Chord XLR

Primare Pre30, Parasound A23 & XLR interconnects

I'll soon be getting my hands on a balanced preamp and power amp and need XLR cables to connect them. I've been offered a Chord Cobra 2 0.75m for £30 or I can go to my ususal supplier BlueJeansCable and get that for the same price. I have no idea about cables other than I can't tell the difference between them as long as they are well made so I turn to you for advice.

Is the Chord Cobra 2 a good cable?

 

your not geting the right cables if you can't hear the difference.

XLR's are cheap and readily available......get some high quality [higher] wire, or silver wire and make your own. You could make two set for the price you want to pay.

 

What amplifiers are you getting? If they are an upgrade from your current kit I would recommend trying a few higher grade cables to see if they really make a difference. Most good hi-fi shops will loan you something. I too have been sceptical about interconnects, but have found that kimber timbre and sivers treak have produced noticeable improvements from source to pre-amp, whilst I had my existing Audionote silver cable reterminated for balanced use between my Proceed AVP and AMP5, with good results.
Best of luck

 

Thanks for the replies.

I was wrong about the price, the guy wants £50, the £30 was for the RCA version.

I'm getting a Primare Pre30 and Parasound A23.

zanash: I demoed a NAC 202 and NAP 200 on Spendor S6s a couple of weeks ago. I used my own RCA BlueJeansCable interconnect. The dealer felt it was holding the system back and swapped it for something better (I'm not sure what but knowing him I'd guess it was at least £150). He seemed to think there was an improvement, I didn't hear any difference.

 

ring audiolinks. If you interested PM me I'll send you the catalogue. They stock EXACTLY the same cable chord use for their speaker cable and IC cable. Except not at chord prices. Cables are the biggest scam in hifi. The amount people charge is unbelievable when all it really comes down to is lucky accidents and good materials which are easy to get hold of.

 

Too late! I bought both.

I can't find the Chord for under £115 new so if I prefer the BJC interconnect I shouldn't lose much on the Chord.

I quite agree with you Anex, which is why I normally go with BJC. They aren't super cheap but they use good materials and build the cables well. Every now and then though I try different interconnects to see if I can tell the difference. There are several people whos opinions I respect who feel cables are very important and have a significant effect.

 

Well you got a good price anyway. The only one I bought was my cd interconnect which has a huge (half inch) air dielectric which I couldn't have done easily myself. And that was cheap too. Which was nice.

 

BTW, any comments on my amp choices?

I guess the combination of Swedish preamp and american power am looks a little strange but here is my thinking.

I demoed the Primare A30.5 quite sometime ago with my receiver as preamp and B&W 602 s3 speakers. The Primare gave a night and day difference in sound and I was very pleased with the result.

At the time though it was the first power amp I'd demoed and I didn't want to buy it without trying some others. By the time I realised that nothing else in the price bracket sounded as good as the Primare with music it was too late and the A30.5 had been sold (2nd hand, local guy).

One thing that did concern me with the Primare was that in direct mode on my receiver it really didn't sound very good. My room tends to boost the bass and suck out the midrange a little. However turning on EQ (the Pioneer uses a microphone and pink noise test tones to flatten out the response) on my receiver made the primare sound great.

Not long after that I tried a Parasound A23. I was quite impressed with the clean sound, imaging and seperation but it was too bright for me. I had a feeling it was a combination of the metal tweeter in my B&Ws and my receiver. Anyway, I declined to buy it.

Fast forward 6 months to 2 weeks ago when I demoed the Naim kit mentioned above. I tried the same speakers with both the Naim and a A30.1. The 30.1 sounded dull and uninvolving compared to the Naim.

After a few days and a lot of reading it occured to me that with my Electras the highs were cleaner which should make the brightness of the Parasound nice rather than too much. The Pre30 seems to be very well regarded and I've been told many times that it's my Pioneer holding me back for music. The way reviews described the sound, I thought that in combination with the A23 rather than it's normal partner the A30.2, it could sound excellent.

That's the theory anyway

I'm sure now that I'll be told that my CDP is the weak link, but that's another debate and I've typed quite enough already!

I'll know soon enough if I was right or have made a complete hash of it

Links to the kit:

Primare Pre30
Parasound A23

 

If you were asking me, not my area I'm afraid, it doesn't have any valves in.

 

The Primare has arrived



The remote is pretty spiffy too, by chance it happens to control my Arcam CDP.



I'm not ready to go into its performance just yet. I'm using it through the 1205A to bi-amp my fronts at the moment. I should get my hands on the A23 tomorrow. All I'll say is that it is an improvement but not as dramatic as changing the power amp but then it shows its effect in a different way.

 

"Halo components have earned the highest praise from top magazine reviewers and critics across the globe. "

Well, if it's good enough for Master Chief...

 

bottleneck, I don't get it. What does that mean?

 

The new Parasound is here









One thing that as struck me immediately is that the A23 is nothing like as bright as the one I demoed last time, in fact, I'm not sure I could tell it from the 1205A. I'm very tired, but still, the last time the difference hit me in the face. Maybe it's because the Primare is in the loop, the previous time the Pioneer was connected directly to the A23.