A dealer I work with in the Seattle area
(Quinn Audio Video)
was kind enough to loan me several cables to audition in my own system. I recently scored an EXCELLENT deal on some Martin Logan Theos speakers, and I am running them bi-amped from a Marantz SR7007 (which isn't too bad in "pure direct" mode!).
After purchasing the speakers, I upgraded my speaker wire to Anticables 3.1 (2 sets for bi-amp). I then became frustrated by the audio limitations of my Chromecast, so I invested in a Bluesound Node 2i and a set of Audioquest Golden Gate cables (ran analog to get MQA decoding). After Amazon launched their HD (I hate that term) music service, I decided to grab a generic video/digital coax cable and see how it sounded using the DAC in the Marantz, since Amazon isn't using MQA. Digital sounded MUCH better than the analog, even with the generic digital cable vs. the Golden Gate cables. I added the Silverstar (with the included BNC to RCA adaptors) and was stunned how much better the sound became. The "fuzz" around everything all but disappeared...and the vocals were much more defined in space. Bass was tighter, and everything in general had improved definition. The sound improvement is completely worth the price of admission, in my opinion. I have no idea if this cable is broken in or not, but I have a few weeks to play with it.
I almost hate to try the other loaners...I am completely sold on this cable...next I am going to try the iDAC he loaned me with and without the linear power supply upgrade. I also have a set of Black Cat Coppertone to try, as well as power cable upgrades. If they are as significant an improvement as these, I might just go broke buying all of this! :)
