Well, as you may tell from today's title, I disregarded my plan to only introduce the Oritek X-2 interconnect and went ahead and placed all of the audiodharma Cable Cooker treated cables back into my system.  And, while we're on the topic of my system, let's do an introduction of the components in my system together with the interconnects and speaker cables currently in rotation.

Turntable and Cartridge:  Clearaudio Concept and Ortofon 2M Black 
Phonostage:  conrad-johnson PV-10 (1m CAT Cables Silvercats)
CD Player:  Modwright/Music Hall RAM Signature CD-25 (1.5m Shunyata Altair)
Universal Player:  OPPO BDP-95 (1m Shunyata Antares)
Music Server:  Olive O3HD (1m D Lin Silver Bullet 3.0)
Preamplifier:  conrad-johnson Premier 16 LS2 
Amplifiers:  conrad-johnson Premier 11A (active) and Premier 140 (out of commission) (1m Shunyata Antares)
Speakers:  QUAD ESL-989 (2.5m Shunyata Lyra)
Power Conditioner and Power Cords:  Shunyata Hydra, Shunyata Venom3 and Blue Circle BC68s for the QUADS

To see a more detailed listing plus the tubes being used in some of these components, select this link to Audio Asylum:  Current Configuration

The Shunyata Altair, Antares and Lyra cables together with the Oritek X-2 have been treated with the audiodharma Cable Cooker and will be the subject of the next few posts. Today's listening was almost exclusively over the OPPO BDP-95 and consisted of some SACD music together with (primarly) Netflix films streamed via the OPPO and form the basis of today's listening impressions.

In many ways, the Antares sounded very similar to the Lyra speaker cables.  Specifically:

• extremely smooth, quiet and with a very sweet treble
• excellent inner detail
• tight and tuneful bass
• the combination of the Antares and the Lyra were very complimentary to the sound of violins

From what I've been told, since the Antares cables were not given any previous playing time after being treated by the Cable Cooker, they should in the next day or so become "faster, more transparent and focused.  Also, the backgrounds should become less fizzy."  These quotes are form the person who treated the cables and in whose ears I trust. All I can say is that at this point in time, I'm very pleased with how they sound and if they're going to improve even further, then I can hardly wait.

Stay tuned.  

An audiophile buddy on the West Coast did me the favor of treating some of my cables with his audiodharma Cable Cooker and they just came back today.  These cables included the Shunyata Lyra speaker cables which were that company's entry level model ($1,250 for a 2.5 meter pair) when their first generation signal cables were introduced back around 2000.

Here's a photo of them I'd taken back in June, 2011 hooked up to my QUAD ESL-989 speakers.

Here are some initial impressions of the cables compared to the solid silver speaker cables that were previously in my system which I'd purchased back in the '90s from the now defunct WWWires.  I've also included some observations of the cables on their own.  Bear in mind that although the cables were on the Cooker for four days they had no playing time on them when I received them today and have a total of about six and a half hours so far on them.

•  the Lyra are harmonically richer and smoother with longer decay time
• bass is stronger and deeper (also more so than my Nordost Red Dawn Rev II and about on the same level as my Magnan Signature speaker cables)
• less apparent transient snap but the treble is sweeter
• more musical and less hi-fi sounding
• the sound stage is wider and as time wore on deeper as well
• images seem a bit more diffuse but that may be improving as playing time increases
• more dynamic
• dialogue is clearer
• drums are more realistic sounding and you can more easily determine when they're being played by hand, for example

Probably the most succinct way I could put it without resorting to audiophile-approved terms is to say that I find myself forgetting about listening critically and getting caught up in the music itself.

The next step will be to continue breaking-in the Lyra cables and I may introduce the Oritek X-2 interconnect back into my system as early as tomorrow.

Someone, who shall remain nameless at this point, has suggested that I start to blog on Xanga and so, here goes.

One of my main interests in life is stereo equipment and I guess I'd qualify as an audiophile.  Answering an enquiry on Audio Asylum today I posted some pictures of early production Tung-Sol 6550 tubes.  Tung-Sol is a long defunct electronics company that operated from Newark, New Jersey.  They were the company that designed and produced the first 6550 vacuum tubes in the audio industry and really opened the door for higher power amplifiers and therefore, less efficient speakers.

Here is a photograph I took today of their original tubes which went through two subsequent iterations.  Following the three black plate models, they developed the solid grey plate 6550 type and then finally the three hole grey plate.  I may write about these other types in subsequent posts.

Some audiophiles consider their black plate 6550s to be the best tube of this type which was ever made.

Here's a photo of their (from left to right) 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958 top-getter-only black plate tubes.  1955 was their first year of production.

Well, I guess that's it for today.