This article continues from "The power cable Edison Coil - Paradoxal cable fun - second act."
From earlier experience testing cables I have struggled with getting the cables to lay "nicely" on the floor, parallel with as few cross points as possible, the most difficult cables I've had when it comes to this is Skogrand, I was afraid from breaking the cables, some of that feeling came here too, you really have to work to get these fat worms to stay like you want them too.
After a longer listening session with existing cables I let Paradox have a go. Immediately I didn't find the sound any better, rather the opposite, with worse dynamics, totally opposite experience from when I tested Skogrand, but after a little time this changed, in fact, the dynamic was significantly improved, especially lower bass notes, this is the first time under a cable test I was quick to classify the differences to "clearly change for the better".
By switching back to my Synergistic research cables it seemed as the sound had less distortion with less harmonically timbre, but it was interesting to register that this difference got smaller after listening to a couple of songs. Is it accustoming, warm up or recording I hear? Well after a few quick cable switches (well, it took some time to switch between these bi-wire sets, and I want to turn off the power amps when I'm working with the terminations) made it clear that the differences wasn't as extreme which the first impression let me on to believe. This can mean that cables who lay still a couple of days needs some warm up before they sound correct, but with smaller listening sessions this is nothing to worry about.
Even if I don't want to prioritize Paradox cables in my setup, I will have to conclude that these cables does a very good job, in many ways better job then what my way more reasonably priced reference does.
As many times before I have to ask myself the question, how big an investment is reasonable to justify the small improvements in sound? There is no blueprint here, the payoff is smaller as you increase the price and knife about the last milligrams of improved sound, compared to the other side of the scale where we can speak about hecto or even kilogram or even bigger differences.
The potential is also bigger than what I managed to get out of my system this time, due to some unfortunately unlucky twists and cable crosses which I couldn't get around due to the long length I had in for test. The practical challenges by getting the cables to lay in an optimized position with the rest of the cable family should be tested, maybe this will result in as good as an improvement as the cable purchase itself.
Prce: Paradox MKII: NOK 34.990.- single wire, double set for bi-wiring: NOK 49.990.-
Produsent: Paradox Audio.
Also read Paradoxal cable fun - Overture
Also read The power cord Paradox Edison coil - Paradoxal Cable Fun, first movement.
Also read The signal cable Paradox The Link RCA - Paradoxal Cable Fun, the second movement
Also read Paradoxal Cable Fun - Finale
