Nordost Red Dawn revII vs SPM

Believe it our not, as much as Red Dawn improved my Spica TC60/B&K system, the improvement wrought by SPM ICs was not subtle, quite obvious in fact. With the Alon V/Cary/Meitner system it was much more dramatic. Personally, I liked Red Dawn much better than Blue Heaven, both speaker & IC, fuller mids and bass. I think it's a fine cable. However, the SPM was better, and my new Quattro Fil is the best IC I've had in my system by a wide margin.

Gregm: I have noticed my mid range is a little bit "riper & richer" sounding these days. Partly I think this is because the SPM, wonderful as it is, was maybe just a tad lean in the lower mids. Another reason could be that I swapped my Arcam Alpha 9 cdp for a Cary 303, which has more tonal color and harmonic richness than the Alpha 9. Whatever. I can say for sure that when I hooked up the QFs to the Cary and the preamp everything clicked into place - like good tubes, it just sounds right. I'm gonna enjoy this system for a while. I'm insane, but not insane enough to lust after Valhallas. :-)

Subguru - I wonder if you are getting RFI from your RDs. I've known a couple people have had this problem with Nordost. I thought the SPM was great, much better than RD, but I didn't have the degree of upper octave irritation with my RDs you describe. I think SPM is a very well balanced cable with excellent extension and wonderful soundstaging and presence - it's in another league from the Red Dawn. But the Quattro Fil betters SPM all around, with a little fuller mids, even more transparency, and smoother highs. Just more of everything. A friend who liked Red Dawn & SPM, but had RFI hash issues, is using Coincident IC cables to good effect. BTW, I used/am using all the above cable with RCA. Let us know what you end up with.