Richidoo, et. al.,
SYSTEM SET-UPUnfortunately, I was not able to effectively use the Grover SE IC as a digital IC cable as my dCS "stack" (Verdi transport, Purcell D2D, Elgar Plus DAC) runs dual AES in order to take advantage of my Purcell's upsampling function to 24 bit 172kS/s (which is a big benefit) so there was no point in testing the Grover against an unfair upsampled reference data stream (i.e, I would have had to re-evaluate my digital front-end in the context of a 16 bit 44.1KS/s data stream and I did not have another SE IC on hand with which to compare the Grover).
I also could not run the cables as output from the Elgar Plus DAC as they were too short for this application which was the same story between my ARC Ref2 MKII pre and Pass XA 200 amps. So that left me with running the Grover between the ARC PH7 phono pre and the ARC ARC Ref2 MKII pre. In comparison with my Synergistic Designer's Reference X2 cables with active shielding which my entire system uses with the exception of John's Black Sand Violet PCs (Superb and the best value in PCs I've found!
), the Grover was not ideal.
Other system components include Equi=Tech balanced power conditioning, 4 dedicated 10amp homeruns (1 for analogue, 1 for digital, 1 each for monoblocks), VPI Aries Extended Base TT with VPI JMW 12.5 arm, Lyra Helikon cartridge with Hovland Music Groove 2 TT cable and Dynaudio Master Evidence speakers.
TEST RESULTSCompared to my reference cables (which admittedly cost 10x as much), the Grover, although clear and articulate, was not as smooth or full. Bass/lower fundamentals were were weak by comparison, voices thin with a touch of raspiness and sibilance. Finally, the Grover did not throw as large (width and depth) a soundstage as my SR reference. Admittedly, this sounds like a harsh criticism, but must be taken in context of my system. Also, please note that other considerably more expensive cables in this same application between my phono and pre have faired no better. For example, Cardas' Golden Cross ICs slowed down my system in terms of PRAT and constricted the soundstage, while the Kubala-Sosna Emotions, although attractive at first for throwing a huge and full soundstage, added a layer of thick/warm "fabric" my system did not need at the expense of resolution (admittedly too much of a good thing given the tubed pre's I have and holographic, tube-like quality of the SS Pass XAs). On the other hand, Audioquest's latest and greatest IC, the Horizon, which I am currently testing appears to be doing everything right, but at a
very considerable cost.
MUSICMusic listened to on LP was wide-ranging and included: Elgar's Cello Concerto w/Jacqueline Du Pre (EMI Reissue), Led Zeppelin I (Classic Reissue), Muddy Waters Folk Singer (Classic Reissue), The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Albumn (Analogue Prod Reissue), Getz/Gilberto (Verve Reissue).
Regards,
Duke
