I just got my first pair of Accelerator ICs in the mail after waiting about 2-1/2 weeks (they are a hot date at the moment). After several hours of listening, these are my initial conclusions.
1) I will be purchasing the balance of the full Accelerator set for my system.
2) I had to find the best place to put this one pair of ICs in the midst all the Nordost Red Dawns. The best spot proved by far to be between the source and the preamp.
3) Everything that the previous posters have stated from their experience is pretty much true in my system.
4) My Red Dawn's give a very well-defined image with exquisite detail, but they also are definitely lean in the mids and they can produce some glare at times. The big difference that I notice by inserting the SR's is that the response is accurate throughout the entire frequency spectrum now. Bass, mids, treble are all represented equally, which is very nice. That's what I was looking for when I bought these (along with the excellent imaging and detail, which I already had).
5) I don't know yet if this is exactly a good or bad thing, but the ultra-high frequencies that were so pronounced with the Red Dawn and gave the sense of extreme detail resolution are now gone. The low-level detail is there still, but it is softer. Less pronounced expression of softer details is most likely more accurate.
6) All the good things that my system previously had are still there, like the detail, sound staging, imaging and dynamics. Keep in mind that I use ribbon speakers though, so your mileage may vary with boxes or horns. The sound is overall much more complete throughout the frequency range now, and thus much more pleasing.
7) One change occurred that will be hard to explain. Someone described it above, if I remember correctly. The instruments previously were well-defined in a 3-D space, but those instruments now appear to have been like flat cardboard cutouts in the past. Now the instruments have shape and volume in addition to their location in space. Very odd and unexpected effect but it definitely exists. It does sound like the instruments are more of a "sphere" with volume now.
This is all with just with one cable. I can't wait to see what it will sound like once I have the signal path full of Accelerators. My new quandry is: which slot to fill next? Replace the Symo speaker wire or the Red Dawns between the preamp and amp?
Here is a pic of them in my system. They are the black ICs between the Creek CDP and Mod Squad Deluxe Line Drive passive preamp.
http://www.jasonphillips.org/offsite/SR_Tesla_ICs.jpg
