My very first impression, once the music started filling the room, was: oh… oh… my eyes and ears were suddenly wide open, the head instinctively went back! It got my attention. Like savoring a new taste at the first sip, unexpectedly so fresh and pleasant!
Accurate and transparent, no colorations, the music flows with a pleasant tonality in a way that the realism is effectively enhanced. No emphasis on the entire frequency spectrum. The sound is silky, liquid and relaxed, really dynamic and most of all so delicate, especially in micro and subtle nuances.
Revealing and really open, with a wonderful spaciousness, maybe the best characteristic I immediately noticed: airy, vivid, rich of different details coming from every part of the scene. It appears this quality especially when more voices together can be perfectly heard, or different instruments can be distinctly located within an already well balanced homogeneous layer.
Transients are very impactful, in a strength well controlled, I can feel the beauty of attacks in my chest, increasing liveness and engagement a lot.
I’m literally felt in love for its ability in rendering the sound of strings plucked, it seems so real in my room, if fidelity means recreate the sound of an instrument in front of the listener, this cable is a rare example of this attribute. Low level passages and decay are amazing, revealing and palpable until the last audible note.
Body and fullness are present, like before, adding richness and musicality to the playback, thanks to the ability of this cable to preserve the goodness of the amplification, none subtraction or alteration in that area.
It’s not all perfect, though. That kind of magic and analog flavor I used to love in my reference Pink Faun USB cable is still unbeatable but a longer time burning in the MUON2could fix this gap. Also the almost audible white noise during lower passages is not perfect, my feeling is that the well cooked Pink Faun here is better. During break in and more comparisons, this gap was significantly reduced, anyhow. The soundstage is expanded more in width than depth compared to the Pink Faun.
Comparing the MUON2 with the CAD II-R, the latter seems more veiled and less airy, even if it brings a lot of body and a black background. Very silent. I feel the weight of bass, like a muscular strength but it doesn’t make the music breathe enough. The impact of transients is clearly more pronounced. Maybe it is laid back and too much relaxed, in my particular system. Pretty dark and grey, so to speak. Voices are less lifelike, it sounds like clean, perfect and digital not engaging as I usually prefer. The soundstage is narrower and less deep than before. Unlike the GC1 Ground Control and the new USB Control, that I really love and have had a great impact in my chain, this CAD product unfortunately seems not working well in my room. I can’t always get what I want.
I also own other USB cables, like AQ Diamond or Intona Reference, that unfortunately don’t fit my system and personal tastes.
Plugging back the MUON2, each time I felt that the magic was back.
This cable is very light, compared to other cables, easy to manage behind the rack, even though not extremely flexible so it’s a better idea to avoid bending it too much. Spread the wires! Rob suggested to keep the 3 wires as separated/spread as possible. As soon as I managed to do like suggested I heard a subtle difference in clarity and well defined mid/high frequencies.
Connectors are well made, they fit perfectly without risks of loosing.
Burning in. Most part of my positive feedback started right out of the box. The manufacturer recommends to use it for 120 hours to achieve the right degree of performance. I left the streamer playing continuously and after 2 weeks I noticed more significant improvements.
I have decided to postpone the purchase of Sablon EVO and Omega cables, until Mark and Shunyata (or a farsighted dealer out there) will give me the chance to have a home audition. Each trusted audiophile (see customer) should have the right to try and listen to products in his own environment before buying one. Having said that, I need to say that I’m very impressed by the Sablon2020 Ethenernet cable so the EVO is still on my wish list.
I am convinced that people like Rob deserve my appreciation and my gratitude, for the sincerity and availability reserved for me. Rare commodity nowadays. For instance Rob suggested me not to buy the MUON Pro filter in my set up, due to the presence of the Innuos PhoenixNET that running at 100Mb/s is a bottle neck and doesn’t let the MUON Pro Ethernet system performing at its best. Really appreciated the honesty!
The MUON2 is here to stay, together with my reference Pink Faun. They could bring me joy for the coming winter evenings. Warming up my system and my soul.
Here below a simple chart, as my usual, to better describe “with numbers” the different characteristics I noticed playing with these 3 different toys. Needless to say that it works in my system, in my room and with my ears. Others might have different opinions, of course!
| CABLE | PINK FAUN | CAD II-R | MUON2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| White noise/Hum | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Background | 8 | 9 | 8 |
| Naturalness | 9 | 7 | 9 |
| Image precision | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Soundstage depth | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Soundstage width | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Separation | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Voice | 8 | 7 | 9 |
| Hights | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Bass | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| Presence | 8 | 7 | 9 |
| Transient | 7 | 9 | 9 |
| Clarity | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Airy | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| Detail | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Unveil | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| Realism | 9 | 7 | 9 |
| Calm | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Control | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Engagement | 8 | 7 | 9 |
| 7,9 | 7,5 | 8,4 |
That Stealth USB with two collars is scary.