I saw a lot of those Cardas Audio blue cables from their Clear and Clear Beyond line at the show. I have a theory on why this is…1. they sound damn good meaning they let a lot of the music through, and 2. Angela and Josh are very friendly and easy to do business with. It seems that at every show that Angela and Josh are there with their outsized personalities. Some of the nicest people in the audio business, they seem to have the enthusiasm equal of any show-goer.
But none of this would matter if Cardas did not make an excellent product and that they do. New to the show was the new Cardas power strip, black with gorgeous copper end caps. And that takes us now to Jeff Joseph’s room that was shared with tape maestro Nick Doshi. This was a stellar room that made my Top 5 list. Jeff always has a great room, is usually on my top rooms list, and adding in Nick’s talents was a bit unfair in a good way to the competition (other rooms). Nick’s A810 from Studer played two tapes that floored me. The first was the Janaki String Trio tape from Yarlung Records which Andre Jennings brought along to listen to. The sound was superb. Yarlung, led by Bob Attiyeh, always offers good sound but the tape was magical compared to my CD of same. Effortless and lifelike. Jeff played a nice recording of a youth orchestra as well which his son was in. Jeff appears to be good at recording as well.
The next tape was the Ultra Tape from Analogue Productions of Prokofiev’s Lt. Kije. Some tapeheads I know think this is one of the current references. The dynamics of the first movements and clarity of source of this Living Stereo classic were phenomenal. The Joseph Audio Perspective speakers were singing and clearly the Cardas foundation of power strip and Clear Beyond cables and AC cords were letting it all through. I did not want to leave the room. The midrange and dynamics were simply magical. Soundstage was wide and deep. I soon forgot about gear and was concentrated on the music itself, which is about as good as it gets in show conditions.
Quite simply, this is why so many have gotten into tape, easily the most expensive and least convenient audio format out there.
But my, what sound!
But I would be remiss to not include the new Hybrid Stereo amp ($19,995) from Doshi Audio that were powering everything. A gorgeous piece of amplifier, there are eight EL34 tubes with a mirror-like chrome cover of transformers behind reflecting the glass. Joining in the fun were Doshi’s line stage ($17,995) and tape pre ($17,995). The casework on the Doshi gear is sublime with half inch Corian and 14 gauge steel for isolation purposes. HRS supplied the SXR racks (SXR-1921-3V at $5,225 and M3X-1921 isolation bases at $2,895) and Qobuz was streaming clearly via an Aurender A10 ($5,500). Of course, the speakers singing in the background were Joseph Audio‘s beautifully finished Perspectives $12,999 per pair).
All supported by Cardas Clear Beyond biwire speaker cable ($8,850), Clear Beyond XLR interconnects ($3,750), Cardas Clear Network Cat-7 ($580), Clear Beyond Power XL ($2,480), and Clear Beyond RCA interconnects ($6,950).
Clearly (no pun intended), Cardas was having a terrific show. I went to several other rooms Cardas was present making great music as well. But this Jeff Joseph room was a level above prior fantastic rooms Jeff has done which is really saying something. I cannot help but think that Doshi and Cardas both played a big role in the flow of sound. My hat is off to this team. The fact that Nick, Angela, Josh and Jeff are some of the nicest people in audio is icing on the cake.
And don’t forget, there’s more coverage of this excellent room here!
