I had a full set of Golden Reference Power with the Furutech ends, but didn't keep them. I have an one older one that I've kept with the older termination. I didn't do rigorous comparison, but felt they were similar.
I have a couple older Quadlink PC with the older terminations, and one late production with the new Cardas branded terminations. Again, I feel the newer one is slightly brighter.
The older Cardas terminations don't hug the IEC inlet as tightly, similar to their own branded connectors in the current production. The Furutech have better grip without being ridiculously tight.
I'm currently using all Golden Power with the older terminations.
I wouldn't swear to these differences, as I never did rigorous testing, but these were my impressions. After leaving the cables in place awhile, I kind of forget about it, as the differences aren't that great. But I did tend to use the new Cardas OEM terminated Quadlink and Cross Power cables on the phono preamp, which is slightly darker sounding than my other electronics.
And Mikey, I have to say, I'm using Golden Cross interconnects presently. I know you have favored those, and I agree: in my system, they're the best of the old Cardas Cross and Reference lines. I've had every interconnect from Quadlink through Golden Reference. Golden Presence is my second favorite, but it has less shielding, so the background is not as quiet as Golden Reference or Golden Cross interconnect.
