I originally purchased Accelerator IC's which replaced my old Valhalla's. In my system they were not hot, but they did take a long time before opening up and settling down. This seems to be the case for all Tesla cables I've tried-broken in at the factory or not. Expect between 72 and 96 hours for the real show to begin. Longer if the cables were not broken in first.
As to the pre to power amp connection, Precision Ref. was made for this application while Accelerator seems to be a system wide cable or a pre to power IC when you want to balance your system differently. This is where Acoustic Ref. or even Apex between CD and pre come into play. Matching different cables between source components and pre amps with a dedicated pre to power amp interconnect seems to be a corner stone in SR's system matching philosophy, with the new non active IC's following the same pattern.
As to the pre to power amp connection, Precision Ref. was made for this application while Accelerator seems to be a system wide cable or a pre to power IC when you want to balance your system differently. This is where Acoustic Ref. or even Apex between CD and pre come into play. Matching different cables between source components and pre amps with a dedicated pre to power amp interconnect seems to be a corner stone in SR's system matching philosophy, with the new non active IC's following the same pattern.