Alternative to AZ Matrix

Get rid of the cardas speaker cable, and fast !

Sorry I was in a rush withthe last post. I find the Cardas Cables to be overly warm and slow, on friend explained it well when he said it was like cement in a garden hose. You speakers and Passive pre are quite neutral and the AZ ic certainly is pretty good but I feel like you are suffering from a bad combination between a tubby cd player with a slightly tubby amp with very tubby speaker cable. If I were to keep all the components and only change the wire than I would go with something very fast and neutral like 47 labs OTA cable kit and use iit throughout. It is $600 and makes three pairs of ic's and plenty of speaker cable, it is a little onorthodox in design but once you get past that it is sensational. After that I would keep an eye out for a good cd player, there aren't a lot of great options right now but it would be worth auditioning some in your system to get an idea of how much the Tjoeb is causing some of your problems.

Have Fun

Trying different cd players will definately be an eye opener. The satori is a good all around cable and a good deal when available used.