Batman, please remember that I was not involved with THIEL since the mid 1990s, so my observations reflect general approaches rather than specific product knowledge. Jim's approach was very analytical and different from many audio engineers. Jim chose to make the speaker's job that of translating its input signal into the room. A corollary is that preceding links in the chain were also required to do their part. A signal chain must be clean, which is a tall order. Most designers of my experience hedge their bets toward forgiveness. Jim went for truth. When it came to amps and cable, Jim would measure and listen and determine how well a link, cable in this case, was performing its job transparently. I judge that Jim chose that Goertz wire because he determined that it did a better job of being wire and that silver, being a better conductor did it better, both measurably and aurally . . . and so forth. This determination is different from whether he preferred the sound of silver to copper, flat or round but rather that one was a better wire having less distortions. The lab amp lived under the measuring tower with cable runs of about a meter and the listening room had several highly regarded amps with short cable runs.