I think I can share my way overdue experience here. I'm just letting you know that this is within the constraints of my system and, therefore, very subjective.
I had two comparison sessions with the Reveal IC cables. The first was after about 1,5 weeks of burn-in and the other after about a month (a little bit more than that). The difference between the two sessions was audible, but didn't make a substantial change in character, just in development. At the second session I had my brother with me, who also has trained ears, although we listen differently (with "trained" I mean we both are musicians and have experience with music production, although he does it for a living and I do it for fun). The comparison was made with my current ICs and with with volume level matching as well as I could (there was still a tiny difference, which we took into account). My current ICs cost more than 3x the Reveal so I had a very real bias towards them, since I would have been able to sell mine and invest more into other parts of my system.
Overall the Reveal is a great IC that, most likely, will better any of the competition in its price range that I know. Since I haven't had many in that price range, nor have had the chance to compare please take this comparative statement with a grain of salt.
In my specific setup and situation it faired very well, providing a fast and balanced result.
Compared to what I have they were equal in speed, width and, maybe, with a tad smoother upper mids. What it did lack, comparatively, was the black background that I get with mine, which I normally associate with a lower noise floor. Normally a lower noise floor gives greater depth, separation of instruments and voices, more body, better texture and more accurate colour and this was the case here. If I had to compare visually it would be comparing a good Plasma to an OLED TV. The OLED actually made the blacks on my Pana Plasma look greyish and low-level detail in dark scenes became comparatively washed-out. This is the main difference between the cables that I have and the Reveal. I'm not sure I would feel this way without having had them side-by-side, but once I noticed it was impossible not to.
Before anyone jumps to conclusions a couple pieces of information:
1. I went to great lengths in having the my current cables (from a Cable luthier that doesn't have a site, isn't from the US, so this is not an attempt to make him more popular) and compared them extensively to Shunyata Anaconda and SR Element C/T/S ICs. That means that they are a good fit.
2. I am very detailed in my research and analysis and maybe some here know me from CA under the same name, where I shared my comparisons for USB Cables.
3. Again, I honestly wanted the Reveal to be a better fit in my system for the aforementioned reasons.
Lastly, my results and opinion should not detract from the fact that this is a great cable. It could simply mean that my current cables may just be making up for areas that my system lacks in order to give me a better result, so please don't take my opinion as being an absolute statement. It is what it is and YMMV.
BTW, I'm not sure who compared these to Odins, and I've had Nordost cables and am not a fan... but whoever did that comparison might be well advised to look for bottlenecks in their system. Odins are insanely expensive, but they are very, VERY good cables.
I had two comparison sessions with the Reveal IC cables. The first was after about 1,5 weeks of burn-in and the other after about a month (a little bit more than that). The difference between the two sessions was audible, but didn't make a substantial change in character, just in development. At the second session I had my brother with me, who also has trained ears, although we listen differently (with "trained" I mean we both are musicians and have experience with music production, although he does it for a living and I do it for fun). The comparison was made with my current ICs and with with volume level matching as well as I could (there was still a tiny difference, which we took into account). My current ICs cost more than 3x the Reveal so I had a very real bias towards them, since I would have been able to sell mine and invest more into other parts of my system.
Overall the Reveal is a great IC that, most likely, will better any of the competition in its price range that I know. Since I haven't had many in that price range, nor have had the chance to compare please take this comparative statement with a grain of salt.
In my specific setup and situation it faired very well, providing a fast and balanced result.
Compared to what I have they were equal in speed, width and, maybe, with a tad smoother upper mids. What it did lack, comparatively, was the black background that I get with mine, which I normally associate with a lower noise floor. Normally a lower noise floor gives greater depth, separation of instruments and voices, more body, better texture and more accurate colour and this was the case here. If I had to compare visually it would be comparing a good Plasma to an OLED TV. The OLED actually made the blacks on my Pana Plasma look greyish and low-level detail in dark scenes became comparatively washed-out. This is the main difference between the cables that I have and the Reveal. I'm not sure I would feel this way without having had them side-by-side, but once I noticed it was impossible not to.
Before anyone jumps to conclusions a couple pieces of information:
1. I went to great lengths in having the my current cables (from a Cable luthier that doesn't have a site, isn't from the US, so this is not an attempt to make him more popular) and compared them extensively to Shunyata Anaconda and SR Element C/T/S ICs. That means that they are a good fit.
2. I am very detailed in my research and analysis and maybe some here know me from CA under the same name, where I shared my comparisons for USB Cables.
3. Again, I honestly wanted the Reveal to be a better fit in my system for the aforementioned reasons.
Lastly, my results and opinion should not detract from the fact that this is a great cable. It could simply mean that my current cables may just be making up for areas that my system lacks in order to give me a better result, so please don't take my opinion as being an absolute statement. It is what it is and YMMV.
BTW, I'm not sure who compared these to Odins, and I've had Nordost cables and am not a fan... but whoever did that comparison might be well advised to look for bottlenecks in their system. Odins are insanely expensive, but they are very, VERY good cables.
