OP, glaringly missing from your extensive cable inventory is WireWorld. FYI David Salz was Straightwire's designer from the very beginning. They split up well over a decade ago. WWs series 7 and now 8 are phenomenal
3 things I learned from using MANY interconnect cables
At last, I am posting here for the first time! I got so much help from this forum and always felt a bit guilty about not contributing.
Over the past several years, I have used the following interconnect cables: Audioquest Golden Gate, Audioquest Columbia, Audioquest Sky, Monster Interlink 300 MkIII, Harmonic Technology Pro Silway (I have used both Mk I and Mk II), Silnote Morpheus, Anticables (the original version), Tara Labs RSC, Nordost Heimdall, Straightwire Crescendo, and Chord Anthem. They were all purchased used and I always had 2 or more pairs to compare at a given time although I didn’t have these cables all at once. Through the journey, I learned the following:
1. The price was NOT indicative of the sound quality unless you go very cheap (less than $100). I think this point is self-explanatory so I am not adding any elaboration.
2. Disconnecting and re-connecting the cables had a very positive impact on sound quality, which will affect any AB comparison. If you are comparing two pairs of cables that had comparable sound quality, the new cables will sound better because the connection would be fresh.
3. In my experience, the cables were NOT system dependent. This might raise some eye brows as it goes against the commonly held belief so I am going to explain a bit here.
All I am saying is that I have never seen a case where my preference order of two sets of interconnect cables got reversed when tested on two or more components (e.g. cable A was better than cable B on amp X but cable B was better on amp Y, etc). With any AB comparison I ever did, the better cable always won no matter what component I was testing them on.
Oh in case someone is curious, the best pair of interconnect cables I have ever used was Chord Anthem. It had a wider frequency range and a more natural tonality than others. And I would rather not add the qualification "but it was the best only in my system" because of the 3rd point I made above. Cheers!
Over the past several years, I have used the following interconnect cables: Audioquest Golden Gate, Audioquest Columbia, Audioquest Sky, Monster Interlink 300 MkIII, Harmonic Technology Pro Silway (I have used both Mk I and Mk II), Silnote Morpheus, Anticables (the original version), Tara Labs RSC, Nordost Heimdall, Straightwire Crescendo, and Chord Anthem. They were all purchased used and I always had 2 or more pairs to compare at a given time although I didn’t have these cables all at once. Through the journey, I learned the following:
1. The price was NOT indicative of the sound quality unless you go very cheap (less than $100). I think this point is self-explanatory so I am not adding any elaboration.
2. Disconnecting and re-connecting the cables had a very positive impact on sound quality, which will affect any AB comparison. If you are comparing two pairs of cables that had comparable sound quality, the new cables will sound better because the connection would be fresh.
3. In my experience, the cables were NOT system dependent. This might raise some eye brows as it goes against the commonly held belief so I am going to explain a bit here.
All I am saying is that I have never seen a case where my preference order of two sets of interconnect cables got reversed when tested on two or more components (e.g. cable A was better than cable B on amp X but cable B was better on amp Y, etc). With any AB comparison I ever did, the better cable always won no matter what component I was testing them on.
Oh in case someone is curious, the best pair of interconnect cables I have ever used was Chord Anthem. It had a wider frequency range and a more natural tonality than others. And I would rather not add the qualification "but it was the best only in my system" because of the 3rd point I made above. Cheers!
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Re: point 3 of original post.... while I have never had the order of preference between 2 interconnects change from one system to another, I have noticed that once that preferred interconnect is in place, let’s say between pre and amp, it does not guarantee that the preference will still apply to the next length between DAC and pre. (Even if it was first choice in that position before being inserted between pre and amp.) in fact my recent experience has been that stopping just short of a full loom of a single brand/level of cable has been ideal. That one foreign element seems to keep the rest from seizing up into predictability. I have no real explanation, just the experience. Ymmv. Anyone else ever notice that? |
@johnson0134 - I really late to this party, but found your post to be interesting. 1. The price was NOT indicative of the sound quality unless you go very cheap (less than $100). I think this point is self-explanatory so I am not adding any elaboration. Comment: This makes total sense to me as the price of any product should based on the materials used and time spend to produce it along with the market value for the item. Using more expensive materials and more complex construction doesn't in any guarantee and better cable. I would expect that a more expensive cable within the same brand should be better for any reputable company that isn't just selling snake oil. Also, some companies like Blue Jeans Cable have a business model that's based on value rather than appearing to be a boutique brand, so it's possible that their products can be a much better value. Comment: If true, it's easy enough to disconnect and reconnect a cable when doing comparisons. It seems like this would lead people to prefer the new cable over the old one, so I'm curious how often people try a new cable and immediately do not prefer it. Comment: I think that cables can be system dependent, but I think listener preference is likely a much more significant factor. The science of cables is hard to nail down, but the fact remains that whatever a given cable does it'll always do, so if the listener likes the resulting sound it's expect that they will continue to like it. The system dependent aspect comes when the rest of a system is already too far in the direction that the cable brings out and it's always possible to have too much of a good thing. When it comes to cables being in different parts of the audio chain, it's an apples to oranges comparison. From what I know about gain structure in pro audio applications, it makes sense that you'd want the best cables closer to the source as any noise/distortion will be a more significant portion of the total signal that will later be amplified. In a very general sense, this is why phono cables are much more finicky than speaker cables. |
@stevecham - My systems has been almost exclusively Blue Jeans Cables until recently because I consider them to be a quality product from a high value company. However, when I replaced their LC-1 interconnects with Audioquest Chicago my system was transformed in a way that I didn’t think was possible. I have not played with any other interconnect brands, but I don’t see myself using BJC cables in my reference system anytime soon. At this point the only thing left is my BJC speakers cables. |