RE: the SW 800 -- I really don't know why they didn't give me what I expected. They had plenty of volume, it just wasn't clean, fast and precise enough in my opinion to match the transient response of the electrostatic panels (though I didnt have them on special stands, just cones).
However I'm crazy about the the ML Depth. Besides the way it sounds, there's no external amp, plenty of contouring capability, small and omnidirectional so standing waves aren't as likely to develop readily. The only ML setup (of any model) I heard that sounds better than mine, is their new prototype which I heard in an "un-marked" room at CES.
As for the phono cable, you probably got a van den Hul "Silver Hybrid" phono cable with your SME arm/table. (The IV.V arm is internally wired with a coated-ribbon "Magnan type" conductor which works great with MC cartridges) Anyway, I'd been using those vdH phono cables in successive versions (incl. the Silver-Hybrid like yours) since 1991 and thought they were as good as could be had, especially since I was using a vdH cartridge and those two companies seem to have a close relationship. But just before I recently sent my arm in to SME for service, I was checking prices with Sumiko (SME's distributor here) and the "person" at Sumiko confidentially expressed his preference for the Cardas Golden Reference phono set far over the vdH. That's what got me thinking about the subject. The Cardas, it turned out had a great rep, so did the newer Hovland Music Groove II, and somewhere out of the corner of my ear, I'd heard about Purist. When I found out the price of a set of Venustas ($1800), my reaction was basically "not in this life!" But while I was at CES, I was able to get an obscenely great price on Jim Aud's (Purist's owner's) personal set and already broken in yet! I bought them of course -- but also figuring that if they were not absolutely the cat's ass, I could at least sell them at a small profit which would probably pay for a set of Cardas! Well, in my not-so-humble opinion, they were absolutely the cat's ass ........ and I've since got a 1.5m ic for between my phono amp and preamp, and an 8m set of XLR's for preamp-to-amp.
I think Purist may have the new "best" cable -- a real breakthrough in design, the way Bruce Brisson did with MIT years ago. I know I sound like so many others singing the praises of their favorite cable, but this design (primarily the Ferox medium through which the conductors run) protects the signal from external contamination and internal time smear better than anything I've heard to date (which includes about 80% of the top contenders.)
Let me put it this way. When you stick that Venustas phono set in your system, you'll think your Dynavector somehow just transformed itself into a Colibri, Urishi, or Insider Gold!
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