Anybody tried 20th Anniversary Purist cables?

Cmo, did you check to see if Guido left barefooted after that cable audition?

He was growing a beard............. And starting to develop a nervous arm flapping movement????

Jafox, the Aqueous is very powerful and is mysteriously related to the CLC, but in reverse, in that it acts on the listener rather than on the equipment. . . and turns our worst audio nightmares into psychosomatic reality. [chuckles!]

Seriously, with the several cuts I listened at CMO's with the Aqueous, the consensus at the ttime seemed to be that the effect was uninvolving, hooded -- as in not extended -- and sweet but slightly thin. I did not hear at the time an excess at the top, but we were concentrating mostly on some tracks from Edgar Meyer playing Bach on the double bass, which does not have exactly a piercing treble to start with. It is entirely possible that on other material I did not listen to, the treble overpressure may have showed up.
I would welcome Albert Porter's comments on the subject of the Aqueous, as we all seem to have such a diverging experience with this wire. I am seriously wondering if some of the wires were shipped with some manufacturing defects.

While speaking with Purist last week, Jim told me the break in process for Aqueous Anniversary was a lengthy ordeal and the Purist break in disc (CD) has almost no effect on accelerating the process.

I don't know if this is a recent turn of events or something that he has been aware of all along. If the Purist disc was used to "burn in" at Cable Company, then shipping could have almost offset the gains.

The good news? Any type of music (including the break in disc) is fine, there just seems to be no way to shorten the "waiting period."

The Aqueous Anniversary I had on my CD player took several weeks before it stopped changing (running 24-7) and the Aqueous Anniversary power cords are still breaking in. Hate to say, but this might be a 175 to 250 hour break in cable.

J. Fox probably has more experience with the new Aqueous line than I do. I loaned him a lot of cables and we have been shipping back and forth. I recently switched to the Purist Anniversary (new top of the line), and preoccupied with getting it settled and discovering it's full capability.

I have had my limited supply of Aqueous loaned out nearly 100% of the time, so I've had little time to evaluate it for myself. There is a good deal of wiggle room between Venustas, Opis and Aqueous Anniversary. All are excellent and all different.

Which is most correct is in the ears of the beholder and perhaps none of these will be right for some members. There is a lot of differences between systems and what each of us prefer.

There really do appear to be some divergent opinions on the Aqueous Anniversary cable. I demo'ed the Aqueous Anniversary speaker cable, and in my current system it easily outperformed cables such as Cardas Golden Reference, Wireworld Gold Eclipse III, Nordost SPM, Kimber 3033, Purist Opis, Audioquest Mont Blanc, and others. The magic in this cable is in the midrange - tonality is accurate, (string tone is exceptional), images take on the appropriate body and presence, soundstage width and depth were very good (although not the best I have heard), transient performance was outstanding - both attack and decay, reproduction of low level detail was excellent, bass was solid, extended, with wonderful authority in the midbass. In particular, the reason I was/am so fond of the Aqueous is that it's hard to find a cable that is as revealing in the midrange that is not edgy or clinical.

As a caveat, however, if your system is on the "warm" side of things in the midrange, I think the Aqueous Anniversary might be too much of a good thing. In the system I have now (admittedly not my ideal setup - Verdier Platine, EMM Labs CDSD/DCC2, Cat JL-1s, Merlin VSM-Ms, Silversmith ICs), its just about perfect.

I have to admit I am surprised to read others commenting that this cable was "closed in." Does it have the most extended top end I have ever heard? No - that distinction belongs to the Silvermiths. But closed in? I can't picture it, based on what I hear in my system. I suppose there must be some system matching issues with this cable, and I have to admit to being curious to see with which components others are using it.

In particular, Jafox, what components did you have in your system when you did your demos? Your characterizations sound pretty accurate to me, except I had the opposite preference with respect to Aqueous v. Opis - I found the Opis, while a touch more extended at the frequency extremes, to be muted in dynamics and subtractive of low level information in the midrange - as a result, while it is a good cable, I never found it very involving. Thus, I am betting you probably have components that tend to sound more on the yin side, whereas mine are more on the yang side.

Also, I have to echo the above comments re: break-in - these cables certainly need at least 150 hours of break in, and probably closer to 250. Fresh out of the box, it lacks a bit of coherency, images sound overblown, and the bass doesn't have that full measure of extension.