Long thread, wow, too much to read. I am the recipient of some of Steve's CS2 1.0 footers still in the break - in period and now under my amps. So far it's been a bit of a whirlwind over the past 48 hours break - in. I did hear some goodness after an hour or so break in but then it went all over the place. Like Steve I have tubes but only 2 in my preamp and I replaced them with my backup set to break in and run the system 24 x 7. No more listening until Friday night which will be a full week break - in.
To be frank, IME without extremely quick AB compares it's so incredibly hard to tell what's changing with our very limited audible memory even on tracks we know. But I do believe you can get a sense of what's changing. For me, the only way to quantifiably tell the delta between my previous footers - Stillpoint Ultra SS which are under the rest of my system and require no break - in to my recollection is first put back the better tubes, then after a bit or warmup, pick a track, play it with the 7 day break - in of the CS2s (under mono blocks) and immediately replace the CS2 with the original Stillpoints, playing the same track. With the Stillpoints next to the amps ready to reinsert and with help of a family member I can make the swap in less than 2 minutes.
Will be happy to report back in about 4 days.
As promised here is my assessment.
A few details: I felt that the only / best way to A/B/A is to let the CS2s break in, listen to 1/2 a known highly resolving full range track with primarily acoustic instruments, then quickly (but safely) raise the amps, first front, then back and insert the Stillpoint Ultra SS without moving the CS2s and listen to the same 1/2 track. Since the CS2s are shorter than the Stillpoints I was also able to go back and listen to the CS2s by reversing the aforementioned footer install procedure. I was concerned that with no weight on the CS2s after the Stillpoints listen that the CS2s might need to be re - broken in, but that's not what I found. It was identical to the sound after ~7 day break - in. Below are my notes that I captured real time:
4: CS2s versus 4: Stillpoints Ultra SS. Track - Michel Camilo - Triangulo, Tel Arc CD, Song: Piece of Cake
- Referencing the CS2s vs. Stillpoints:
- overall more organic, less metallic
- a bit more attack /dynamics
- bass a tad tighter
- wood sounds more like wood (wood block in song)
- high hat open and closed yields a bit more detail, delineation between open and closed within the short decay.
- depth / forward instrument positioning are a bit different. CS2s brought the wood block further forward but the piano which is panned left further back and to a bit further left (essentially behind the speaker). Which is right, who knows…
Net: Upon first listening to the Stillpoints, there was no outright night and day glaring change. But upon more critical listening the CS2s were better because multiple facets were better. For me, the slightly more "analog" sound and other benefits mentioned above are gravy but the keeper is the lack of the slight bite / tininess on instruments / vocals that seems to be 90% gone. For me that is worth the investment. Whether the CS2 are fully broken in is TBD, if they continue to improve, even better.
Edit - I should have added that I could see how replacing Stillpoints with the CS2s under every component versus just under the amps would further augment their goodness. I may just pursue that route, funds permitting. ;-)
Steve