[Weirdcuba]

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on whether you're my bank account, I spent another 3 or 4 hours with Mike Powell of Verastarr today. Today's upgrades included the following:

- Grand Illusion (copper) to the bass taps on the TADs, same length as the Grand Illusion Statements (gold/silver) to the treble taps (replacing the WW Silver Eclipse (I had a mis match as I had already replaced the treble cables with Verastarr)). This was an experiment that worked very well - helped with imaging and overall coherence to the presentation. I hated to do it (as that means that I have now purchased two sets of speaker cables), but it sounds so much better. If you're going to go the dual speaker cable route, my experience was that two sets of matched cables (in length and type) is better than mismatched. Mike started talking about mismatched impedance and stuff between the Verastarr foil and the WW round wire, but it just sounded much better to me, no matter the technical explanation.

- Single foil silver Grand Illusion Statement power cord to the SILENZIO, which was astonishing. It replaced a WW Silver Electra 7. I didn't think the Silenzio could get much better, but the Verastarr brought the entire image forward into the room - much more presence. Just an incredible upgrade.

- Double foil (gold/silver) Grand Illusion Statement power cable to each Accuphase A-200, replacing WW Silver Electra 7. Faster, more responsive, blacker blacks - just perfect.

Overall, I've now replaced nearly the entire loom, and it's as if I bought an entirely new system. All of the fundamentals spring from the same place, but everything is much much better. More breadth and depth of the sound stage, more clarity, deeper blacks, better spacing of instruments, but better overall coherence at the same time, with much better "in the room" presence. Unless you witnessed it, it's hard to believe all of these adjectives and hyperbole, but I'm glad for you to come by and give it a listen.

Whatever cables you're thinking about trying, give them a try. The difference can be, in my experience, just amazing. Mike gave me a great deal - it was still a big chunk of change, but not nearly retail for cables of this quality.

As stated, all experiences are on my system, to my ears, with my music, and in my humble opinion only - yours may vary, quite legitimately.

weirdcuba