final score 2:0 (in favour of stage III)

i deliberated in writing this post. because there are quite a few kubala-sosna supporters here and i am afraid i am going to get hate mails from them ;-)

to save you from reading the conclusion, i would just say that while k-s emotion has many virtues that impressed me, it doesn't win my heart the way stage III magnus did.

before i continue, i want you to know that this is a competition of a very high level so whatever shortfalls i mentioned are most likely system-dependent as well as user-dependent.

i suspect that k-s emotion does not like my shunyata hydra at all (apologies: it would be too troublesome for me to unplug my shunyata and validate this guess). as you well know (since i have documented it so many times here), the hydra is characterized by a very thick and "analogue" midrange, which coincidentally is also the case with the k-s emotion. hence the resultant midrange is overly thick and bulky, to the extent of being a tad sluggish, compared to the very fast, though thinner, and agile stage III magnus.

but k-s emotion most impressive traits are its midrange density and the bass weight. this are two areas that it wins substantially over stage III magnus. this alone leads me to suspect that it is made up of composite metals, which should include silver and maybe, gold. definitely this is NOT a pure copper cable. another winning trait is how natural, emotive and musical the whole presentation is. i could feel that the singer is singing for me, just for me. i truly love this aspect of k-s emotion.

the highs is an area where stage III betters k-s. for that matter, i will now proclaim that stage III cables have the best highs in the business. whereas k-s's highs are natural, stage III's highs are INTOXICATING. you really have to listen to stage III cables when matched with triode and ribbon tweeters to understand what i am talking about. also, stage III has richer colors in its tonal palette (i don't mean coloration!); the timbre from stage III is much more enticing.

to make sure that i am not biased, i actually dragged my audiophile buddy along to make the judgement collectively. he too preferred stage III magnus over k-s emotion on many counts, especially when it comes to revelation of details and fast-paced, uptempo music where PRaT is required.

i would also like to postulate that based on these observations k-s emotion suits solid-state systems more than tubes.

in the end, it is a case of NATURALNESS Vs INTOXICATION.

my review may not be definitive so i am passing the cables over to my dealer for their critical evaluation. after all they are the one who's gonna decide.

[conclusion]
listening to the k-s emotion makes me realize areas where my stage III falls short. i would love to have the midrange density and bass weight, and i think i could only get the COMPLETE package in stage III vacuum gold reference, which remains my ultimate upgrade within the next 6 months, and the subject of my next review.

[post-script]
i consulted my dealer in singapore, who once evaluated k-s emotion before. they concur with my observations.