CARDAS GOLDEN REFERENCE 20A 1,5 m

Preço tabela Brasil: R$ 3.900,00

R$ 3.000,00

12x de R$ 295,33
SKU: CARDAS-GOLDEN-REFERENCE-1,5m AC 20A Categorias: , ,

    Descrição

    Estado de conservação: 9/10

    Tamanho: 1,5  metro

    Bitola 3 x 2,5 mm

    This is a review of the Cardas Golden Reference Power Cord, not the Golden power cord.

    By Asylum standards, I lean slightly to the left on the spectrum of nutty tweaks. I painted the edge of my CD’s green in the 80’s and shined them up with armor all, but I can’t say I heard any vast differences. My tweaks to my present system run from filling my speaker stands with lead shot (pretty tame), to putting HALO tube dampers on my EL34’s (sounds pretty sane, since tubes are microphonic), to using one of those inline Bybee filters on the digital output of my transport feeding my DAC (ok, a bit looney, but I heard something). But spend a big hunk of cash on a power cord? Looney. LOUHHH KNEEEEEEE!!!

    Sure, I had built the ASYLUM AC cables offered by DIY Cables. It was cheap, so I thought “Why Not?” Hey, I heard something. My amp had a bit more authority. However, I could not imagine that the sound could be impacted any more. Hey, my house is wired with 12 ga. and I have pretty clean power. But after tweaking everything else, I did build a cheap set of cardboard cable risers (mostly out of curiousity). And whaddya know? I heard something. Small to be sure, but I heard less grain, less smearing. So I decided to pop for a high end cord just to see what all the fuss was about. I ended up getting an 8 ft. pair new, but paid only $315.

    The Cardas Golden Reference is frankly a visual let-down. Oh sure, it is nicely assembled and has good connectors, but for almost $600 you sort of expect it to be a visual work of art, to have girth and snazzy covers and connectors the way my Acoustic Zen speaker and interconnect cables do. But the Cardas cord is unassuming, so much so that when I showed it to my co-workers, they were less than impressed (“You paid how much for that?).

    The manual says the Cardas needs to cook for a while, so I left it in my system for about 3 days. When I returned, I put on my favorite CD’s and sat down for a listen. WOW! It was like someone had hit a bass boost button (none exists on my hifi). Not just more bass, but more defined bass. Cymbals had way more decay, and vocalists got slightly taller. I listened to one of my fav cuts, The Blind Boys from Alabama singing “People Get Ready” and finally could separate the singers in space and time, instead of having them lumped closely together. I smiled, since I was sure that the sonic differences would be slight and harder to discern than say, the upgrade of an interconnect or speaker cable.

    The VAC Avatar SE, running in triode mode, sacrifices a bit of authority compared to more than double its power output in Ultralinear mode. But with the Cardas cord, most of the authority came back when used in triode. This integrated amp now controlled my Merlins with much more finesse and weight.

    To make sure it was the cord, I A/B’d it against the Asylum cable a few times using the same cut. With the Asylum cable, the bass definition got sloppier and the cymbals lost the last nth of sheen/decay. The singers got more lumped together. Of course, the Asylum cable had worked wonders over the standard power cord, but the major change had been more bass. The Cardas improved the finesse of my system in the way similar to making the jump from good interconnects/speaker cable to really high end cable.

    I was pretty impressed. I am not sure why the Cardas had such an impact, though I suspect it had less to do with the ga. of the Cardas cable than with its shielding and design, since the improvements were similar (though much more apparent) than my tweak of of using cable risers. Whatever, it made me think that we still have a lot to learn about the effects of power on our systems. Got me thinking about power filters too (I built and use the JR power filter sold by DIYCable but can’t say that I hear a difference).

    I highly recommend the Cardas. It worked quite well, and while I can say it was worth the $315 I spent, I would have a tougher time personally spending the true retail of $561.

     

     

    Informação adicional

    Peso2 kg

    Escala de classificação

    Novo – Item lacrado na caixa.

    Demo – Item tirado da caixa apenas para demonstração aos clientes pela equipe da HIFICLUB. Não foi utilizado ou manuseado por clientes. O item está em perfeito estado estético e de funcionamento. Não sofreu qualquer reparo ou modificação. Usado como demo pelo tempo máximo de 3 meses.

    9/10 – Item praticamente novo e com pouco uso. Estado geral excelente. Item em perfeito funcionamento. Não sofreu qualquer reparo ou modificação.

    8/10 – Item em muito bom estado. Numa vistoria minuciosa, é possível encontrar alguns detalhes estéticos, como sutis marcas de uso. Pode apresentar um pequeno risco, mas, nunca em áreas mais visíveis do item, como a parte da frente de um aparelho ou caixa de som.

    7/10 – Item em bom estado. É, visivelmente, um item usado, porém, bem cuidado. Pode ter marcas ou riscos, no entanto, nunca em áreas mais visíveis.