[George Prentice]

Fascinating thread.

Nirvana and Transparent Ultra interconnects. Transparent speaker. WireWorld and DH Labs Power cords.

On my former system I used Cardas Gold Cross after extensive testing. When I switched from my old Threshold T2 my Audio Research REF 5SE preamp the treble disappeared, I pulled the Cardas within minutes of installing the preamp and put in the Transparent (I had purchased it years earlier), they immediately shifted the sound from golden soft with no detail to neutral balance. They have been there ever since. The Cardas was a crutch to make up for a skewed tonal balance. Now I have all top notch stuff and I want the cables out of the way and neutral.

I only go through cable, interconnect, and tweak testing until I get the most out of my system, then drop it and enjoy the music for a few years until I have an opportunity for a big upgrade or technology change (adding streaming the most recent). I can usually read a lot and test a couple brands now and make a choice and it is exactly what I want... it took me 40 years of extensive testing, experiments, reading and experience to get to that point. That was about ten years ago. Upgrades go very quickly and smoothly now.