OR is a junior version of SMR EE as I have suggested above. For Flow, one may feel or even fear there will be an 'over-dosed' situation if you apply it everywhere but for OR, you will keep applying it to your gears as it fits almost all places with its balanced energy dispersion, linear with superb resolution, speed and dynamics.
I have committed the 3rd OR which is the last one with serial 208/208. All of you can help me getting this cable sooner rather than later....
I think it is a good idea to collect Mr.Zanden's wrietup on his view on OR in this Olympic Thread.
_________________
I have never been keen to try out interconnects and power cords as I always prefer to achieve the tonality & dimensionality of the sound coming out from my system by experimenting with room acoustics and minor speaker placement.
However, after a strong recommendation by PT early this year to try the Argento FMR power cord to replace the one which connected the power bar to the wall socket finally re-converted me (yes I was an early Argento user) to using more and more Argento power cords and I was very happy with these beautiful white-silken FMR & FR cords running around behind the back of my hi-fi racks.
Many days ago, Jlam informed me Argento had produced a special power cord to commemorate the forthcoming Olympic game in China and is suitably named Olympic Reference, he suggested even though my system is completely Flowed-up, I should reserve at least one even for collection purpose. Well, for what it is worth, I ordered one out of curiosity.
When the OR subsequently arrived last Thursday, PT called me at lunch time and I think I was the 1st person to collect this special cable. When I opened the wooden box, the finish of the cable really impressed me, the metal casings on both sides of the cord are exquisitely finished in rare platinum finish (Jlam told me this was done by a Danish jewel maker), it really made the cable look like a million dollars ! However, as usual, I immediately plugged my new toy to the little Tivoli radio for a 24-hour burn-in period before giving it a listen.
Friday afternoon, I removed the OR from the radio and since the width of the cord looked exactly same as FR and not the FMR, therefore, the natural AB comparison should be conducted against the existing FR, I replaced the FR on my Zanden transport with the OR and proceeded with my first listening to this hi-fi gem which had already received enthusiastically positive feedback in the AE forum.
The first minute of casual listening confirmed this is a special cable indeed, although I could not discern any difference in the tonality or dynamics as OR is a direct brethren of the FR but with some not-so-small modifications as disclosed by designer in the forum earlier, Ulrick has succeeded in making a better cable by improving on the areas where the FR is already good at. Let me summarise my overall impression of the OR before going into details, this hi-fi gem sounds more refined, expressive and focused than the FR.
In my opinion, whenever one writes about his impression on certain aspects of hi-fi reproduction, it must be meaningful to the readers so that even though they are not present during the audition, they should nevertheless have a good grasp of what he is experiencing. I have chosen a smaller number of CDs which most fellow audiophiles would posses to conduct my audition of the OR, they are : 1) XRCD version of Aron Neville ‘s Warm Your Heart (although sound reproduction of 95%+ of XRCDs sucks, this one & the Eagle’s live are exceptions), 2) Eva Cassidy’s Live at Blues Alley, 3) Stradivarius Gala Concert and 4) Cantate Domino.
I am so familiar with the abovementioned discs, so whenever & wherever I hear them, I can instantly discern whether the sound of a system is well balanced or not. After hearing the first 20 seconds opening of Aron’s track 2, the skin texture of the drum and the metal percussion came out more clearly than ever before, there was a little bit more of harmonic decay. The biggest surprise was I could hear more inner details in the music which was not noticeable in the past, sound image of instruments & vocals were better than FR, furthermore, the overall playing sounded more expressive as if each player wanted to perform their best and last but not the least, although in the bass, OR did not go deeper than FR, it had much better definition & contour and perhaps a little bit faster, making the low level music reproduction much easier to follow. I later switched the cord back to FR, immediately, the lows became slightly muddled and bass lost its definition. I am sure all users of Horning speakers will admire the low level resolution of the OR.
