While the IC was the first component I tried out, originally, I would have answered that it was the IC. Then I took that out and listened to the PC. I was blown away that it had so much of a change to the system, not just another flavor of music or a lateral swap. It was quite the change, especially in the sheer weight of voices and instruments.
When I had to return the prototypes back to Jonny, my listening sessions diminished to almost non-existent. You can't unhear something that you just experienced in your own system, then revert back to what you once thought was outstanding.
My first order of Takshaka's was what I had with the prototypes. One IC and one PC. As I wanted to order more, along with more experience under my belt with them, I decided to go with more PC's than IC's but made sure that the IC's were in all of the critical paths. I believe at this point, I am up to 6 Takshaka cables now, with the rest of the rigs PC's being all Snake River Audio products. Mostly Signature.
My listening sessions have gone into the extreme, as I simply get sucked into the music. Every time I go to get up, it is almost as if there is this unknown force that sits me back down to listen to more. It's hard to leave the listening chair now....like, really hard. There have been times to where I will tell my wife that I am headed back to listen for an hour or two, and the next thing you know, I discover that I was back there for 8 hours, only stopping to get an adult drink or use the gentleman's room.
Even when I am away from the system, All I really yearn for is to sit back down and listen. It's like a drug addiction. Anyhoo, I kind of went off on a rant there...
To answer your question, you can't go wrong with either because they both make such a wonderful change to what your ears are offered, both offer that 3-D wraparound, "suck you into the music" reality and both have that killer tone and low noise floor that Snake River Audio is so well known for. For my system, I decided to go with more PC's to start out with. That weight difference *in my system* was too good to pass up.
Honestly, it changed the rig so much, that I have had to readjust the settings on the sub (volume is also considerably down) and today, I will actually be moving the speakers to reset the location for optimal position of the speaker(s) because the output from them have changed so much in the lowest registers. This is not a bad thing at all. In fact, my hat is off to Jonny that he made cables that are so good, I actually had to readjust my entire rig to optimize the rig to the room again.
Huh, now that I think about it......readjusting my rig and starting the speaker location again from scratch. How's that for a quantifiable change?
Tom
