That happened to me when I upgraded to more expensive silver cables. They were far brighter in my system which led to listening fatigue. I mostly stick with copper and my system sounds better than ever. I noticed a big difference also when I went from good CAT6 to my streamer to fiber optic cables. There was a bit more detail, but the sound was thinner with less bass and tended towards brightness. You can ABSOLUTELY use cables to tune your system. Anyone who says otherwise probably just hasn’t taken the time to really listen.
Are cable “upgrades” just as likely to make your system sound worse?
Many of us with highly resolving systems have found that speakers cables and interconnect cables can improve the sound quality of our systems. But are they also just as likely to do the opposite?
A few months ago, I “upgraded” to a renowned speaker cable, and immediately noticed more detail and resolution. I was so pleased I also “upgraded” the interconnects. But with more time I realized that the trade-off for more detail was a thinner sound with diminished tonal richness. Thus began a maddening series of attempts to fix the problem – different speaker cables, different DAC, different streamer, and now even a 30 trial of a new amplifier to try to overcome the thinness and find a more natural tone. It finally occurred to me to replace the out-of-sight-out-of-mind interconnects (with my original interconnects), and immediately the problem was blessedly solved.
Have others experienced this frustration? What recommendations do you have to avoid such fiascos?