Well, I have had Tuan's cables now for about a week and a half. My system is as follows:
Nightshade Audio NS-60 SE Amp
Nightshade Audio Beacon III Preamp
Small fanless atom CPU running Foobar 2000 feeding a John Kenny modified Boxed HiFace MKII
EE MiniDac with a Mullard 1957 K61 12AU7 tube
Selah Audio TRT model speakers - DIY'd from a kit
Morrow Audio SP-3 speaker cables bi-wired
Morrow Audio MA-3 IC's throughout
I first put Tuan's silver IC's between my amp and preamp and listened for a couple of days. I then put the Morrow's back in. I found that I preferred the Morrow's a bit more as the sound was a bit more textured. There was a little more body as well.
Then I put Tuan's IC's between my EE minidac and my preamp. Again, the Morrow's seemed to have more body.
HOWEVER, I thought that Tuan's IC's were tremendous in portraying the mid-range! In classical music, woodwinds such as flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon were absolutely first rate.
Someone before me stated that Tuan's cables provided "more micro-detail without being bright". I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. These cables are not bright in the least. What they do is make you pay attention to what is going on inside the music which I find to be rather cool.
Are they better than the Morrow's? Depends on what floats your boat. I find them to be sublime in classical chamber music. I also find them very nice for female vocals. They are clean and they are fast. Will bassheads like these IC's? Hmmmm...maybe not. First impressions are that they are somewhat lean in this department. Upon further listening, I found that the bass is just presented in a different manner. A little tighter. A little cleaner.
What is nice about these IC's is that you can buy them and plug them in for a different presentation of sound without breaking the bank.
I appreciate the chance to play Tuan's creations in my system and really would want to spend more time with them but I will be sending them off to the next person today.
Regards,
Randy
