Audio Advisor says speaker cables. I tend to agree, although it depends on your equipment. Power cords do have a great impact , although again it depends on your equipment. As an example, I had the Big Rotel amp, upgraded the power cord and noticed very little difference. I then upgraded to a Classe 301, flipped the same power cord and the difference was huge. Perhaps the boys here can answer
your question a little better if you describe your set up. In my case I have an Integra Research RDC-7 . So my CD is connected with a digital cable. In my case the answer is speaker cables. If your gear is more analog dependent , meaning your letting your cd player do the D/A conversion then the answer might be interconnects. Hope this helps. |
I recently upgraded from stock power cords and a kimber interconnect and speaker cables to Virtual Dynamics. Their products are a must listen IMO. The greatest improvement came from the power cord, the additional gain from the interconnect and cable was also significant, though I couldn't argue that one was superior. By all means give Virtual Dynamics a try. You can't do better for the money (and maybe not at all) |
I/c is more noticeable, start from the source. Try Nordost, one thing about the company , there stuff Works! |
Agree with Gunbei, although in general improve from the source out but you will not get full benefit if you have inferior cables further down the system, including speaker cables. Probably better to try and indentify the weakest link cable and upgrade there.
Also agree with Gunbei that many times AC cord upgrades will produce greater improvement than IC or speaker cable upgrade. |
Definately a good start is to buy the best you can afford from your source to the preamp and match the quality from preamp to amp.. From here.. I believe that speaker cables will have different sonic effects depending on your speakers and amps..
The idea is to have as little resistance between the source to the speakers... If you are using powerful amps or monoblocks... definately a power source upgrade and power cables will let you get all out of your amps.. or at least what you paid for.. Good luck. |
All of the people I have spoken to re: this subject have told me that the "Cable Company" recommended upgrading speaker cable first. |
I think it depends on the current state of your system. If you're already completely outfitted, I would say wherever your cabling is the most compromised, whether that be interconnect or speaker cables. If your speaker cables are overly restricting the music, then spending a lot on a digital IC might not yield the results you hope for, if any at all. In that case changing speaker cables could make the biggest difference.
If you have no cables at all, have a single matching brand throughout, or have different brands of cables but at a similar performance level throughout, then I would agree with what the previous posts mention about getting the best cable starting form the source first.
I'll add something that might confuse you even more. The biggest improvement I've ever gained by changing cables was with a power cord upgrade. Sorry. Good luck! |
Based on experience with my own cables in customer environments, the IC's make the biggest difference, followed by the speaker cables. However, this really depends on the IC's. My IC's have extremely low capacitance (3.8 pF/foot), so they make a huge difference. It is fairly easy to make a good-performing speaker cable, but more difficult to make a good-performing IC. Many manufacturers therefore have better speaker cables than IC's, even at the same price levels and so they probably will make a bigger difference. |
I am also a firm believer that "what has been lost at the beginning cannot be recovered" so work from the source downwards... |
I agree, start with your source and work your way down, no sense in preserving a signal that's already been degraded or colored.On mine I found the best improvement when I changed the IC from CD to preamp. |
Whenever I tweak my cabling I always do both. I recently tweaked everythink in my bedroom system to Nordost. I don't think it would have sounded right without matched cabling through out.
As for which to do first go for the best deal ;^) |
Mohamed,yes so true.Source first fix the output at source where the most effect can be had. |
According to the guys from Transparent Audio, they claim that one should start at the source and make his way down. So start with your digital cable, DAC to preamp, etc. So speakers cable would be the last thing to upgrade. Good luck. Mohamed |
I agree with Philefreak. While both are important, It's been my experience that speaker cables can "color" music more significantly than ICs-- other things being equal. Good Luck. Craig |
Is your speaker cable over 6 Ft. long? If yes, then speaker cable will make a bigger improvement. |