Cassidy’s track no. 12 usually presents problem to large speakers as well as boomy speakers, if you find the bass muffled & boomy, the problem is not in the recording but your speakers, their placement or your room acoustics. If you have a balanced sound system, the bass will come out clearly with impact, each bass note can easily be followed, the cymbals are pretty well extended and should show off the treble of your speakers, the sound image may be slightly blurred if your speaker placement is not exactly spot on. Here, with the OR, the bass coming out of the bass guitar was tuneful and sometimes went fairly deep, the cymbals exhibited shimmering highs towards the end, all these made this live recording sounding pretty ‘live’ in my living room.
The recording of solo violin on Stradivarius gold CD can sound harsh if your system is not properly tuned, try track 9 first and check if the opening of mass strings pass the harshness test or not, then proceed to tracks 12-14. The OR makes the contour of the bow of the violin more life-like, every stroke of the violin solo playing came out clearly and you can also hear intermittent coughing from the audience clearly during the short interval before tracks 13 and 14, the ambience of the Barbican hall and its slight boomy resonance were all reproduced more realistically by the OR on this disc.
Cantate Domino is another old time favourite to test low level reproduction as well as sound imaging, apart from track 9, I also listen to no. 11 & 12. Here, the OR allowed me to hear the low level of the large church organ more clearly than ever before, you can follow the sound whenever the pedal changed to a different bass note, the soprano should stand right in the middle instead of drifting slightly off center to the right, furthermore, the hall ambience augmented by the singing of the chorus was realistically reproduced by the OR (to be honest, I only noticed hall ambience easily/frequently after changing to the Cessaro horn speakers recently).
All in all, if you are not expecting a more dynamic (bass) and richer sound from OR, then you’ll be surprised by the improvements in the areas I have mentioned above and these will lift the performance of your hi-fi system. I am sure once current short-supply situation is over, there will be an excess of supply of the FR in the secondary market.
As I am pretty much pre-occupied with fiddling with the placement of 16 noise filters on the large front window of my listening room, I will continue current exercise as well as minor experimenting of speaker placement and will report my further impression of the OR in part 2 later this month. I hope those who are still waiting for the next batch of OR arrival will at least have a faint idea of how it sounds in comparison to FR, please be patient as your patience will be rewarded by a higher level of music reproduction.
I was out of town when you guys ordered OR in large lots. Fortunately, I can still catch the train before OR runs out of stock. I must thank PT for reserving the lucky number OR#018 for me.
As recommended by PT, I connect OR as the source of the ORB power bar. Then I connect two Level 1 from the power bar to my Shindo power amp. When the setup was completed, I could not wait to experience the magical performance of OR…
When I just heard the initial few notes of the first song, 3 Chinese words “好卵堅” immediately appeared in my mind. OR vitalized my power amp in such a way that I find it is now full of energy. Vocal is smoother and more tender with OR. I sent an SMS to PT at once to express my happiness.
One more good thing for OR. Usually I need to boil the Shindo power amp for at least 45 minutes before it performs. I find that OR can shorten this boiling time. With OR, I feel the sound is not rough and hard even when I just turn on the gear. That means I can enjoy music immediately without waiting!
OR is really the best Christmas present to me.
Finally, may I wish everyone in the AE community a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!
I use it in goldmund 29.4M mono amplifier. The sound is fast and increase dynamic. Human voice is real very. My old cord is valhalla, only fast and sound less music than olympic cable. It's great.
audioboy, thanks for let me try olympic on my gryphon diabolo amp. The amp becomes much more clear and more energy than before. I never think argento cable is this good. I order one, hope to receive early next year.
Finally, feed 2 OR to the PSE300B amp last night. it replace the PC which mod by PT??? I did not let them run-in in advance and plug them to the wall once i get home. The benefit is easy to be notice even they still new from open box. The sound become more clear, fast, focous, texture, the improvement on dynamic really make me happy, it does help a lot on the mismatch on 300B amp with morden speaker, also, it suprise me on the extra energy to the amp, i could turn the volume 2 step lower than usual listening. These OR PC has the total package, Like Peter & PT said, it really make an already outstanding amp keeping improve!!!
I think i need to follow Marvels step: "Reserve the No.: 207 for me"
Welcome to the Argento club...I notice that you are using 2 sources and it would be great if you can have a chance to try the Argento interconnectsas well. Why don't you match VPA with Nagra preamp?
