Audioquest or Transparent?

I have the Trans Ref...Love it.

I'm happy with AQ Amazon interconnects and Dragon speaker wire. The sound is clear, fast, and detailed. I haven't spent any real time with the Transparent cables, although I am told they are also quite good. These are all sufficiently pricey that you may be able to request auditions in your system to help you decide.

Personally, I don't trust networked cables. I've owned some and didn't care what they did for the sound. I own AQ Caldera and think is a great open, smooth sounding cable so I imagine that the next step up, as long as it is not silver, should be even more of the same.

There are no compromises above the ultra line with Transparent.
Keith

A friend had identical gear, with the exception of 1HCDT to yr2 -- and identical reproduction tastes.

Meddling w/ cables (which, as we all know, are system and user dependent) we also discovered that the room (his: small) limited the choice. To state the obvious, ICs also played their role.

I like both your choices for different reasons, and would lean toward AQ for the Utopias -- but that's me. So, I generally agree with all the posters BUT I will subscribe to Jameswei's view to audition. Do this with female vocals (classical, lieder). With your revealing system, you should get the "she is here" impression -- or better. If not, that's not the cable for you. Cheers!