My findings were just the opposite of Tekunda's with these cables. So far I have found these to have the best bass and extended highs of any IC that I have ever listened to. As for the midrange, they also have the most resolute mids that I have yet to hear, very transparent clear and musical most of all.
Now for those who prefer some sort of bloated or over emphasized midrange and mid-bass then maybe this is not the cable for you. In a nutshell these are perhaps the most linear cables that I know of. I am not the only one who thinks this either, some of my audiophile friends have sold their $10,000.00 IC's (that is not a misprint) to own these, because they seemed to convey the spirit of the music in ways none of us had heard before. They have extremely fast transients and slam with gobs of detail.
Incidentally they are also the quitest cable I have yet to use as well. Absolutely black dead silence between musical passages. I have tried these IC's on systems costing over a 150 grand with cone speakers such as Wilsons and Krells, as well as more humble sytems with Martin Logans and InnerSound electrostatic hybrids, not to mention some old Apogee Studio Grands, and with a variety of very well thought of amps, though all were SS. We all thought the Empirical cables beat the existing cable within each system hands down regardless of what other wire was previously being used.
Bottom line is this: I have no idea what the best sounding cable is and for that matter it probably does not exist, but I can honestly tell you these cables have to be one of the best musical bargains in high end audio, and they allow the music to flow un-impeded better than anything I have heard yet. No idea how they compare to the HMS though.
Hope this helps.
routlaw
