Bryan's System

---

As a former Hi-Fi dealer I have experience with several brands. After  buying a Puritan 156 I needed an 8ft-20amp power cord and didn't want to  break the bank so I snagged an Ice Age Audio Power Cord. My other PCs were all much more expensive, but I was very impressed with the Ice Age Audio build and  sound. 
 

Fast forward about a year and my system has evolved in a material  way. In a conversation with an audio buddy he suggested that I give Ice  Age Audio a try and that Don Sachs and one of his friends uses, and endorsed the cables. I thought ok… why not?  So I purchased XLR Interconnects, Speaker  Cables and a few more Power Cords. Those cables have now been in my system for about 2  weeks and have made a meaningful improvement in resolution, but without harshness. 
 

My initial reaction was that of surprise. I actually had to tweak speaker positioning to take advantage of the new and improved sound.  I would highly recommended Ice Age Audio.

You can read Richard's entire review on our Review Page

I contacted Rick (good name, BTW), and a couple of email  discussions ensued.  Rick asked what my system consisted of and gave me  his recommendations which power cords would work best in certain  positions.  His sincerity and honesty were immediately apparent, so I  listed my shockingly insanely priced Shunyata’s for sale and hoped for  the best.  

As luck  would have it, my Shunyata cabling sold pretty quickly, so I placed my  order for the cables and waited for Rick’s son to build them and ship.   They were out of one of the carbon AC connectors I had opted for so I  had to wait for a new shipment to come in.  Within a few weeks I had my  all new loom of cables sitting on my floor awaiting installation.  I  devised my set up and on with the show we go.

First  listen to these cables literally blew my socks off and dropped my jaw  at the same time.  How many times have we heard the superlatives in the  audio rags about PRaT, dynamics, sound stage retrieval, etc.?  So many  times it has been hackneyed IMHO.  So how to describe what I was  hearing?

Dynamics and  slam, massively open sound stage, sweet full midrange, deep tight and  fast bass, extended highs and the sound of real musicians in my  listening room!  OK, I couldn’t help myself.  It is true.  I could go on  detailing several of my reference discs and what I hear with these  beauties.  I leave it up to the individual to decide for themselves. 

My  total $2,500 or so in cables cost less than one Shunyata PC did and  blew the entire $70,000 cables completely out of the same galaxy.  Ice Age Audio  stomped on them.  Badly.  How could this be?  No hyper this, or quantum  that, unobtanium materials or crazy new crystal structure?  Impossible!   This can’t be!  Rick is doing something to these that just couldn’t be  true, I thought.  

Rick  keeps the details to himself as he rightly should.  However, these  beauties (and they are beautiful IMHO) do what they are originally  intended to do.  Transfer the signal and just get out of the way of the  music and let the show go on.  I could say more and more, but I think my  ideas have gotten across here.  These are without any doubt in my long  (and sordid) audiofool history the finest cables I have ever owned.

 Hi Rick,

Here is a picture of my "Man Cave".   It's been a fun  build.  Largest most immersive sound stage I've ever encountered.  Don  Sachs Pre II has been a very nice addition.  In recent years all my gear  has run balanced connectors but Don's requires a single ended for the  output to the power amp.  Don recommended your cables for this purpose.   I have always believed cables matter.....all the way back to the early  "Monster" cables days.  Years later used Tributaries, then onto high end  Audioquest and Audience, and finally settled on Synergistic Research.    So now back to your RCA Interconnects, I decided I was tired of the cable rabbit hole and purchased your interconnects.....put it on my "cooker"  for 2 days then onto a second system and let it run for 50 hours....put  it in the system and although it sounded very good, but I could they weren't ready....exhibited all the classic "new" cable tendencies....a  little closed in, no real decay, and a bit edgy.  Back in the second  system for another 100 hours.  Reintroduced to the main rig and it is glorious!   Huge, open and well developed sound stage, very good focus of  sonic images, dead quiet, wonderful decay, bass is as it should be,   mids and highs very well presented, something I felt was lacking in other high end, expensive cables, lots of "meat on the bones" tonal  density.  IMO that's what emotionally reaches out and grabs you.  Don  was correct.....your cables are great performers first. and reasonably priced just happens to be icing on the cake.  Great job.  BTW, the far more expensive XLR it replaced?   I feel like I am missing absolutely  nothing.  I have one of your PC's running in at the moment.  Looking  forward to finding a spot for it once it's ready.  Very satisfied customer in  AZ if you should need a reference in this area.

Thanks

Hi Rick

    I just wanted to let you  know that your cables have elevated the music in my audio system. I have  had Anti-cables power cables in my system for a few years now and came  across yours in the Audiogon forum. I thought for the money why not give  them a try. I started with the copper-copper and copper-silver power  cords and could immediately hear a better quality of music. The music  sounded fuller and with more detail. A very nice surprise indeed. I  purchased your RCA and XLR interconnects to replace some Audioquest  Water interconnects I had been using and liked very much. The music  sounded better to my ears with your interconnects. Between the power  cords and interconnects I changed out my music sounded just right. Nice  highs and lows and excellent detail. I use a tube preamp with a Van  Alstine amplifier and my speakers are Wharfdale Lintons and adding your  cables has made the music sound perfect to my ears. Thank you for making  excellent affordable cables.

All the best

Marc 

  The following cables that Ice Age Audio has replaced are, synergistic research signature 2 speaker cable, several of their AC master coupler power cords. Kaleidoscope phase one balanced interconnects and one pair of balanced Cardas Cross interconnects. These cables are all about 30 years old. Even though they were less expensive back then, they were 2 to 3 times of the Ice Age Audio prices today! And I don't have to tell you how outrageous Synergistic and Cardas cable prices are today!

 I purchased a pair of the Ice Age Audio Speaker Cables, along with a set of jumpers. My system is now totally wired with Ice Age Audio Cables including Interconnects and Power Cords. I have to say that I believe  it is the best speaker cable on the market!  They have no sonic signature at all.  Bad recordings sound bad and great recordings sound  great!  If the recording has all the Sonics like bass response extended  highs sound stage width and depth you will  hear it. If it is not there you won’t hear it! This is not a speaker  compensator cable, it adds nothing to the signal. This is a true audiophile path cable. This is the reason I claim it is the best. It is hard to compete with nothing. And that is what the speaker gives you ,  absolutely nothing but the signal from your amplifier!