CARDAS AUDIO Clear

MJ30.08.2013

Interconnects

The Clear is so transparent and leaves so little its own imprint on the sound that it can be used almost universally. I would even dare to put it differently: if the Cardas Clear spoils the sound of your system, keep the Clear and replace the system as there is obviously something wrong elsewhere along the signal path.

100% reference

Function and form

98%

Ease of use

85%

Sound

95%

Appearance

George Cardas claims that resonant behavior of a conductor or a strand is the reason for performance gaps in many cables. Each and every strand in a cable has its own ´sound´ due to vibrations and ringing on the microscale. There is a solution - create a multiple strand conductor, where the individual strands share no common mathematical node or resonant point and layer them to cancel the noise they each create. In the Clear´s golden section stranding, individual strands are arranged so each strand is coupled to another, whose note or sound is irrational with its own, thus nulling inter-strand resonance.

Cardas cables employ a unique stranding method where strands diminish in size towards the interior of the conductor. This design is called Constant Q Stranding and it allows each strand of the cable to share the load equally. It is a very effective method of reducing the non-linearity seen in conventional conductors, without compromising the symmetry of the conductor or the capacitance of the cable.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

Cable resonance is further reduced through the use of ultrapure copper and air dielectrics. Cardas uses diamond dies and cutters exclusively, drawing the strands in a hydrogen reduction atmosphere to reduce impurities and surface contaminations. Each and every strand is immediately coated with enamel coating so there is no chance for the copper to oxidize before it is airtight-sealed in the cable. Actually, Cardas Audio is one of the few manufacturers that draw their own conductors from copper rods instead of outsourcing the wires from elsewhere like the most do.

Apart from pure copper the inside of the Clear is full of Teflon that is used to insulate the wires as well as control dielectrics through hollow Teflon tubes in which the strands are embedded. The cable´s dual spiral shielding employs Teflon-graphite composition too. Overall, the engineering of the cable is very serious.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

Foremost, the Cardas Clear provides realistic weight, scale and body. All these elements result into natural palpability of instruments and humans within a well-defined soundstage. The bass takes clarity and presence without any slowing or slurring yet it possesses the tinniest hint of warmth and roundness that lend organic rather than technical feeling to the music. The sweet clarity brings color, musical detail and separation to the midrange that is opened up and communicative with the Clear.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

I love going to live classical performances and rehearsals, sometimes for enjoyment, sometimes for sound dissections. Apart from other less important elements I am always mesmerized by how finely the live unamplified sound is woven and how clearly it is defined. It is not the usual audiophile hyper-definition with surgical imaging – rather it is a silky canvas inhabited by myriads of microdynamic textures and free of any dust or fuzziness. Yet the dust, haze and veils, be it noise, interferences, discontinuities or temporal errors, are traceable in most high-end cables, some being twice or thrice the price of the Clear.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

The Clear was perhaps not removing anything from the recorded material (like some other cables do), but on top of that it was very efficient in not adding anything and most importantly not altering the essence of live sound. Thus the sonic picture of an orchestra was dramatically transparent, spacious, communicative and intelligible, dynamic and tonally correct, without lacking the fluidum and the aura that surrounds the performance, without becoming technocratic or self-indulgent.

Please read the complete review of the Cardas Audio Clear in the SPECIAL EDITION REVIEWS section of Audiodrom.

Price as reviewed:53 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

SK: Platan Audio, Hlohovec / Bratislava, tel. +421 905 409 802

Manufacturer's website: http://www.cardas.com

Associated components

Sources: Accuphase DP-78,
Zesilovače: Ayre K-5xe and Ayre P-5xe, Accuphase C-2110 and Accuphase A-60, Bel Canto Pre3 and Bel Canto REF1000 monobloky
Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Homegrown Audio DNA, Furutech Lineflux, Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder and Wild, Cardas Clear Beyond
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond, Audio Physic Avantera

89%

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