Favorite ICs?

[Bigfish8]

Gents:

I would like to start this post by proclaiming that I am a believer that ICs influence the character of sound produced from a system.  I wanted to state this first as I do not want to start a discussion on whether or not people believe different ICs influence the sound.  For this thread, they do - period!

ICs tend to range in price from something approaching reasonable to more than I paid for my Plasma TV.  I suspect that most of you have done some experimentation with changing ICs and would like to know what you believe to be the most neutral sounding ICs for under $500.00/meter pair?

Thanks,

Ken

[Carlman]

'Favorite IC' and 'most neutral IC' are 2 different things, Ken.

For what I like, my favorite is Audience Au24.  I think they're at the top of your price scale used.  They are musical, detailed, and have the right timing.  They're pretty neutral but also sound very 'natural'.

The best 'for the money' I've heard is either Gregg's Reality Cables or Grover's new 'SC' cable.  Both have their own 'flavor' with the 'SC' leaning to neutral and Gregg's being a touch warmer in my experience.  Neither of these cables do anything that grates on my nerves.

The cheapest I've heard (under $50/pr) that I like is a recipe using Belden 8422 cable.  I have a pair and really like them.  Again, they do nothing 'wrong' but aren't as resolving as cables costing hundreds of times more.  I'm pretty sure you can use this cable to make XLR or single-ended... I think it's just microphone cable.. I really like Belden cable overall... I've had good success with it for Coax, networking, etc.

Hope that helps.
-Carl

[Black Sand Cable]

When it comes to Silver, the best I have heard to date is the SilverFi Silver ic's.....but they are not cheap. He has some that are under $500.00 and a few that are over $500.00.

When it comes to Copper based ic's, I also like Gregg's as they are hard to beat for the money.

[mdconnelly]

I used JPS ICs for years and found the SC2 (now SC3 I think), to be excellent.   But... not cheap.   

I've also used the VH Audio Pulsars.   Great bang for the buck but they're not neutral -- tending to warm and slightly rolled off.

I've found very good synergy using the latest Grover SC ICs - both digital and analog and both RCA and XLR.   As Carl mentioned, they are fairly neutral and I've found them to possess excellent PRAT and detail.   

[richidoo]

I have some shielded ICs with Beldon 1505 RF coax, by Blue jeans. They are very nicely made and a steal for $50/M, but a tad veiled compared to Grovers and JPS ultra clarity. Your system is revealing enough that you will benefit from purpose designed high end ICs.

I am intrigued by gold wire. After hearing and loving what aluminum/copper alloy can do (counter-intuitive since aluminum is a worse conductor than copper), and loving Grovers pure silver ribbon conductors, I wanna see what the gold hubub is all about. I would like to hear Kool Kables sometime, but their Silkworms are over your cutoff. They have a new model called Mandarina, $300/M. I have never heard these or any gold wire. Just fantasizing out loud.  I did hear Hantra's gold SCs, those were very nice indeed.

My favorite cable so far is JPS superconductor. Shane is our JPS dealer here in Raleigh, with good prices and demo samples, as you know. So you might wanna taste 'em as part of your search. They have various grades of performance/price. Only the two highest are above your cutoff (but worth it to me). They are the best I have heard so far. I have been gradually moving towards that, but some Grovers still hanging on.

[bpape]

I'll second the Pulsars.  Yes they're a bit more on the warm side but I don't find them rolled off at all.  Keep in mind that I find most silver cables on the bright side of neutral (not all but most).  One of these days I'm going to build my self a set of ICs with OCC Furutech and either Vampire connections or Eichman Bullets. 

Bryan

[ik632]

I'm a big fan of the bungee audio cables that I made. I used guitar cable and put some decent ends on them.  They are mostly for looks, but that's audiostile 

[chrisa]

Thought I'd chime in as I've played around alot with different IC's. My favorites by some margin are Nordost Heimdall. They can be had for less than $500 for a 1 meter pair new. Better than everything I tried in every way and even sweeten the sound a tad.

When I aquired a tube preamp this fall I found a Nordost-Nordost combination to be a bit too much, but I have achieved a good balance now with a Au24-Nordost Heimdall combination.

IC's make a very large impact on the way my system sounds and my enjoyment of it, but I did note that wire makes less of a difference with tubes in the circuit, I think probably due to HF rolloff.

Chris

[richidoo]

Welcome to AN, chrisa!

[JBryan]

Cables are so system specific... I've been using Grover's cables for a few months and am quite satisfied - great bang for the buck!

[ipy]

Used to be Cardas Golden Reference till I heard the JPS Aluminata  .  It's exhorbitantly expensive but this is a silly hobby, right?

[mboldda1]

i like the grover s (white) interconnects that were new in aug. 2007 between my power amp and preamp and kci mandarine between my dac and preamp.

[mdconnelly]

Agreed, I liked the Grover S whites.  Then I tried the ones after that and felt they lost something, but the Grover SCs that came after that are as good or better than the whites.   I stopped there and, strangely enough, I haven't heard of any other Grover updates since then.

But Grover ICs are definitely an excellent IC (analog or digital) for the money.

[dangerbird]

I'm gonna have to say the grover whiteys,,and power cords from black sand,,violet z-1 with my preamp,,the synergy is just There   

[Phil]

For the under $500 category, the Grover SCs are great.  Eventually I became aware that there was a little too much happening in the midrange for me (a bit forward at certain frequencies), but perhaps they simply revealed my system as it is. 

I fell under the spell of Kubala Sosna stuff, though, so my Grover's are in storage.  Needless to say, even the level of KS I could afford, not the top of the line, is much more expensive than the Grovers.  I remain a fan of the Grovers (that is why I haven't sold them).  In some systems, they might be as much as anyone needs.  Certainly a great place to start, and perhaps, to end.