Some months back I had Black Sand Violets on all components.
Then got 3 Black Sand Silver Ref MkVs which sonically outperformed Violets on my Odyssey Mono Extreme (Klaus's special board edition) power amps and so Silver Refs have stayed there.
I got 2 new 2-meter Black Sand Silver Ref MkVs Wednesday.
I first tried Silver Ref vs. Violet on the Modwright SWL 9.0 Signature Edition w/Bendix 6900 tubes.
The Silver Ref seemed to bring more "definition" across the board, somewhat more "relaxed" highs, and possibly a bit more or slightly deeper bass. This was with a Violet PC still on the Denon 3910 source. This combo seemed more "refined" somehow than Violets on both, but still had energy/impact/perhaps forward momentum(?)
Next I tried Violet back on the Modwright, but shortly decided to switch back to the Silver Ref and continue with that on the preamp. I also tried plugging the preamp into the different isolated outlet banks on power conditioner and the "high current" filtered outlets [intended for power amps but I am running those straight from wall outlet] seemed to outperform the filtered outlets supposed to be for analog preamps, and the high current outlet connection was best with both Violet and Silver Ref.
I then put the second new Silver Ref on the Denon 3910, w/ first Silver Ref still on the Modwright,
so entire 2-channel component chain powered by Silver Refs!
This combo sounded very smooth, very relaxed, extremely "non-fatiguing,"
but somehow seemed to be missing some energy/impact/perhaps forward momentum(?)
With Silver Refs powering entire component chain, to my ears it sounded "too polite."
I returned a Violet to the Denon 3910 source - and noted the return of the subtle energy/impact/perhaps forward momentum(?).
So I will stick with Violet on source only and
Silver Ref MkVs on Modwright SWL 9.0 Signature Edition and power amps.
I reported my results to John Cook at Black Sand and he agreed re the overly "polite" sound with all Silver Refs and says he now steers folks toward using a Violet on sources/transports.