Hey thanks Marco. When I listen to music I always hope to be moved emotionally, so when writing about my impressions they tend to be expressed in the same way, and not very analytical. If you got my e-mail you know what I mean, heheh.
I'm glad I was able to help Phil. Yes, I believe the AZ will bring you closer to that magical cymbal shimmer. If you currently have what you feel is a balanced cable scheme and insert the Silver Ref II anywhere, I think you'll be shocked by the extra clarity with cymbals.
For a few months I was using Silver Ref II from my DAC to preamp with full-sounding Mullard tubes in the DAC. During the course of my preamp testing I changed the tubes in the DAC to more revealing Siemens CCas and the DAC to preamp interconnect with Matrix Ref II. I was surprised that the balance was almost the same, but with just a slightly fuller sound.
However, if you swap out the Matrix Ref II for a Silver Ref II without any other changes you'll find that a massive amount of sonic information will suddenly become available, especially in the high frequency percussion you like. This is quite amazing and seductive initally, but I found that over time I had difficulty staying in the music because the overall balance became much thinner and areas I felt that should have a fuller, earthier presentation like acoustic guitars and pianos became too lean for me. They lost all their weight.
So I disagree that one is better than the other. They're just very different in this respect, and how they perform will depend on the rest of your system and what you value in playback.
But for you my friend, I'd like to say that when substituting the Silver Ref II for the Matrix Ref II in my system, the details revealed with cymbals and top hats become so abundant it's almost as if I have quantum/nano view into each vibrating superstring of each musical nuance.
I'm glad I was able to help Phil. Yes, I believe the AZ will bring you closer to that magical cymbal shimmer. If you currently have what you feel is a balanced cable scheme and insert the Silver Ref II anywhere, I think you'll be shocked by the extra clarity with cymbals.
For a few months I was using Silver Ref II from my DAC to preamp with full-sounding Mullard tubes in the DAC. During the course of my preamp testing I changed the tubes in the DAC to more revealing Siemens CCas and the DAC to preamp interconnect with Matrix Ref II. I was surprised that the balance was almost the same, but with just a slightly fuller sound.
However, if you swap out the Matrix Ref II for a Silver Ref II without any other changes you'll find that a massive amount of sonic information will suddenly become available, especially in the high frequency percussion you like. This is quite amazing and seductive initally, but I found that over time I had difficulty staying in the music because the overall balance became much thinner and areas I felt that should have a fuller, earthier presentation like acoustic guitars and pianos became too lean for me. They lost all their weight.
So I disagree that one is better than the other. They're just very different in this respect, and how they perform will depend on the rest of your system and what you value in playback.
But for you my friend, I'd like to say that when substituting the Silver Ref II for the Matrix Ref II in my system, the details revealed with cymbals and top hats become so abundant it's almost as if I have quantum/nano view into each vibrating superstring of each musical nuance.