I got mine, one XLR and the other RCA. They are not broken in yet, so I would only give some first impressions. To me, good matching is more important than a sigle good component. I have MAS silver and they work better with tube amp less so with SS gears. So, I won't say which one is best, but just describe sound difference. The best will be pending on how it match with other components in the set up.
XLR from source to preamp: A/B with CARDAS Gold ref.
Sig. has more extension and its bass really kick ass, which makes me feel my speaker stand is not heavy enough. High is very smooth. This IC is fatigue-free even compared to CARDAS. Gold ref is more laid back (maybe the most laid back IC I ever own) and has a good tempor with dynamic attack. CARDAS is a good choice to tame bright system. Sig. is smooth even without the rounding feeling of CARDAS. Looks like I can live happily with Sig for this set up.
RCA from source to Integ.: A/B with Audience Au24 and Acoustic Zen silk way (borrow from friend).
Au24 is a very sweat sounding cable, which make high clear and round, compared to CARDAS, mid is not as stand out as CARDAS (so CARDAS sounds thicker and very warm on mid). AZ is the most dynamic one in this case, but high seems emphasized, maybe bcz its silver. AZ sounds its best when AZ hologram speaker cable is used to complete all AZ cables (otherwise, I think AZ is more picky on adding other IC). When all AZ are used, sound stage is really big. MAS shares more characters with Au24 than AZ, and its very musical to my ears. Friendly and yet accurate. Can't point out the major difference yet. I need more time to compare Au24 and MAS.
In conclusion, Sig is very very nice. I am comparing it to several top IC's, and feel it is among one of them.
XLR from source to preamp: A/B with CARDAS Gold ref.
Sig. has more extension and its bass really kick ass, which makes me feel my speaker stand is not heavy enough. High is very smooth. This IC is fatigue-free even compared to CARDAS. Gold ref is more laid back (maybe the most laid back IC I ever own) and has a good tempor with dynamic attack. CARDAS is a good choice to tame bright system. Sig. is smooth even without the rounding feeling of CARDAS. Looks like I can live happily with Sig for this set up.
RCA from source to Integ.: A/B with Audience Au24 and Acoustic Zen silk way (borrow from friend).
Au24 is a very sweat sounding cable, which make high clear and round, compared to CARDAS, mid is not as stand out as CARDAS (so CARDAS sounds thicker and very warm on mid). AZ is the most dynamic one in this case, but high seems emphasized, maybe bcz its silver. AZ sounds its best when AZ hologram speaker cable is used to complete all AZ cables (otherwise, I think AZ is more picky on adding other IC). When all AZ are used, sound stage is really big. MAS shares more characters with Au24 than AZ, and its very musical to my ears. Friendly and yet accurate. Can't point out the major difference yet. I need more time to compare Au24 and MAS.
In conclusion, Sig is very very nice. I am comparing it to several top IC's, and feel it is among one of them.