Hi Nanderson: My current setup in the living room is: Monster HTS2000 conditioner/HT Pro 11 PC/CAL Icon MKII/Mapleshade Double Helix digital IC/Bel Canto DAC 1 -w- HT Pro 11 PC/Homegrown Super Silver analog IC's/Audion Silver Night 300b stereo amp -w- stock cord from the Bel Canto/Kimber 4VS cable in 17' runs (yuck!)/Reynaud Twin II speakers. I also use various inexpensive isolation devices on everything in a swirling evolution at this point. LOL. Your comments back up what I have experienced in regard to detail (not being lost at all) when I added the Mapleshade IC. Other gear that I have also switched out in this setup is: Castle Isis speakers/Musical Fidelity X-A1 integrated amp and HT Truthlink analog IC's. All combos have worked well with the Maplshade digital IC. I have not experimented with many other digital IC's and therefore do not have a lot of comparisons under my belt. I have tried a Canare Pink/Purple IC and a very expensive custom made silver IC (both digital) and neither sounded as good as the Mapleshade in my setup. It was very clear as to which was better. The borrowed silver IC did/does sound better than the Mapleshade though in my friends system, so synergy is at work, as always. I loaned a pair of the Homegrown Super Silver IC's to Carl at this site for evaluation and hope that he will soon post his results. It is impossible to judge what is neutral, but I consider the Homegrown Super Silver IC's to be one of the most "balanced" analog IC's that I have yet tried and I realize that this does not say much either. I am just saying that I do not hear/think about my system's overall balance when they are installed in the chain, which is a good thing, IMO. I am also glad to see Alfred's take on the Mapleshade PC's as this will be my next purchase. So far I have only read one comment in regard to these PC's. I am going to try it on the DAC mainly because I would like to try an extremely "light weight" cord due to the fact that the DAC itself has very little weight. It has been difficult to properly isolate the DAC when heavier PC's are used (the HT PC weighs almost as much as the DAC). Going back to the sonic character of the Mapleshade IC I do see your reservation in going with all Mapleshade cables. I would like to try their speaker cable but it is not feasible to do so with my long cable runs and curiously enough am considering the tiny little brother of your AP cable (the model 12) which is "said" to compliment my Reynaud Twin's by its users. All said and done it is my opinion that both brands (the models that I am using anyway) are clear winners considering their price points. Homegrown analog IC's have bettered much more expensive Kimber and HT IC's in my system. I would love to try the Silver Lace but have very little money right now and need to work on the weak links such as my speaker cable and PC's. I just replaced all of my wall sockets yesterday, but used inexpensive Levitron Pro models (which use copper contacts and screws) instead of the more expensive types that have been mentioned in the past. I will give them a couple of weeks to settle in before I further mess around with cable as I pulled more wire from the wall and clipped 5" off the ends to start fresh. Right now it sounds a little funky. My old sockets had been damaged by a water leak which is why I acted so quickly to change them.
