Thanks for the review.
I purchased an R1 receptacle recently, and, having recently purchased a used Convergent preamp which has some serious issues, I had to put it aside and use an Arcam FMJ22 integrated.
My experience mirror yours somewhat with the Oyaide: the stage moving forward (causing larger images), and it being refined. A caveat: ALL the images are larger, not simply the ones in the center of the stage.Images at the sides are equally larger.
Not having tried the Tesla receptacles, I can't comment on them. I DID find the R1s to have considerable low level detail with a fuller harmonic completeness. For example, in the JVC XRCD release of Scheherazade, the musicians' moving in their seats was not a stilted, disembodied sort of sound, but the way sound moves through space, with air being displaced when their chairs moved.
More than that, I found the dynamic inflections considerably better than with the FIM 880 outlets, which seemed to have been the reason the system sounded "softer" and with less transient snap. Musically, it was highly emotionally communicative as well, which is my top priority. Swells in the music were more obvious.
I had auditioned the Tesla interconnects (Precision Reference and, eventually, Apex) and the $2400 power cord last year, and found the Apex to be clearly elevated in its bass-lower midrange response. I had started out wtih the Precision Reference, but Tesla, upon finding that this was the loaner model I had obtained from the Cable Company strongly suggested I needed to use the Apex on the front end. I dutifully got the Apex, but immediately realized it imparted a "rich" sonic signature to music, which to me is a definite coloration. The Precision was less "obvious" in its effects. Oh, the amp was the ASL Hurricanes and the speakers the Usher 718s (which in themselvees may have a rise in the upper bass, so perhaps THAT'S what I heard. I did use other speakers, though, and the effect was still there. And the Arcam integrated is clearly a bit lacking in midbass-lower midrange response, so it wasn't that. The CD player, mainly, was the Cambridge 840C, again, not a player with a rise in those areas).
It's not unusual for manufacturers to build complementary colorations into their products. The early WATTS, for example were tested using the Rowland Coherence 1 (VERY powerful from low bass to lower midrange, exactly where the WATTS were deficient (this was the Series 1 WATTS, circa 1985, long before Dave had the Puppy, which he let me hear in mid 1988 before they were released) and a Spectral DMA 50, which had a rising high end, which compensated for the WATTS' LACK of high end. Given that nothing's perfect, even seemingly "neutral" components such as the Nordosts (which ARE lean, despite protestations to the contrary,which is precisely why Nordost came out with the Odin line. Others may disagree, but HP finally 'fessed up that he wouldn't have thought the Valhallas threadbare 'til he heard the Odins), can cause the system to demonstrate in a complementary way to the preceding components.
Having said that, until I put the R1 in, I hadn't realized the FIMs were doing what they were doing. I certainly didn't feel that way when using the PS Audio receptacles: I didn't hear much difference, but at that time there were some family tragedies, and I wasn't myself. I doubt I could have noticed if I'd locked myself in the room and listened to music for a week straight. It was only this week I noticed it.
Yes, the R1 does bring the presentation closer, but it also layers the 'stage quite well, eliminates a haze at the back of the stage, allowing wall boundaries to be heard, and, overall, allowing a sense of continuousness to ensue. Continuousness isn't something most people listen to in audio components, but just being in a room, if there are sounds going on, you don't hear them in discrete layers: they all ebb and flow continuously with no "vacuum effect" between sounds. The Jadis Defy 7 was the best example of this, as are Avalon speakers. Antique Sound Lab's products are also noticeably continuous, although not to the degree that the Jadis had it. My observation is that the R1s allow - not create -- sound to propogate in the same way as it does in real life.
This is just by way of a different observation. I'm quite sure the Teslas may simply have "more" of this, as this seems to be their forte. I can honestly say I didn't find the power cord to outclass significantly Shunyatas' new CX Viper cords and certainly not the Pythons, all of which I bought last year. I'd say they were very similar, although I hear the "dimensionality" the Teslas provide, which may be a function of a very well-developed midbass, which provides, unquestionably, the "dimensionality" in an audio product that most of us seek. In that case, most products with a bump in the midbass or just simply a near-perfect midbass will have a much greater degree of dimensionality than a product with a weaker midbass.
