Heaven sent

I remember my first taste of a high-end USB cable, the JCAT. It made such an improvement that I thought it was a gift from heaven. I just couldn't believe the difference that cable made. It's rare but sometimes we take a new piece of gear home and it exceeds our expectations and not just by a little. No, some products are so much better than what we're used to that it feels as if it were heaven sent. A miracle. An extraordinary revelation. Those experiences are rare, but when they happen they make a lasting impression. The last one I recall was Ted Smith's latest creation, Snowmass. When we loaded that new firmware into the DirectStream DAC both Darren Myers and I simultaneously turned to each other and watched our jaws drop. Unexpected pleasures can often seem so big they feel like a gift from up on high. Maybe it's why I keep searching for the better—the dopamine hit of discovering a heaven sent product is unforgettable. I want more and keep searching for the latest. We spend hundreds of hours in the listening room finding the best sound for our products, the optimized features for the design, the spark of brilliance that we know must be there. When we find it, it's sometimes as if heaven sent.