Six Summits at $400/0.5M/pair would be $1,200. Six VH Audio Pulsars (now apparently cryoed) at $150/0.5M/pair would be $450. The Summits are almost three times as much. Are they three times better? Are they worth three times the price?
As for whether or not ICs matter, my theory is that even if ICs do matter, how much of an improvement would you get going from the VH Audio Pulsars to the Summits? Especially when you could take the money you saved and buy five minitraps (side corners, first side reflection points, and one for the wall behind the speakers) from Real Traps. I guarantee that the overwhelming majority of people will be much happier with the latter than the former.
I'm not in any way saying that one should not buy Wayne's products -- as I have two digital interconnects (one with Bybees), one pair of summits unbalanced, one pair of summits balanced, RM40 bi-wire jumpers (with Bybees), and speaker cable from Wayne. But I think that for many people, tackling room acoustics is going to provide more benefit than replacing wire.
For instance, Wayne's products are smoother than the previous products I used (though I admit having not done any type of blind testing). However, I have a very hard time quantifying and qualifying this smoothness -- it didn't jump out at me and took me time to listen to appreciate it. Contrast that with when my dealer placed some Eighth Nerve stuff around the room, where we listened to a song, placed the 8th nerve stuff, and then listened to the same song. The difference was immediately apparent -- I could tell with the first few beats of the song -- and quite dramatic. Now, I ended up buying Real Traps because RT is in CT and I could drive to the factory, but I'm still thinking of buying some 8th Nerve stuff.
For me, I believe that wire should be way done on the list of things to buy.