Comments
為了增加神祕感, 插了後只用微細音量煲,然後約了莫老師和車魔吃晚飯一直至十一時才一同回巢. 由於老婆去了旅行, 昨晚可以玩好放. 莫老師不是發燒友但他的意見最忠諴, 所以試器材和線材一定要有佢在場. 車魔亦已由NBS死硬派f粉絲被"Flow"化了, 他對Flow信心十足因為(以用在訊源計,尤其是esoteric) 在沙田區可以話係打片天下無敵手, 所以他對於有"奧運概念"的線材有所保留, 擔心是抄作慨念多於實際.
試聲在11:30pm開始, 比時大約煲了6小時. 第一隻碟當然是蔡琴最新發燒錄音, 我地選第七段"吻別", 鋼琴聲一起, 節奏感好像爽快了, 泛音依然豐滿, 人聲一出, 鬆容不迫有點像Flow的純美但又多了幾分匆肉緊, 各件樂器節奏層次分明, 音像亦明顯闊大, 總之大家冇投訴.
莫老師提出要試鋼琴錄音, 佢話OR一定播得好靚, 他帶了李雲迪的錄音, 一按play, 琴聲快上快落, 尤其是中低音的琴鍵變化真你可以用精彩來形容, 中低音的速度沒有把力度帶走, 琴鍵與琴鍵之間的空氣感在小Horning演釋下show到我國鋼琴家的豪情壯志, 我地齊一次過聽了三條track先捨得換碟, 此時車魔已話明天要找李sir訂翻條.
我地又一齊扮下野學人聽下歌劇, 播卡門女聲部分令我感到中高音能量自由解放, 不刺耳, 好靚聲, 舞台感更是一流. 聽到1:00am大家仍然依依不捨, 我們決定和Flow交換, 試試OR用在訊源又點樣? 長話短說, 一樣範範掂, 但大家仍覺得Flow用在Orpheus Zero/1SE DAC會多一點Analog味道.
查兄, 我現明白你點解要買多條比前級, 我都開始心癢了...這條奧運慨念的線冇改錯名, 是好有誠意的作品. 既然連丹麥人都要比面中國湊下熱鬧, 只要是好野, 我發哥絕對奉陪.
Argento, 你好野！
正如你一樣當用了OR 後知道了OR的特性,從中大概都估計到用在前級會有乜效果, 所以我決定買多條 OR 比前級用.
只係當OR用在前級後, 比我之前估計的效果更要好, 原來前級都係很大食的, 之前用過一些能量大的線比前級用但出來的效果只係有能量感就欠缺速度, 細節, 感覺怪怪的. OR 就完全做到有能量, 速度, 細節, 真奇妙.
你所講的鬆容不迫肯定不及加多條OR 用在前級呀.
總之你加多條 OR 在前級後肯定會另你有意想不到的效果.
Charles
I have committed the 3rd OR which is the last one with serial 208/208. All of you can help me getting this cable sooner rather than later....
Marvel
_________________
I have never been keen to try out interconnects and power cords as I always prefer to achieve the tonality & dimensionality of the sound coming out from my system by experimenting with room acoustics and minor speaker placement.
However, after a strong recommendation by PT early this year to try the Argento FMR power cord to replace the one which connected the power bar to the wall socket finally re-converted me (yes I was an early Argento user) to using more and more Argento power cords and I was very happy with these beautiful white-silken FMR & FR cords running around behind the back of my hi-fi racks.
Many days ago, Jlam informed me Argento had produced a special power cord to commemorate the forthcoming Olympic game in China and is suitably named Olympic Reference, he suggested even though my system is completely Flowed-up, I should reserve at least one even for collection purpose. Well, for what it is worth, I ordered one out of curiosity.
When the OR subsequently arrived last Thursday, PT called me at lunch time and I think I was the 1st person to collect this special cable. When I opened the wooden box, the finish of the cable really impressed me, the metal casings on both sides of the cord are exquisitely finished in rare platinum finish (Jlam told me this was done by a Danish jewel maker), it really made the cable look like a million dollars ! However, as usual, I immediately plugged my new toy to the little Tivoli radio for a 24-hour burn-in period before giving it a listen.
