Listening: At the CD player 

…but there was a lot of those such only looked good than sound.

   From the computer, I moved towards the CD player, but at first I kept the headphones, only with their own amplifier. So the path, from amazing, has become extreme. I don’t want the review to be too long, so I won’t delve into the serious defeat of van den Hul and will focus on the two antagonists – the silver Acoustic Zen and the copper Sulek. I decided to stick to the OPPO and McIntosh headphones, hoping to see some interesting battle on this double stage. I wasn’t disappointed. Although in general, nothing new happened, except maybe for one thing, but I’ll go into details in a moment.

For a start I listened to OPPOs with the well-matching Acoustic Zen. Once again the headphones gave me true satisfaction and their style was outstanding. Out of curiosity, I compared them at random with AKG K812 and Sennheiser HD 800. It was a vicious fight which resulted in favor of OPPOs. Only when I used the referential CrystalCable (these comparisons are killing me), the playing field levelled, but still OPPOs were more direct compared to the two flagship models which were more theatrical, kind of more in the background, with more reverberation and not as natural vocals. But let’s stick to the point.

Without K2 processor, OPPO headphones were not such explicitly holographic, but all the other aspects proved to be much better. The magic of the tubes flowed through the silver interconnect like a golden river, but mainly as a kind of scenography, because what was most important was the airiness, the beautiful complexity of sounds and most of all, the naturalness of play. True perfection. The OPPOS are really outstanding. However…

McIntosh MHP1000 headphones are nothing short of remarkable too, which was audible from the first second. Right away they performed a backflip with double twist, leaving no doubt as to what they are capable of. The power interlaced with delicacy, mellowness with gleam, all this with extremely precise imaging and superb dynamics. The bass hit on the spot, the trebles flowed – a real parade of sounds. Nothing but to salute with  Entrance of the Gladiators, or even better, Radames’ triumph from Aida by Verdi. As far as Acoustic Zen cable is concerned, it’s enough to say that with a more sophisticated device configuration, it proved to match MHP1000 better, without diminishing their performance. You could listen freely, even enjoy it, although compared to OPPO, it was more of a show off than natural play. But it was really great, because it was only trebles that were going a bit wild. They were overdoing it, both in quantity and quality. But not with crudeness – oh no. The trebles were spacious and melodic, but just somewhat too aroused. They were too concentrated and with too sharp contrast.

Certainly Acoustic Zen Silver Reference sounds and looks good at the same time, and it costs the same as Sulek…

So now  Sulek’s turn. While listening to OPPOs it turned out that the better signal path enhances their cooperation with the copper cable – which is no surprise, it’s standard – but this time it was quite sneaky, which definitely was a surprise. When you switched from the silver, you got the impression that the sound gained loudness and has become more substantial, true, but there was also less air, which made it less spectacular. This impression, however, disappeared after a few minutes, replaced with the feeling of true realism, backed up by exceptional elegance. There was nothing new compared to the computer, but the changes happened on a different level, so they had greater influence on the imagination. It was a feast for audiophiles, for those who want the direct contact with the music and listen to it in the most friendly way, without any eccentric show-off. Precisely without all what I could experience a moment ago on MHP1000 headphones with the silver interconnect: all this flickering, edges as sharp as a knife and extreme contrasts. Instead, the sounds were spacious, extended, with gentle brightness, flowing rather than vibrating. With emphasis on the melodics, not dynamics and speed.

Again, I want to remind you that such descriptions use exaggerated words, so OPPOs didn’t sound like an elephant in slow motion, they were lively and spunky in the right moments, just with different proportions and accents. With emphasis on the melodics, sustain and soft envelope of sound, replaced with radiance, and not with sharp image, foreground speed and showy contrasts.

And now comes the best, that is Sulek Audio RCA IC with McIntosh MHP1000. The best for both, as the two have fallen in love at first sight. The headphones are not the subject of this review, just a means of testing, but since they produce the sound, their role is by nature more prominent. So lets summarize. The greatness of Sulek’s interconnect lies in the fact that it managed to get McIntosh trebles under control. At first I couldn’t believe it, and I had to go through many songs just to make sure. Oh-la-la!, oh-la-la! – went on a voice in my head. So Sulek, you are this kind of animal…

…what allows us to do a small comparison.

Cables can stir so many things up, so theoretically it shouldn’t be surprising, but still, I was very moved. I had to plug the silver interconnect again, and having listened to a few sopranos, I switched back to the copper one. Yes, indeed – there is a substantial improvement. You can’t even call that an improvement, this term doesn’t give it justice. It was like healing a mental illness. A miraculous recovery. The wild soprano peaks were turned into the sounds of instrument cavities, into normal strings, sounds devoid of the nervous excitement. Its like rewinding a tape with a vase breaking into pieces and putting it back together. A very pleasant feeling bringing full satisfaction. At the same time, the sound of MHP1000 moved closer toward OPPOs, but they retained their specific style. Because they are specific. Just like the sound of saxophone is different – consisting mostly of air movement, where harder, sharp fragments are like raisins in a cake – and bells or tight metal strings are different, where its not the air that dominates but rather short flashes and reverbs. Again, its an exaggeration, because these differences don’t correspond to the differences between OPPOs and McIntosh. However, the overall contribution of air sounds in OPPO is much greater, whereas McIntosh is rich in flashing, refined, on-point sounds. One of them have blurred sound boundaries, the other have them noticeable. So the sound in OPPOs is like a cloud, whereas in McIntosh like an ornament. That’s why OPPO headphones like sharper interconnects more, and McIntosh prefer plastic, cubic, smoothly molding interconnects with gradients.

And what about Sulek Audio RCA IC? Its closer to the second type, but with high quality equipment, it matched both headphones well, so it is highly versatile, although it is more focused on elegance and melodics rather that ecstatic show-off.