Quandry: Used Magico V2 vs. new S1

Nothing is perfect, and we are not perfect either. Money often does not garantee you the best sound. It is all about making the right combination of stuff. The art of sound! Audio becomes more clear wenn you know the properties of an amp, source, cable or speaker etc. Wenn you did hundreds of tests you can give every single part the properties it owns. Properties together can create the sound you are looking for. For example: Pass Labs gives a very deep and wide stage. But the individual focus of instruments and voices is not sharp enough. I talked many times about this to the people of Pass labs. So you need sources and cables to solve this. Many times people use stuff with the wrong properties. Wenn a client sends a list with all the parts of his set I know how it wil sound and how the stage will be build. ( wenn I auditioned the things he owns)

@Bol, that's true. No loudspeaker can claim to be capable of faithfully reproducing the live event. I also agree throwing money at audio along does not guarantee good sound. I think what you were trying to say is the secret to great sounding audio is system synergy. We're on the same page here. The S5's for example due to their resolving nature and tonality can sound rank with some amps and haunting with others (eg: Vitus). Cables also make a difference. Siltech and Jorma both have great synergy with Magico. In the end it's all about personal taste.

I am from Holland and Siltech is made overhere. I did test many of there cables. To be unnest there not the best. That is an understatement! In a-b shoots I always won. I do not like the filtering in the mid freq. You think you get more, but you get less. Audioguest in superior in timing and also in blacks. In the past I won Always wenn I was with Nordost Valhalla powercables and other shop with Emperer powercabels. At shows we Always were teasing them. We call it overhere Slisssssstech. I hate worse demo's. They were good at giving worse demo's. Then I Always put the mirror in front of you.

Bol, I respect your view of cables as we all have a subjective view of what sounds good or not. I personally find the top Audioquest cables such as Wel bright and lacking musicality. In comparison, I find Siltech's Royal Signature series has much better presentation of tone and timbre, better bass and are the quietest cables i've ever heard. Also, Siltech's metalurgy is the best there is. That is why their cables actually improve, not degrade in sound over time. That is also one of the reasons their cables hold their value so well over time. The other is their awesome design/build quality. Siltech use the same computer program that Porsche use to design their cars and have sota build quality. In regard to Nordost, I have a buddy who has a good ear. He compared Odin to Jorma Prime and preferred Prime in every application except between his turntable and preamp. In that application, he preferred the silver cable for synergy, but he preferred Prime everywhere else. Jorma Prime to my ears are the most natural sounding and musical cables i've heard & is half the price of Odin!

I only like there digital cables. In the past I compared Valhalla with the best Siltech. There were a lot details missing with the Siltech cables. I sold Nordost over 9 years of time. Nordost is not easy to use because you need to use it very precise. Nordost misses a sharp and small individual focus of instruments and voices.You only can use Nordost for a part in an audio system. The difference between the best Siltech and Audioquest is blacks and timing. With Audioquest I can create the focus and touchable image I experienced at classical live music. In the past the demo's of Siltech were worse because the high freq. were soo bright. The difference between the Valhalla Powercable and Emperor was very big. The Valhalla was beter in speed and timing. Focus of every singel part of the recording was a lot better. A few times the client had Emperor cables as well. I Always won and got the deal. The mid freq of Audioquest is more open compared to Siltech. This is why you get a sharper individual focus of instruments and voices compared to Siltech.