Have AZ Martrix Ref II's/ Compare to Silver Ref 2

David, I seem to remember that thread, I may have been part of it. From what I remember, a few people liked using the Silver Ref II in front of the Matrix Ref II. I tried it both ways in my system and it seemed having the Silver before the Matrix produced a larger soundstage and better transparency. Reversing the order resulted in a slightly closed in sound that lacked some life. Foster, as David has found nothing is set in stone and everyone's system's and tastes are different.

As far as comparing the two cables although there is a similar house sound, the really do have very different balances. I tried swapping out the Silver and running two Matriz Ref IIs and it sounded like someone had put a pillow over Diana Krall's face. I await the witicisms, heheh. The Matrix has a slower, organic sound while the Silver is quicker, leaner and more open. They are both very smooth cables. I would say your research applies here as far as how they contrast.

How they sound really depends on your system, and as I change things around I've started to consider a configuration of two Silver Ref IIs like David.

Good luck!

I'm currently moving towards all balanced cables in my system and have a number of Matrix cables, which I really like. In going to balanced I have the option to mix in some Silver.

I've found that there is less difference between different balanced cables that between different single ended cables. Can anyone speak to differences between Matrix and Silver balanced cables?

About two years ago, I was doing a preamp shoot out and had a BAT VK3i preamp on hand to match with my BAT VK200 amp. Victor Khomenko advised me to hook them up with a balanced cable, so I bought a balanced version of the Matrix Ref II just for that. After comparing the system for awhile having the two BAT components connected with a single ended Matrix Ref II and a balanced one I heard absolutely no difference. I mentioned this in a thread in the forums here and some people said there was the possibility that the Matrix Ref II wasn't a truly balanced design. I sold the preamp and never contacted Acoustic Zen about this, so I never confirmed whether the balanced Matrix Ref II was truly balanced or not. This is something to consider before changing over your RCA Matrix and Silver interconnects to balanced versions.

I have a couple of pairs of balanced Matrix Ref II. An ohmmeter check confirms that they are definitely wired correctly for balanced operation, so that wasn't the reason that you heard no difference.

I've noticed that the original single ended Matrix sounds much warmer (tube -like?) that the single ended Matrix II, and that the balanced Matrix II sounds more neutral than the Matrix II single ended.

Good to know, thanks Ghostrider45! Now, what is the reason?