Ok, I will be the different voice here.....
Does someone can tell me what is the exact material of Shindo IC ?
I read on Matt's site " pure silver " while on many web posts, people say that it is indeed silver coated copper. An other scoop of "mystery" here....
I never tried Shindo or A23 ICs or speaker cables. And I won't. At least while I will still have non Shindo speakers.
I agree that Shindo cables should be preferred with Shindo gear, but only in the context of a full Shindo system, from source to speakers. Then, full voicing makes sense. For example, it makes sense that Shindo uses pure silver for speaker cables, when you think that for most listeners, Shindo speakers are a bit limited in frequency in the treble. Silver will reinforce treble presence and weight.
For someone using non Shindo speakers, then the "voicing" is failed and I see no reason why I would prefer them over my WW cables. I must say that I also tend to be more confident with established cable makers ( WW, Van den Hul, Kubala Sosna....) over cables " hand made " by gurus. What this " hand made " means by the way ? Soldering ? Most good cables on the market are terminated by hand.
Anyway to me cables fall roughly in 2 categories, no matter their price. Bad ones are harsh. Good ones are sweet. Differences between good and bad ones can be huge.
But differences between good ones are rather subtle and often do not justify the time spent for the quest and critical listening.