I'm very pleased with Quick Silver. Here's what I sent to the manufacturer after allowing it to break in 36 hours:
Okay, I admit it, I tried the Quick Sliver, (QS from here on) on my single ended connections between the TRL player and the TRL GTP-4 pre-amp. THESE CONNECTIONS ONLY. This is important. I left the player on repeat and left it for a full 36 hours. (also important)
Initial thoughts (Zero hours): I was a little scared. The first song I'd played was "North Dakota" by Lyle Lovett. He has a little lisp in his voice and right off the bat, this became MUCH more evident. It almost made it stand out, where before it blended, or perhaps better said, was masked into the mix. I played Ben Harper's beautiful singing on the traditional Gospel tune "Ready" just to make sure it was just that song. It was.
Okay, then I left it on repeat for 36 hours. Well, at 5AM this morning, our Golden Retriever need to go outside, and why not go listen to music? No distractions, the power is cleaner (fewer users, etc.) , and no distractions. Drum roll please .... You have a real winner, Brian. I first played one of Paul's (Weitzel of Fidelis and Diversity Records) recordings that I was present for and I just have to tell you that I feel as though I have heard this recording for the first time. No kidding. The 1,987 other times were just practice, or something. I'm going to take you through a few songs that I'd listened to and what I had experienced ...
1) Lyle Lovett "North Dakota"- Quiet background! Wow! Noise floor significantly lowered. The toms are more dynamic. Tighter focus on everything. More "wood" sound coming from the acoustic guitar. Cymbal work is tight, articulate, ("Heard, not blurred"). Gone was the lispy-ness in his voice, which makes me think that the 36 hour break in was important in this regard. (I know that 36 hours is just the beginning)
2) Cowboy Junkies "You will be loved again"- Margo's voice is so real, so there. Tight focus. Incredible 3-d like!
3) Greg Brown "Think about you"- Fret work on guitar that was never heard before (Heard not blurred) and there is a raspy-ness on the lower vocal notes is much more real, more natural. Once again-3D comes to mind. I hate that term, because there are guys with Onkyo receivers that loosely throw that word around. If I use that term, I mean it!
4) Ben Harper "Ready"- Much, much better micro/macro dynamics. This really became evident on Ben's voice and with the acoustic guitar. BTW, the guitar sounds more real with much more wood sound/resonance being heard(not blurred). Before QS, there was one blurred female back up vocal, now there are two distinct female vocalists, one ever so slightly off que. The acoustic guitar on the right hand side extends 2 feet beyond the speaker, where before it was only slightly off axis from the speaker. So, soundstage is much wider, and oh yeah, almost forgot to remark about the soundstage depth. More on that later ...
5) The Fairfield Four "Noah"- Wow. Soundstage depth from Heaven! The singers have always had a little depth, but now you can hear the bass singer move back and forth from the mic' so as not to overload it. (Never heard THAT before). Such tight focus! I bet that "Trio Jeepy" cut 4 would be interesting ...
This is taken directly from a e-mail sent to Xtreme AV moments after a 36 hour break in. It has further improved since. Why does it take so long to break in? I don't know. I'm just happy that I had business out of town, which gave it plenty of time to settle, to break in.
Note: I will never use it on my tube sockets as I've now heard from 2 different amp manufacturers that have experienced failures because silver conductive pastes have oozed down past the tube pins to the soldered area and have shorted out the tube sockets. (I don't know which of the 3 products caused this problem, nor do I care). Consider this a simple warning.
Best wishes,
Jack