Friday afternoon, I removed the OR from the radio and since the width of the cord looked exactly same as FR and not the FMR, therefore, the natural AB comparison should be conducted against the existing FR, I replaced the FR on my Zanden transport with the OR and proceeded with my first listening to this hi-fi gem which had already received enthusiastically positive feedback in the AE forum.
The first minute of casual listening confirmed this is a special cable indeed, although I could not discern any difference in the tonality or dynamics as OR is a direct brethren of the FR but with some not-so-small modifications as disclosed by designer in the forum earlier, Ulrick has succeeded in making a better cable by improving on the areas where the FR is already good at. Let me summarise my overall impression of the OR before going into details, this hi-fi gem sounds more refined, expressive and focused than the FR.
In my opinion, whenever one writes about his impression on certain aspects of hi-fi reproduction, it must be meaningful to the readers so that even though they are not present during the audition, they should nevertheless have a good grasp of what he is experiencing. I have chosen a smaller number of CDs which most fellow audiophiles would posses to conduct my audition of the OR, they are : 1) XRCD version of Aron Neville ‘s Warm Your Heart (although sound reproduction of 95%+ of XRCDs sucks, this one & the Eagle’s live are exceptions), 2) Eva Cassidy’s Live at Blues Alley, 3) Stradivarius Gala Concert and 4) Cantate Domino.
I am so familiar with the abovementioned discs, so whenever & wherever I hear them, I can instantly discern whether the sound of a system is well balanced or not. After hearing the first 20 seconds opening of Aron’s track 2, the skin texture of the drum and the metal percussion came out more clearly than ever before, there was a little bit more of harmonic decay. The biggest surprise was I could hear more inner details in the music which was not noticeable in the past, sound image of instruments & vocals were better than FR, furthermore, the overall playing sounded more expressive as if each player wanted to perform their best and last but not the least, although in the bass, OR did not go deeper than FR, it had much better definition & contour and perhaps a little bit faster, making the low level music reproduction much easier to follow. I later switched the cord back to FR, immediately, the lows became slightly muddled and bass lost its definition. I am sure all users of Horning speakers will admire the low level resolution of the OR.
Cassidy’s track no. 12 usually presents problem to large speakers as well as boomy speakers, if you find the bass muffled & boomy, the problem is not in the recording but your speakers, their placement or your room acoustics. If you have a balanced sound system, the bass will come out clearly with impact, each bass note can easily be followed, the cymbals are pretty well extended and should show off the treble of your speakers, the sound image may be slightly blurred if your speaker placement is not exactly spot on. Here, with the OR, the bass coming out of the bass guitar was tuneful and sometimes went fairly deep, the cymbals exhibited shimmering highs towards the end, all these made this live recording sounding pretty ‘live’ in my living room.
The recording of solo violin on Stradivarius gold CD can sound harsh if your system is not properly tuned, try track 9 first and check if the opening of mass strings pass the harshness test or not, then proceed to tracks 12-14. The OR makes the contour of the bow of the violin more life-like, every stroke of the violin solo playing came out clearly and you can also hear intermittent coughing from the audience clearly during the short interval before tracks 13 and 14, the ambience of the Barbican hall and its slight boomy resonance were all reproduced more realistically by the OR on this disc.
Cantate Domino is another old time favourite to test low level reproduction as well as sound imaging, apart from track 9, I also listen to no. 11 & 12. Here, the OR allowed me to hear the low level of the large church organ more clearly than ever before, you can follow the sound whenever the pedal changed to a different bass note, the soprano should stand right in the middle instead of drifting slightly off center to the right, furthermore, the hall ambience augmented by the singing of the chorus was realistically reproduced by the OR (to be honest, I only noticed hall ambience easily/frequently after changing to the Cessaro horn speakers recently).
