Price Paid:  $100.00 from internet

Summary:
Equipment:

Vienna Acoustics Mozart
Musical Fidelity A3 Integ. Amp
Musical Fidelity A3 CD Player
Ixos 1000 (used to be Kimber Hero)
Ixos 6003

I have used this cable for just over a year and am glad I discarded a pair of Kimber Hero. The transparency of this cable can be easily verified by executing a blind test using Ixos 1000 and, say, Acoustic Research HT130(I am not sure on what basis Sam Tellig raved about this peice of junk. I personaly think that he doesn't have any specific standard by which to compare.) The result should be quite obvious; you would get the sound coming out of speakers covered with a thick wool blanket! That is, if you are familiar with Yamaha's "silent piano" (a felt pad is inserted between the strings and the hammers so as to lower the volume while sacreficying the basic tambre of the acoustic piano) the ht130 sounds exactly, well almost, like that. Whereas Ixos 1000 sounds either like Yamaha Full Grands or Steinways.

However, in comparison with Kimber KCAG, I am not sure which is better or worse. I still maintain that KCAG's got better modulations between high, mid and bass; as a result it produces very 'smooth' sound while being super transparent yet musical. Ixos 1000, on the other hand, is not as 'smooth' as KCAG overall in that it separates high, mid and bass almost too much to the extent it disturbes the 'wholeness' of music (esp. live performance). But this could be solved using speakers such as Vienna or Sonus Farber. (yes, I had no troble with my Vienna Morzart, but it wasn't convincing with my friend's B&W 600's).

Let's face it, if you ve got $100 to spend for interconnects, you cannot go wrong with Ixos 1000. It is nearly 3x cheaper than KCAG... but produces sound as convincing.

I highly recommend it.

Strengths:
Very detailed in high, mid and bass. According to my ear, it is better than Kimber Hero or PBJ, but not sure whether or not it exceeds KCAG(yes, KCAG is bloody transparent, but, hey, it costs more!) Bass is well defined, very musical and good sound imaging.

Weaknesses:
It can be a little bright depending upon equipment. I think that it could also be a bit 'metalish' in treble with B&W speakers.

Similar Products Used:
Kimber Hero, PBJ, KCAG, Acoustic Research HT130(the one Sam Telling was raved about) And some Audioquest in the past(but not in this particular comparison with Ixos 1000 - I had a different set up the

Price Paid:  $100.00

Summary:
This interconnect has a 5 star rating from one of the british magazines ("What HiFi I think), but I would only rate it at 4 . Some upper midrange colouration, and quite pinpoint accuracy detracts. It is better than the "bronze" level cable, but not at double the cost. I think there is a lot of packaging (read marketing) but very little technology.

I have achieved significantly better performance and definition with a home made connecting cable using a 6 core stranded copper (shielded) "balanced" cable, at at the 10th of the cost.

Strengths:
good, deep bass, broad soundstage, looks nice

Weaknesses:
too much packaging, not enough substance, colouration

Similar Products Used:
grado interconnects, home made (6 core copper shielded)

Price Paid:  $79.00 from Vogelzang Eindhoven

Summary:
Used on a Njoe Tjoeb 4000 cd player with a NAD 370 amplifier.

After half an hour burn in it sounds noticibly better then my previous VLS interlink (30 euro).

So far im happy.

Rating it seems pretty pointless to me because I have no solid background to refer too.
Sounds good, noticable improvement over the 30 euro's one. Thats all I can say.

Weaknesses:
Might be troublesome to install due to the sturdiness of the cable and the tight connections.

Similar Products Used:
VLS interconnect