A little bit more of everything - yes, even depth of the soundstage - is achieved when the darTZeel Ultimate coaxial cable connects the two red and gold instruments instead of the Dragon. The only exception: low-frequency energy. While I was also satisfied with the slighly fatter sound of the Audioquest, the friend with whom I tested the Zeel BNC connection had already complained that the set up with the Dragon had a slight tonal imbalance for his taste. Even though I can't get enough of a well-defined and controlled bass, I have to admit that the unbalanced darTZell cable now sounds a touch more coherent and balanced than the Dragon, which of course could be just as much due to balancing and unbalancing the signal in the preamplifier and power amplifier as to the cable itself. However, it is indisputable that the excellent-sounding darTZeel coax is a real bargain compared to the Dragon: It costs less than a quarter of the XLR cable.

Finally, I turned my attention to one of the phono inputs, with neither the Neumann constant equalization nor the subsonic filter activated. Mounted on the LaGrange turntable were the long AMG tonearm with the DS-Audio W3 and the symmetrically wired Simplicity II tonearm, neither of which were suitable partners for the unbalanced MC input of the NHB-18NS. Therefore, I set up the shorter Einstein tonearm with the Transrotor Tamino and the Ortofon AS-309R fitted with the SPU Century cartridge. However, this effort was only partially successful: due to the dual-mono layout of the darTZeel, the phono input is positioned far to the left when viewed from the front. Connecting the Einstein tonearm would require a two-meter-long, unbalanced phono cable, which I did not have in my collection. I settled instead for the Ortofon combination and played Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Carlo Maria Giulini. During the final two movements, I was once again astonished by the expansive spatial imaging capabilities of the modern SPU cartridge - of course, thanks in part to the darTZeel MC module. This module also brings out the SPU’s hallmark qualities: a richness of tonal color, an almost untamed musical exuberance, and that elusive emotional depth that is so hard to put into words. A quick comparison revealed that the phono module operates at least on par with Einstein's symmetrical The Turntable's Choice. The darTZeel phono input is undeniably convincing.