The first ICs I bought that were clearly much better sounding than good cables were the Darwin Silver cables that were their original ones. These beat Morrow MA-3 and MA-4 ICs, along with Crimson, Audioquest, Magnan, They would be about $295 new or about $150-175 used. New ones at this time I would recommend would be the Acoustic BBQ from Grannyring on Audiogon. His best are the Schroeder Method double ICs and cost $295 new. His regular and also good sounding ICs are $179 for a 1 mtr. pair. The doubles are much better sounding in all ways than the regular. I've done the double method with Teo GC II ICs and with Teo GC's and JW Reference ICs and the result of using double ICs to one connection is way better than doubling the cost of a single IC in the same family of ICs. Bill Dion's AB ICs save money by not needing extra connectors and just doubling up the wires going to the RCAs. Bill's ICs have a very organic, real sound to them when I heard them in his system. I have not heard them in my system, however. The Teo's were heard in my system with a couple of my friends prior to buying them and made an incredible difference. I bought their pairs right then. If I were you, I'd contact Bill of Acoustic BBQ and see what he can do for you. He makes them at his house and charges a VERY fair price for them.
Bob
