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AZ Silver Ref II vs AZ SIlver Ref I?

Has anyone compared these two cables? Stereophile just did a review of the AZ SIlver Ref II IC. I have had the AZ Silver Ref I, and did not like it (after a lot of listening). Anyway, I just met a guy who claims that he likes the Silver Ref II better than any IC currently made (including the Nordost Valhalla IC). I wish the Stereophile review HAD made some direct comparisons to the Valhalla (which is the reviewers reference cables). Of coarse Stereophile did not make that comparison.

KF
tok20000
khaki8
206 posts
 
Call Joe at JC Audio. He's has both and can give you the scoop.
tok20000's avatar
tok20000 OP
608 posts
 
Joe at JC Audio is the guy who told me he liked these ICs better than any other IC currently made (LOL). I am looking for other opinions.

KF
ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,377 posts
 
I have both, although one is balanced and one is single ended. I think they both sound good, since I don't use them with the same gear, I can't say for sure that the mk 2 sounds better. I would think that if you hated the Mk1 your not going to love the mk 2. I personally think the review in Stereophile was right on, especially the comment about the extreme value of the Satori speaker cable.

I decided to try out the Audience Au24 cables since they were so highly rated in a Stereophile review a few months back. An early opinion would be that I definately like my Acoustic Zen cables better, they simply pass more information in a more natural way. The Audience cables sound bears a strong resemblance to Nordost cables (I've only tried up to SPM and Quattro Fil) I can't say that the Acoustic Zen cables are perfect, as the reviewer states the Sivler Ref interconnect could tend to sound bright in a bright system, but then again so do Nordost cables.
tok20000's avatar
tok20000 OP
608 posts
 
I have also had the Satori, and I did not think it was in the same league as the Nordost SPM speaker cable. The Satori was better than anything I had before, but the SPM seemed to be a huge improvement over it. One note is that the Satori run was 6' and the SPM run was 1.5 meters. It was as if a veil had been lifted off of the music when I switched to the SPM (and the SPM was not even broken in).

Recently, I was able to hear the Nordost Valhalla in my system... All I can say it was extremely painful taking the Valhalla out of my system after listening to it. Yeah, it costs an arm and a leg, and a good percentage of an economy car... BUT the Valhalla is hands down the finest speaker cable I have ever heard. Maybe next near, I save for Valhalla.

KF
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