Grover Huffman GH RCA ZX+ cables vs...

Sabai, your response doesn't mate with the fundamental reality of high end audio. If you are so experienced, you must have learned that component, particularly cable, selection is not exclusively about "better", like a football game score, but about synergy, more like cooking. Cables that sound great in one system/room/listener context are often terrible in others, and vice versa, irrespective of brand or price. Thus your preferences are just that, and nothing more than that. Any other conclusion is self-delusion.
That's what I've learned in 46 years of evaluating many hundreds of components and cables, at all price levels. There is no such thing as best- one size will never fit all- just like shoes.

Jmbatkh,

You're absolutely right about synergy. But the quality of the synergy is what I am taking about. That's what really matters. You cannot get superior synergy with, for instance, Grover Huffman or Pangea or Gabriel Gold or so many other cable companies. No matter how hard you try. They simply do not have the necessary properties. They may fit some systems, granted. But the systems they fit will not be delivering what I term superior sound quality. This is not just a matter of preferences. It is a matter of quality that can be heard by A/B-ing cables from different companies.

For instance, I believe that in virtually any system the synergy of, let's say, Shunyata cables will be far superior to, let's say, the synergy of Grover Huffman cables. There is nothing delusional about this. It is a simply matter of auditioning these various cables side by side to know there are indeed superior cables out there. Of course, one size will never fit absolutely all. But I am not talking about one-size-fits-all. I am talking about taking a broad spectrum of mid and high and systems and inserting these cables to verify that the properties of some are, indeed, superior to others over that broad spectrum -- with exceptions granted.

Jmbatkh,

My comments (above) have no bearing on how much we enjoy our systems, no matter how evolved they may be. I use to get immense pleasure from my crystal radio and then my transistor radio. And then my first real system in 1967. It is very true that one may not need exceptional cables to enjoy one's system immensely. But exceptional cables -- well-chosen for system synergy -- will surely elevate the sound quality of top components.

Sabai, while I do admire your persistence, and currently enjoy some entry level Shunyata power cords, I think we have lost the thread of the OP's original question. He's asking about $200 dollar ICs. While I'm sure there are many, many posters here that would love to step up to into even the "cheapest" of Shunyata's IC offerings, I don't think the Huffmans and the Shunyatas would ever be cross-shopped. I have no doubt the Shunyatas are better in most ways, at 5x the price they better be. But I don't think it's fair when the OP is asking about a reasonably priced set of ICs to to jump right into the high end, reference spectrum of product offerings.

Dvdgreco, I just got a 2m pair of ZX+s in the mail last week. If the reports of a 150 hour to 300 hour break-in are true I've got a long, long way to go yet until they've settled in. But they are quicker, more transparent, and better detailed than my the Ah! AS Direkt ICs that I was using previously. Sorry, that's the only direct comparison I can make right now.

I probably don't have more than 20 hours on the ZXs now and the bass has gone missing, but I do expect it return in time. Happy to update next month to report how things are coming along.