and volume control.
So my question -- is it normal for such as change to be _so_ prominent (soundstage size and seperation)? I'm so used to hearing that such drastic changes are typically incorrect phase setup and what not, or phase tricks. Thing is this, everything is completely locked in and with such pin point clarity as well, that I doubt that. But is there any chance that some people design cables to use/abuse this, or that in the RCA->XLR something like this occurs w/phase?
I'm happy and instantly went and read available reviews, and found plenty of people that came to the same thing -- that the presence of recordings was amazing as long as the rest of your system balanced with it...
This is obviously not a formal review and besides, I wouldn't know what product I'm actually reviewing, but definitely happy with the swap. I received a few changes typical of a cable swap, but I also received changes in presentation that I frankly didn't think I'd get without a speaker swap...
Apologize for the ramblings...
