REALITY CABLES ?

One audiophile sent me a PM and said strangely enough Reality Cables beat Acoustic Zen Silver Reference IC. That could well be as I have found both Acoustic Zen Silver Reference to be at the bottom of the pack along with Reality IC of the lot I had for testing comparison. Frankly, I did not closely compare AZ Silver Ref IC and Reality IC as I was dissapointed in both of these IC and take time to really compare the difference. It just seemed to me that Reality sounded worse of the two but in someone elses system it can very well sound better especially in view of the fact that Gregg has two versions if IC, one for solid state and one for tube. I got one for solid state on Gregg's recommendation between my tube preamp and solid state MBL90007 amps. Perhaps, Reality tube version IC might have performed better. How much better, who knows but I'd be very surprised if it can equal Cyberlight or Tara Labs. As a matter of fact, I'd be willing to give up my all of my 3 pairs of Cyberlight cable for freee if a pair of Reality tube version IC if it can beat Cyberlight in my system.

Thanks for posting that detailed account. Your review focuses on the relative rankings of the cables, but you don't say anything about the sound. Can you comment on what the Reality Cables do well (I'm sure they are good in some performance areas)?

Stereo_phile, It is interesting that your shootout confirmed the traditional concept that you get what you pay for.
When I checked on the prices of the speaker cables, they ranked in descending order:
$4500
$2106
$950
$870
$225
As I had posted admiringly, above, "Your system and the wiring that has already worked for you reads like an audiophile's dream list."
The prices of the IC's in your shootout can be tabulated by someone else, but I suspect they don't come cheap, either.
Down here where the Shakespearean groundlings dwell, I still recommend wiring a system with Reality for its performance, its moderate price, and its home trial policy which lets each listener check for synergy with his/her particular system. (I have never tried the power cords.)

Drubin good point. I was told when I purchased these cables that Reality cables are shipped out pre burned in by the factory which is the reason why it takes a while to get these cables as manufacturer takes extra steps to make sure the cabes sound great. So supposedly one of things you noitce immediately is how great these cables sound when you hook them up.

So, I evaluated speaker cable, interconnect and power cable in that order seperately fresh upon receipt to hear this marvelous claim.

I first replaced the best speaker cable I've tried to date which is Tara Labs The One. Instead of noticing improvement I head a vast collapse in soundstage, unfocused imaging and lifeless dynamically limited uninvolving sound. Yes, immediately noticeable as deterioration in sound. I tried comparing with all other speaker cables that I have mentioned but was very dissapointed with the results. Additional burn in time with cable burner and more operation time did not make one iota of difference. Same results from interconnect and power cable. BTW, afte I hear the similar things happen to the interconnects, since my cable burner was busy, I left the interconnect hooked up on my bedroom system and left it on playing music from my cd player on repeat flowing music thru it. Again, after a week did not notice any performance improvement.

Following from Listener57's post, and taking it one step further, if the top performers in your shootout scored 10/10, then achieving 7/10 for 225 greenbacks gives you a tremendous price to performance ratio. I have tried Gregg's cables with other cables costing maybe 4 to 5 times more and can say that in my system Gregg's cables sound terrific throughout the entire sound spectrum and was about the only cable that could reproduce human voices, brass and stringed instruments and percussions with lifelike realism. Even if I could justify paying for cost of cables that are many times the price of my humble system, I don't think my system is resolving enough to show a substantial difference from what I am enjoying with Gregg's cables. You certainly have an uber highend system which justifies the cost of uber priced cables!It would have been interesting to know what your evaluation would have been had you used Gregg's tubed version ICs. Also, I have read elsewhere that Gregg's cables sound best with the synergy of Reality ICs and speaker cables hooked up and evaluated at the same time.

Best Regards
Dennis