Jond, thanks for your suggestion of the RS Cables. After I made my original post I checked some of the messages here in this forum and ran across them as a good mention, as well as Pure Silver Sound and Oritek.
I would like very much to hear a summary of your experience in comparing the Illumine` to the KCAG. I see you're running a tubed system. Mine is SS, and while I know that many consider silver ICs not to be ideal in a SS system I have been happy with the result. My amp and speakers (Bedini and Shahinian) seem to work well with silver ICs. Having said that, I will admit that I wish the KCAG did certain things better. I wish it did a better job in supporting the "meat" in the midrange (vocals especially). I wouldn't say there is no meat, but in comparison to the speed, clarity, and tonal presentation of the rest of the spectrum I wish it did better in this area.
I would like very much to hear a summary of your experience in comparing the Illumine` to the KCAG. I see you're running a tubed system. Mine is SS, and while I know that many consider silver ICs not to be ideal in a SS system I have been happy with the result. My amp and speakers (Bedini and Shahinian) seem to work well with silver ICs. Having said that, I will admit that I wish the KCAG did certain things better. I wish it did a better job in supporting the "meat" in the midrange (vocals especially). I wouldn't say there is no meat, but in comparison to the speed, clarity, and tonal presentation of the rest of the spectrum I wish it did better in this area.