AZ Silver Ref II vs AZ SIlver Ref I?

Call Joe at JC Audio. He's has both and can give you the scoop.

Joe at JC Audio is the guy who told me he liked these ICs better than any other IC currently made (LOL). I am looking for other opinions.

KF

I have both, although one is balanced and one is single ended. I think they both sound good, since I don't use them with the same gear, I can't say for sure that the mk 2 sounds better. I would think that if you hated the Mk1 your not going to love the mk 2. I personally think the review in Stereophile was right on, especially the comment about the extreme value of the Satori speaker cable.

I decided to try out the Audience Au24 cables since they were so highly rated in a Stereophile review a few months back. An early opinion would be that I definately like my Acoustic Zen cables better, they simply pass more information in a more natural way. The Audience cables sound bears a strong resemblance to Nordost cables (I've only tried up to SPM and Quattro Fil) I can't say that the Acoustic Zen cables are perfect, as the reviewer states the Sivler Ref interconnect could tend to sound bright in a bright system, but then again so do Nordost cables.

I have also had the Satori, and I did not think it was in the same league as the Nordost SPM speaker cable. The Satori was better than anything I had before, but the SPM seemed to be a huge improvement over it. One note is that the Satori run was 6' and the SPM run was 1.5 meters. It was as if a veil had been lifted off of the music when I switched to the SPM (and the SPM was not even broken in).

Recently, I was able to hear the Nordost Valhalla in my system... All I can say it was extremely painful taking the Valhalla out of my system after listening to it. Yeah, it costs an arm and a leg, and a good percentage of an economy car... BUT the Valhalla is hands down the finest speaker cable I have ever heard. Maybe next near, I save for Valhalla.

KF

The SR2 was better than SR1 in my system. I think the Matrix 2 was also a significant improvement over 1 and much closer to the SR2. You may not like SR2 if you didn't like SR1. Maybe you should stay with copper.
The Au24 IC first replaced the SR2 from source to linestage providing a more natural sound and then replaced SR2 to the amp.
The Au24 speaker cable costs a little more than Satori and well worth it in my system. After replacing the Satori for a month with the Au24 and then going back, it was obvious. As much as I like the Satori, I could also say they sounded veiled by comparison. A couple other adjectives come to mind, but suffice it to say the Au24 are staying for now.

There must be something to this zero crystal technology, because both AZ and Audience have great products.