I don't have much time to play tonight but: If all equipment interfaced equally you could use one cable to connect this perfect equipment. But there isn't any perfect equipment. So sometimes different cable can equalize(pun intended? I'm not sure) differences between equipment. I believe we all choose the distortion we like even if we're in denial about it. We don't want to alter the sound of the recording but since recorded music will never sound live when compared to the real thing maybe you do need to change something. Every room you listen to it in, any ambient noise, any electrical fluctuation will change sound away from the original. I'm going with the opposite of any engineer's sensibility. Whatever allows you to connect emotionally to the music and gives the illusion of live music is what an audiophile strives to accomplish with his system. Ther are a number of tube amps that do not roll off the highs. They don't all have transformers. On the other hand transformers can help match amplifiers to the speakers they drive. Take McIntosh for example. They use output transformers on both tube and solid state. I think the real problem with the strict engineering approach is that it is too close minded to anything new or theoretical. In the engineer's context, you need the perfect electronics, the perfect media, the perfect wire, the perfect room and the perfect recording to have a reproduction of the musical experience. It is not possible to achieve that perfection but, with careful matching of imperfect components, including cable, the end result might be musically satisfying. In solid state gear, I'll take Jeff Rowland anytime over Krell