I doubted John could make a cable much better than the Silver Reference Mk. V at any price, and I told him so. Nevertheless, he asked me to take a single Statement One for a spin in my system and let him know what I think.
I wish I hadn't.
I replaced the Silver Ref Mk. V connected to my modified Transporter and listened on and off for several days. To be honest, I didn't notice a lot of difference, but the addition of a Burson Buffer to my system may have helped mask the differences. The Buffer is on loan from Wayne @ Bolder Cable and is the real deal IMHO, especially for those with Slim Devices products.
Anyway, I sat with Kandy last night and did a little A/B comparison using music with which we are both
*very* familiar. What we heard was sweeter highs (sparkley? is that even a word?), more separation of instruments and increased awareness of things going on that were apparently masked before. My casual listening sessions left me convinced there was little to no improvement over my Silver Refs, so hearing how much cleaner and clearer the mids are with the Statement One was as a shock. Toward the end of the second part of the A/B (Silver Ref back in the system), Kandy turned to me and said, "The other cable is a *LOT* better."
Well that sucks.
Bottom line - the house deal fell through as expected, so I will be talking to John in the near future about what it'll take to replace every Silver Ref I have with Statement Ones. The Silver Ref is an amazing cable, besting every cable I've put against it till now. But the Statement One is clearly better, and since I know from experience that the effect of cables is cumulative, I'll end up replacing every PC I own with Statement Ones.
I say again, that sucks.
Congrats, John. You did well, my friend, even better than I think you'd anticipated.
-Jim
