Update of the Zavfino loom:
So I received my Zavfino loom consisting of their Prima Mk2 Speaker cables (pure PC-OCC litz 9 AWG, which is exactly the same gauge as my Van Damme Hifi Grade cable that it replaces), the Fusion Mk 2 (strands of silver & PC-OCC conductors, which is not the same as silver-plated OCC) and the highlands Mk 2 (pure silver conductor). Oh and since Zavfino doesn't do bi-wiring, I'm also using their 9 AWG PC-OCC jumper cables. It's still ongoing burn-in and my first impressions should be taken with a grain of salt.
The cables arrived with the plugs and splitters covered in plastic protection, it took at least 20 minutes to remove the cables from the boxes, velvet bags, take out the velcro and remove all the plastic. The speaker cable must be the thickest cable I ever tested at my place, but still it's rather flexible, I'm able to hook everything up properly despite the lack of space behind my hifi rack. Another surprising fact, the cable is quite heavy, I would say probably 4-5 lbs each.
Because I'm an impatient fella, I put on all the cables together at once. So my first impressions on these Zavfino cables will be as a whole loom, I cannot comment yet on the quality of the cables taken separately. And I repeat myself: it's still burning in as we speak, the situation may improve or worsen in 100+ hours.
As I'm listening right now, it's not a cable that will bring out the bass/mids/highs in your system. The only thing that I perceive in terms of change in overall balance is a much extended highs, that comes out effortlessly. Not more or less highs, not cristalline or silkier highs: just more naturally extended highs, the sort that you can hear in a concert of a small chamber ensemble. I realize now that the structure of harmonics for string instruments had been cut-off by my previous cables. For that matter, the Tellurium Q Ultra Black II loom that costs 3 times the price of this Zavfino loom wasn't as extended but brought the treble and upper midrange forward, sounding a bit artifical at the end.
Same for the timbre of instruments: what I perceive is that these cables do not add or remove richness in the timbre of instruments. Like an excellent wine that has depth: at first when you taste it you think it is very similar to another wine. Then it takes you a tenth of a second to realize that this wine has a full palette of very subtle flavors and layers of complexity.
It's quite similar with this loom of Zavfino cables: for 3 seconds you think "hmm, I don't notice any meaningful change compared to a 300$ Van Damme cable loom". And then you hear the additonal layer of depth that you can perceive in the timbre of instruments when listening to a version of the Brandenburg Concertos played on period instruments that you never perceived so truly before. Then you listen to a version of Strauss' Elektra with wonderfully massed strings, with a timbre that just sounds "right". And you go on and on.
The last advantage of this Zavfino loom is the excellent intelligibility of instruments and speech. I often struggle in following lyrics in operatic works without looking at the booklet. Everything seems now more effortlessly intelligible, I don't even need to focus anymore to follow what's being sung. I'm quite baffled how a simple set of cables can do that.
I haven't yet tried with other genres of music, since I mainly listen to classical & early music, but these cables are something special compared to the Audioquest Rocket 88 + Yukon RCA & XLR and the Tellurium Q Ultra Black II Speaker, RCA and Black II power cables cables. I am very new to this cable thing and don't have the vast experience some people have here. But I have 10 years of hifi behind me, and the last time I had such a surprise was when I bought an Air Tight ATM-2 power amp 5-6 years ago. And the magnitude in the invested amount has nothing in common with my purchase back then which was around €11k (around 13/14k USD back then). I can't wait to receive my new Holo May KTE DAC that I ordered and to hear how everything comes together.
Cheers!