Got a new Audioquest VDM-5 to replace a VDM-3 which I moved to the main Digital Director output (second coax output got the MIT digital, retired one VDM-2). I love the audioquest digital cables, they sound better than any I've heard (under $500) including the MIT. The MIT AVT1 analog interconnects and speaker cables are awesome, but for digital I like the AQ better. The whole system is starting to break in and sound pretty incredible. I never want to turn it off anymore and my recent acquisitions of remastered Sketches of Spain, Best of Coltrane and Miles, are just amazing.
New digital cable is breaking in now, we'll see how it matches up with the VDM-3, but I can already hear subtle differences, mainly that quiet parts seem *really* quiet and it seemed to warm up the overall sound (less gritty and bright).
I also did some surgery to the McCormack the other day. I accidentally broke one of the binding posts in an attempt to connect the bare wire to the speaker cable. So I ripped out the left channel binding posts (cheapo posts) and ordered some top of the line Cardas (CCGR-L), with which I am going to replace both sets of posts. Right now the bare wire is connected directly to the MIT cable pin (w/o the banana), and I can't really hear a difference between that loose connection and the right channel cheap binding post connection. We'll see what improvements the Cardas makes, it better be good because they are $75 posts.
Posted by Mike at May 28, 2004 12:04 PM