Zavfino

jdub39,

Thank you for responding.

Now that I have had three weeks to try out the Zavfino Fusion and Arcadia interconnects (as balanced XLRs), I wanted to update the initial impressions I summarized earlier in this thread. Most of my impressions have remained unchanged. I still think that the Fusions sound clear, open, and quite natural, with well-balanced sound overall. In my system, the Arcadia continues to sound warm, smooth, and forgiving, but the highs sound a bit softened or rounded off. There seems to be plenty of bass, but it doesn't sound particularly well-controlled or refined to me. Imaging is okay, but not outstanding. In contrast, the Fusion is more transparent, images better, and sounds more "real."

Because my early listening favored the sound of the Fusion over the Arcadia, I spent more time with the Fusion and made direct comparisons with my reference XLR, the Cardas Clear Reflection. In comparison to the Cardas CR, the Fusion doesn't sound as full-bodied or rich. It simply has less "meat on the bones," as some reviewers like to say. It was also not as forgiving on poor recordings or as musical on good recordings that included many overlapping layers of sound, such as the song "The Price of Love" on the recent Robert Plant-Alison Krauss album "Raise the Roof." Too often, I thought that the Fusion needed more weight to match the rich fullness of the Cardas CR. In terms of the warm-cool spectrum, I thought the Fusion was fairly neutral while the CR adds a bit of warmth without overdoing it - at least in my system. 

Although I had hoped that the Fusion might equal or even surpass the CR in my system and for my preferences, the CR still won out. Providing amazing clarity and excellent imaging while costing less than a third of what the CR costs, the Fusion XLR is an exceptional value. 

An Update on my experience with the Fusion ll interconnects.

The problems I had with them have almost all resolved themselves with more burn in time.. I think the small remaining issues will likely all go away with the suggested 200 hours burn in,

All in all I think they represent a good value for the money. 

Still on the fence about buying the Prima speaker cables as my Purist cables seem to gel with the IC's and I'm enjoying the sound I'm getting. I'll see after all the interconnects are well past the 200 hour mark

KB

Trying to decide my next Zavfino purchase - Prima power cord or Prima speaker cables. Anyone have a preference for one over the other? This is a Rega amp into some Dynaudios. 

I would do speaker cables first.