All in all, if you are not expecting a more dynamic (bass) and richer sound from OR, then you’ll be surprised by the improvements in the areas I have mentioned above and these will lift the performance of your hi-fi system. I am sure once current short-supply situation is over, there will be an excess of supply of the FR in the secondary market.
As I am pretty much pre-occupied with fiddling with the placement of 16 noise filters on the large front window of my listening room, I will continue current exercise as well as minor experimenting of speaker placement and will report my further impression of the OR in part 2 later this month. I hope those who are still waiting for the next batch of OR arrival will at least have a faint idea of how it sounds in comparison to FR, please be patient as your patience will be rewarded by a higher level of music reproduction.
Mr.Zanden
深夜時分我把OR用在ORB上試試可否和FMR鬥一番, 結論是OR不能取代FMR在排蘇這個位置, 低音下潛力明顯減少, 缺乏了一種厚度. 在本人的系統最好的配撘是:
Orpheus Zero/One SE DAC - 2條FLOW
前級 - 暫用雞線
功放 - OR
排蘇 - FMR
我希望農歷新年前買多條OR比前級.
As recommended by PT, I connect OR as the source of the ORB power bar. Then I connect two Level 1 from the power bar to my Shindo power amp. When the setup was completed, I could not wait to experience the magical performance of OR…
When I just heard the initial few notes of the first song, 3 Chinese words “好卵堅” immediately appeared in my mind. OR vitalized my power amp in such a way that I find it is now full of energy. Vocal is smoother and more tender with OR. I sent an SMS to PT at once to express my happiness.
One more good thing for OR. Usually I need to boil the Shindo power amp for at least 45 minutes before it performs. I find that OR can shorten this boiling time. With OR, I feel the sound is not rough and hard even when I just turn on the gear. That means I can enjoy music immediately without waiting!
OR is really the best Christmas present to me.
Finally, may I wish everyone in the AE community a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!
我考慮了好耐才決定買奧運線, 李生比個靚靚number 28/208號我, 佢話包掂! (不過佢次次都係呢句.) 我每天來遊灠AE風林, 覺得這裡班友好似玩得好有性格, 講D野和我班friend完全不同. Flow的確冇老點我, 再加上看到短短時間已有起碼二三十個用家, 我才決定咬緊牙根找李生.
回家即隊入高文27.3前級, 將原用的Hammerhead電源線調去比Audioaero Prestige SACD機, 音場立刻變得更深更闊, 中低音的節奏動態真係嚇X死我, 原來有太多細節被埋改了, 低音好似有股空氣包圍著, 好過引! 人聲真得離奇, 連個口形變化都感受得一清二楚, 最令我奇怪莫名就是聲底反而比從前更有厚度, 但細節又聽得更清楚, 果然有料到....
我又試了隊它入Audioaero部SACD機, 效果又是喜出望外, 總體分析力進步了許多, 中低音的一層霧氣全消, 換來更有層次而又不失量感的低頻.
我終於明白為何這裡的人買了一條後又要第二條, 我對VPA後級要2條, 今次大煲!
小弟器材如下：
Metronome T1 signature CD用FLOW
Audioaero Prestige SACD player用Hammerhead (待轉另一條OR)
Goldmund 27.3 preamp 用OR
Nagra VPA mono block 用 NBS Black Label 2
Kharma speakers 用 siltech classic 喇叭線
______________________________________________________
Finally, feed 2 OR to the PSE300B amp last night. it replace the PC which mod by PT??? I did not let them run-in in advance and plug them to the wall once i get home. The benefit is easy to be notice even they still new from open box. The sound become more clear, fast, focous, texture, the improvement on dynamic really make me happy, it does help a lot on the mismatch on 300B amp with morden speaker, also, it suprise me on the extra energy to the amp, i could turn the volume 2 step lower than usual listening. These OR PC has the total package, Like Peter & PT said, it really make an already outstanding amp keeping improve!!!
I think i need to follow Marvels step: "Reserve the No.: 207 for me"
Welcome to the Argento club...I notice that you are using 2 sources and it would be great if you can have a chance to try the Argento interconnectsas well. Why don't you match VPA with Nagra preamp?
Marvel