I must chime in here as I have been auditioning a pair of Albedo Metamorphosis MKII interconnects in my system over the past few days and am getting a positive change in SQ that I frankly did not expect.
My system is humble compared to most of the contributors systems listed, but suits me well. It is set up for phono playback only. My spending has been focused mostly on the front end (garbage in/garbage out). The rest of my system has been tweaked to remove any harshness (which includes never considering silver interconnects because of their reputation). Although I have experience with some competent cables (Tara Labs, Transparent Audio, Auditorium-23, etc.), I do not buy the more expensive cables as I have never found a whole lot of difference between those that I have tried. I couldn't justify the cost.
Currently I am running Zavfino 1870Phono Gold Rush tonearm cable from tonearm to SUTs, same company, level from SUTs to Ypsilon VPS100 phono stage, Auditorium-23 interconnects from phono stage to OTOMON 211 SET (Ongaku copy) amplifier and Auditorium-23 speaker cables to the crossovers (I bought the Auditorium-23 speaker cables because of positive reviews of them when paired with other high end SETs, bought the interconnects at the same time just because). I also use custom lengths of Zenwave Audio power cables to/from my dedicated power supply.
Although I have a few records that sound harsh (John Klemmer, Straight from the Heart on Nautilus Superdisc), I have more that sound muddy, ill-defined (Valerie Joyce, New York Blue on AudioNautes for one). This recently has troubled me a great deal.
One associate on this web-site advised my changing the Duelund cotton and oil insulated tinned copper strands hook up wire I use to connect the external crossover to the actual speaker clips with microphone wire from Belden. I looked into it, but haven't made the jump yet. Instead I realigned my speaker coils to ensure they were absolutely vertical and then changed some valves on my OTOMON Ongaku copy to some with more mica layers to stop micro harmonics/distortion, which helped, but ...
Then I saw an article extolling Albedo interconnects, also a hifi show on YouTube where they were being used, and wondered if they were used in place of the Auditorium-23 interconnects between the phono stage and amp if the muddiness would go (I have never read anything positive or negative about Auditorium-23 interconnects)?
I contacted Greg? who arranged to have Aseem at Hifonix ship me out two sets, their signature level and one beneath (more affordable). After a few weeks I received a call from Asseem (I had forgotten) who said the last person who auditioned the pair that he was going to send me ended up buying them so he would need a bit more time to get another set. I said OK, then, I don't know, I don't want to waste your time, etc., he encouraged me just to give it a listen, what could I loose?
Anyway, a couple weeks later one pair of interconnects arrived; a 1.5 meter long RCA terminated pair of the Metamorphisis MkII Silver Monocrystal interconnects. They were brand new, not broken in, so I plugged them in between amplifier and phono stage, put on a record and went to work on my computer not really listening ... but then I started hearing anyway.
These interconnects remove veils. The "muddiness" is gone, even from records that were on the pile to be sold because of such (Valerie Joyce, New York Blue). Now I want to keep those records as they sound great.
Not exactly more detail, per se, just that all the notes have been cleaned of smutz and are bright and clean, but not "bright" in audio terms. Oh, I can still get to the edge of harshness with a certain record (John Klemmer, Straight from the Heart on Nautilus Superdisc) but just short of being an issue. Bass notes from the stand-up bass fiddle are better defined. Having horns, not known for being great at sound stage presentation, prevent me from echoing those improvements mentioned by others here, but I do notice that the image of an individual musician behind my turntable (between the speakers) is smaller in height and width, but better defined, veils removed.
Lost? Perhaps some of the warmth associated with triodes, but in exchange for more realness. I do have a slight high-frequency hearing loss so must have some other audiophiles with better to come listen to ensure that there is clarity, but not just brightness tone effect. But with my hearing, the improvement in sound quality that I have attained with just a change of one pair of interconnects is not subtle. This is far more than a tone-control. I am a changed man.
Now the issue, I thought that I was getting interconnects costing around £3,000.00, difficult for me as I am a retired nurse on a fixed pension, but I just found out they want £6,500.00 for this pair, the Signature costing £10,100.00! I am actually considering a bank loan, what's wrong with me?
