Powwow? Formally it's a native American ceremony. Informally it's a meet for discussion, especially amongst friends or colleagues. Did mine become a POWwow or mere whimper in the dark? So imagine listening to POW. Simultaneously the same track streams off the iMac via USB then I²S into Gold's HDMI input. You set the track on endless repeat. You listen carefully. After some time you step out to the loo. Now a mate secretly switches inputs to I²S. A minute later you're back none the wiser. Zero difference. Back in control of the remote, now you switch inputs in midstream. Aha. Different. Hearing it is easy; explaining it not. It'll take you much switching to break down what changes. Say you had synaesthesia. When you hear music, your eyes see colours. Before you left for the loo, you saw a preponderance of mauve. When you came back, it suddenly was pink. As a synesthete you knew right away that something changed. But could you decide which is better, mauve or pink? Whilst I'm no synesthete, that too was my crux. Casual lingo calls that a minor sideways move. It's different but not unambiguously higher or lower.

Two slaved LAN distributors from LHY plus two SOtM galvanic inline isolators create a noise moat between hardwired fibre-optic modem and iMac's network card. Gold tapped an RJ45 port in the 2nd switch just like the iMac.

That's not to say that different people wouldn't express preferences. To explain what I heard, I propose a word I first came across on an episode of The Repair Shop. The resident upholsterer refurbishes an old lounge chair. Plumptious is her aim. She means to build into the rigid wood frame and tautly stretched webbing plus coil springs the perfect mix of resilience and give. Overstuffed pillows do the rest. Her quality of physical support differs from a soggy burger whose lower half we forgot to toast before adding our wet ingredients. Both bun and plumptious chair are soft yet one is soggy, the other bouncy but firm. Wikipedia expands on plumptious as "plump and delicious; also overplump, plim, full, plush, über-delicious, voluptuous, galloptious, galuptious". Cosmetic surgery pursues plumptious lips with collagen injections instead of bee stings.

By contrast to this quality, my iMac stream felt slightly harder and sharper, just not hard and sharp per se. Call it more focused on focus. POW was softer without giving up definition or rebound. Call it more billowy yet very substantial. POW also felt marginally bigger and freer, USB⇒I²S smaller and tighter. I'd expect different listeners to vote divergent. Just so, I'd neither expect a landslide nor quick decisive reactions. After all, which is better, mauve or pink? On the streaming level I practice, 'different' is quite unproblematic to achieve. I can switch Audirvana's SoX upsampler to R8brain and hear it; or let Audirvana resample PCM to DSD256. That too sounds different. 'Unconditionally better' is far harder. So is any big jump at that. Here I didn't prefer my usual connection. POW sounded truly terrific. Yet asking myself whether I'd trade, the answer was negatory. There'd not be enough in it. For someone whose aural aesthetic differs, POW's flavour shift could well be decisive though. I don't mean to diminish it. I just must forestall unrealistic expectations based on Cen.Grand's claim on USB being flawed and POW its saviour. When I compared their fibre-based RJ45⇒I²S scheme to a well-curated USB⇒I²S implementation, I heard nothing wrong with USB.

That was my initial response after a lengthy first session between POW and outsourced I²S. But there's the worn-shoe syndrome. It's when deep familiarity with anything takes a while to loosen, let go then fully make room for us to embrace our shiny new shoe. So I'd live with Gold's POW flavour to become my new normal and familiar then switch back to my iMac stream. In the meantime I had an SOS in with the designer in case he could assist with opening the Audirvana installer pack. Rather than tap my Qobuz Sublime subscription through their web browser, I wanted to open Qobuz inside Audirvana to avail myself of familiar sonically virtuous features. In a game of percentages, every little thing adds up. Since Gold's open architecture should mean that we're not forced into the J.River default, it made sense to perform some personalization after all. "The GLD1.0 runs on the lighter Windows LTSC because Windows Home is very expensive. If I installed Home instead, Audirvana would install normally but LTSC lacks necessary components. I've attached guidance from ChatGPT on how to add supplemental programs which might install Audirvana manually though it's not guaranteed. Roon and J.River are the GLD1.0's main apps. Because Roon is most widely used in Europe and the Americas, perhaps that should be the focal point of your review?"

I'd misconstrued how open Gold's architecture really is on its leaner Windows platform. I couldn't make the workaround work. LTSC lacks Microsoft Store integration so wouldn't download the almighty app installer. Command-line power users might have succeeded with more involved workarounds. Not being one, I didn't risk an install that would make onward tracks to an EU distributor. JianHui had also emailed me the English manual since the printed version included in the shipment was still Chinese only. These instructions recommend installing the Anydesk software on my iMac which then can remotely operate the Cen.Grand like TeamViewer. Considering the many security permissions I'd have to allow on my iMac to run that software, I opted out. As a non-Rooner who found Roon resource-intense and not as good-sounding as Audirvana when I compared them, I'd stick to native Qobuz and cheap reader glasses. As a buyer, I'd get a 27" monitor screen or hook up an existing TV to bypass the deck's small display. I'd then operate it exactly as I now interface with my iMac; next to the listening chair with wired keyboard and mouse. My 40" TV was too big to relocate, my TV room has no hardwired Internet. Keeping it simple had my vote. Gold for president of my tiny hamlet of hardwired hifi hermits and other lost sheep? "No problem, just review it according to your usual practice" was Mr. Deng's confirmation.

Though this would be a dealer's purview, I asked whether using his own instructions, he'd attempt a remote Audirvana install from his end? "I made you a 1-click installation package for Audirvana in LTSC." I quickly downloaded and unzipped it then loaded it to Gold. There I ran JianHui's admin.bat script as instructed. It quickly declared Audirvana installed ready to log in. Except Audirvana's desktop app was nowhere to be found to launch or sign into. "I too tried it with the guidance of ChatGPT4.1 and Grok3 without success. I sent an email to Audirvana to ask for assistance. Otherwise we must install the Windows Home edition." That didn't seem proper when his EU distributor would then get a non-stock demonstrator. If Audirvana had an LTSC version, brilliant. If not, I'd stick with Qobuz through their web browser and the pre-installed J.River. Champagne problems.