Sorry Warren - thought you were asking 'bout going to separates...didn't notice it was only a declaration. As it happens, I use Mike Sanders very affordable silver IC's to go between amp and pre. Go figure. I'm starting to sound like a shill here, but I've tried a few others including Stealth (can't recall which, but I believe it was one of their silver cables), DH Labs Air Matrix, and Harmonic Tech Truthlink, and I keep coming back to his simple, inexpensive silver IC's. YMMV, of course, but it'd be a cheap experiment. There's a 3 meter pair currently up though price is a bit high IMO...no association with seller, nor with the manufacturer other than being a happy customer. Haven't compared to Zu Varials though, nor any Zu cables. I always seem to prefer silver between pre and amp, whereas I've found I'm liking copper better between source and pre (I like the Truthlinks there).
Marco