If you are happy and you know it wave your Stealth Bag High!
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You are correct in that your happiness is the main goal from the consumer side of the deal. The same goes with any piece of a hobby purchase.
I was just trying to give a few reasons why the asking price is so high.
I really dont want to try the top line Stealth or InAcoustik models as they are simply more than I want to spend. If I tried one I would have to buy them all and for this music junkie that is way above my budget.
I am sure they are both at the top of the playback fidelity heap due to materials and geometry used.
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I looked into our typical German/certain other parts of Europe new/used market platform today and there seems to be a huge used or demo market for them, it seems no one pays more than 1/3rd or maximum half. It reminds me of the NBS hype times.
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George comes thru!
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My V18 is still shown by UPS as in Florida. Ugh
Itās interesting how thingsācables can be so system dependent. I lived for two days with a friendās AQ Dragon HP powering my P20.
The differences were stark. The Dragon is much more dynamic than my Audience FR; deeper bass and more pronounced highs. But the midrange just melts into the background. And after a few hours listening, I felt a little fatigued; I started to lower the volume and then turned it off. And that feeling disappeared as soon as the FR returned to service.
Iām super curious about the V18.
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Was that your V18, Ron? 
I, um, may have accidentally bumped into a UPS distribution truck down here. I think a box with āStealthā on it may have fallen out. It might be in my sound roomā¦ Iāll have to check. 
Just kidding! Hope it arrives safe and sound.
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Tony Tony Tony 
If youāre happy and you know it donāt overthink.
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Front Row (Audience), āback rowā (Audioquest). I guess you just have to tack a seat and go from there.
I too, have noticed a way too distant midrange. Could be the cords. I donāt know. A tube or fuse swap can do the same thing. Iāve thought that a consistent loom of cables or cords would be the constant and you can build from there. Maybe that is a foolish consistency. Oh well, back to the listening board.
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Which V18 model is? Power, Digital, Pre or UNI?
The tuning collar should make you busy for a while, be patient, it worth the time.
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Absolute deal breaker for me!
Best,
-JP
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The first two Dragons (HC+S) in my system brought a perfect balance of midrange, treble, bass, soundstage, and the black background. After adding the third Dragon, the midrange moved towards layback. This was the reason I decided not to get one more Dragon S. I was afraid the system would become too calm to my taste.
Both Clear Cystal Magmum Opus silver cord and Zenwave PSR-11 silver ribbon cord brought the sweetness and lifelike midrange back into the system and enhenced everything else. They did a much better job in matching Dragons than my load of spare power cords. The issue is every room and system is different. So, there is no golden rule on what is the best mix.
If you do not want to spend crazy on power cords, I found the connectors may be more important than the cables themselves. For instance, I replaced a Aliexpress cord with Furutech 50 plugs, and the cable SQ was transformed. These plugs are around $800 a set but they will show how a topline cord could sound.
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The type Stealth makes a difference. A digital stealth on a P20 canāt touch the 3M tuned dragon HS or Common Ground Cable Whisper Elite. The stealth digital used in digital environment is hard to touch and takes a lot more tweaking of alternative cables to come close. The vibration isolation added to a Dragon at tuning ring and male connector helps immensely.
The only time my midrange was distant with the Dragon was using that dreaded SR Master Fuse. It just killed every balance in my system. My gut feel if you compare different power cord with different fuses one would like different power cords.
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Itās a Uni.
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Yes, midrange is most important for me.
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Ron, I have only one Dragon in my system, feeding the P20, and it works beautifully. Midrange, as they say, āto die forā, without being out of balance. So many weird system interdependencies make this such a wacky hobby.
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Cable mixing is a weird thing! For example, before my dragons I really liked a Silnote Orion cord and I thought it was the best I had. After Dragon HC was introduced a 20 yr. Old Purist Audio cord sounded much better suddenly. Another pair of Cullen Crossover2 cords became extremely bright sounding that I had to remove from the system.
Thereās something about cable synergy in any system, I believe.
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Agreed. As an aside, I always thought the name Silnote was a purposeful attempt to confuse people into thinking they were Siltech. I have absolutely no factual basis for this. Just seemed a little too similar to me.
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Their so called āretailā price is closer to Siltech too, but they are always on big sale for some reasonš For the discounted prices they are very good.
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In my experience, with compensational cable mixing, without noticing during the experiments, you usually end up with bad prat and coherence compared to a better possible result.