I first encountered Rick’s power cords when I was searching for AC cords to send out to customers with the tube preamps, phono stages and power amps I build. So I have been buying the copper/copper AC cords from Rick for a number of years now. They are very high build quality and sound great, and they just cannot be surpassed for the money. When Rick started producing RCA cables I bought a pair from him. When I heard them I bought a second pair. They take a good 20-30 hours to burn in and during that time they can sound bright and thin, but trust me, once they burn in, they have a very balanced sound with incredible detail. They are not bright at all, just highly detailed, and the bass is just right. The resonance in the body of a stand up bass is just right. I pestered Rick, and he finally was able to source quality XLR connectors he liked, and he produced a pair of XLR cables for me as well. So now, my whole system uses his cables. I have owned some very nice cables over the years, and I was last using cables I built for myself using Duelund 20 gauge, tinned stranded copper wire. They sounded excellent. However, Rick’s cables are another level up from the Duelund. The Duelund wire is very musical and pleasing, but Rick’s cables have more subtle detail and shading. You can hear just a bit more into the music than with the excellent Duelund cables. I liked the Ice Age Cables so much that I got Rick to send me some of the bare wire and I have been using it in my builds for a month now where I was previously using the Duelund wire in the signal path. With Rick's wire I can hear the difference in that there is just a bit more detail in the sound of the finished products. Trust me, they were already very good, but Rick’s cryo treated wire in the signal path has subtly improved them. The Ice Age Audio cables have very nice connectors, build quality is first rate, and the sound would be considered amazing at any sane price. Considering you get all of that for $150 a pair for RCA cables, and $175 a pair for the XLR cables, it is a no brainer folks. I doubt you would get significantly better sound or build quality, even if you spent three or four times that amount for a pair of cables. Highly recommended!
Happy Listening
Don Sachs
