Cable differences -- power, interconnect, digital, and in what order?

I can’t mix and match and I don’t have experience with cables outside of stock and Shunyata power products. I went from everything plugged into the wall to Shunyata Venom power cables, except Sigma NR to integrated amp and Everest conditioner/20 Amp Sigma to wall. Next, I switched out cable for Venom NR for subwoofers and Sigma NR for all else. All stock to full Shunyata was a major improvement and further upgrade to Sigma NR was another improvement. Other cables/interconnects did not make such a dramatic difference, with the exception of upgrading to the Sigma Ethernet cable to my streamer. So, the two cable categories that made the most difference in my system were the ones that I least expected improvement. Currently, I use the six independent channels of the Everest for, Integrated, streamer, DAC, phono preamplifier and one channel per subwoofer. My turntable is on a lesser power conditioner and power cable.

I was sold on the Shunyata system and have my doubts as to making small changes here and there and expecting a major improvement in your system.  I live in a new home, with a crazy level of building in my area, so maybe I have particularly noisy power lines, so your experience may vary, especially if you are  looking to do something with one component at a time.

As in most high end audio, it depends. From my experience (50 years) in general speaker cables, power cords, and interconnects. But they are all important and there are many exceptions.

To really get a handle on the sound characteristics and to optimize your system.

First complete your component upgrades… making sure you are completely happy and sure all major components are complimentary and sound great. I use my budget / standard wires: DHLabs. They are good quality and relatively inexpensive… they are my standard for reference. 
 

I get my system broken in… say 500 hours. Based on the sound I will try a few high end speaker, generally Cardas, Transparent, Nordost, WireWorld. I very slowly rotate… a week at least. Listening to music not the equipment. Then amp power cord (AudioQuest Storm Series), then interconnects… and finally power cords to the rest of the system. The process can take over a year… but at the end I have complete confidence in the sound I have. There has been no guess work. I know exactly what each cable has done. 
 

It has taken thirty or fourth years to get this down. It is too easy to be in a hurry to get things over with and make decisions. 

Well i have jumped ship from Brand made power and interconnect cables to diy/parts...and it has been a fun... for most of the experience.As ghdprentice said theres no shoot from the hip in any of this hobby.I replaced amp/cd/conditioner and interconnect cables.Many hours of burn in listening.I did stick with one brand power cables and connectors.

lol...Just did all my interconnects on audioharma/burner... quick 6 hr daisy chained...thought they were done before process...😏.Wow...took them to another level.Try is all i can add...youll never know if you dont.

My belief is that while power can make a difference it may make no difference at all if you have clean power already.

I wrote my thoughts down here:

https://inatinear.blogspot.com/2019/04/power-management-for-frugal-audiophiles.html

Thanks, all. I appreciate learning from you.

Btw .. Companies such as Shunyata and maybe Audioquest are small enough that you can call and speak to some experts.  I found this type of input to be invaluable and quite interesting.

I tend to agree with that:

As in most high end audio, it depends.

But they are all important and there are many exceptions.

For me now everything including power, speaker cable, pre- power amp interconnect, phono interconnects (arm and stage cabling), digital player interconnect, tuner interconnect.

But still it takes patience till you understand what is the effect from every change, what you prefer and can afford.

@hilde45 I’m going to make an assumption you are an experienced listener, your components, speakers and room are on the level to resolve changes in components or cables.
So in my experience…

1. Interconnects

2. Speaker cables (super close second to ICs)

3. Power cables

4. Digital cables

5. Ethernet cables

As to the component to start with on a power cord upgrade? I’d say amplifier first, then power conditioner for your sources, then sources(turntable being very last and I would just use a good stock cord). 
 

@audphile1 Thanks. I'm surprised you put cables affecting the source down at 4, 5 rather than higher.

@hilde45 yes I did - digital and ethernet cables make a difference but they don’t have the same impact as other cables. Think about it…your amp is the last link in the chain before your speakers. Interconnects between your preamp and amp will impact the sound much more than anything upstream including digital and ethernet. Now you need to remove your next bottleneck - speaker cables. And feed the amp good power. 
Now here’s the caveat though…by doing the above you’ll expose other weaknesses upstream starting with your source to preamp cables. Your digital cables aren’t in the picture yet. And if you have a power conditioner for your sources, the power cord feeding it will be next on the list. Then the power cords for sources, then the digital links at the very end. 
Just my thoughts based on my experience. And…it depends on many factors that can change the approach so YMMV as we love to say here.

For me it was not until the majority of my system was up to par THEN I started hearing real differences between different levels of quality interconnect and speaker cables. My ranking is closer to @audphile1, but swapping 3 & 4. 

@audphile1 Thanks for the further detail. 

And I suppose it goes without saying that unless one has tried a very good cable for any of the above, one cannot really know what they're missing.

@hilde45 correct. And to add to the power cord conversation…not all power cords work equally well on all components. The only exception I found so far is the Audience AU24se power cable that worked very well on all 3 DACs that I had over the last 1-2 years. It wasn’t great on amplifiers or preamps. I’ve also had power cords that worked great on one amp and not as well on other amps. It’s all about trying and finding what works best.

@audphile1 ...And to add to the power cord conversation…not all power cords work equally well on all components.

audiphile1, If you had to pick using a higher end 1.5M power cord (from a very established cable manufacturer), for use between a solid state DAC with internal transformer -vs-. a tube preamplifier with an external transformer - what would be your preference, and why - if you care to share more?.

Notes: Both components are plugged into a Richard Gray Power Station right now. Nice dark background, as-is. If it matters, I do use the preamp for other inputs however, most serious listening is for components through the dac itself.

@decooney is the power cable on RG of equal or better quality than the power cables on your source and preamp?
As to answering your question…I would try it and determine where it works best. I would also try to see what it sounds like with the higher end cord on preamp direct into wall outlet bypassing the power conditioner, especially if you have a dedicated line. Probably not the answer you were looking for, but there’s really no substitute for a listening test. 

@audphile1 is the power cable on RG of equal or better quality than the power cables on your source and preamp?

Interesting question. Similar quality, not one too much greater than the other. This is another reason I may step up and try a potentially better PC for source or preamp, or at least a demo/test down the road. I don't have 5 dedicated outlets in my current room, and chose the path of RG for now, instead. Works pretty good.

After I ran two dedicated lines, I actually prefer the sound of my Pass XP22 preamp when connected direct to outlet. It wasn’t the case prior to implementing the dedicated circuits. 

I researched this a couple of years ago and the somewhat rough general answer was:

1. Power
2. Speaker
3. Interconnects

Iconoclast has (power cables excluded):

1. Speaker
2. analog xlr
3. analog rca
4. digital

@kennyc Thanks for your list. Because I have an Audience conditioner in the wall protecting my gear -- and it plugs in directly -- I have not yet been able to do an experiment with power cables at the wall. In my new room (which is done but I have not moved in there yet) I will try it. I will also try @audphile1 suggestion to plug in directly to my dedicated outlets.

I spent most of my time and money on the interconnects so far. That was largely because I did not really have good ones and I needed to get some. Also, I don't know how bad (or good) my power is, so I figured I would try improving the signal path first.

@kennyc Thanks for your list. Because I have an Audience conditioner in the wall protecting my gear -- and it plugs in directly -- I have not yet been able to do an experiment with power cables at the wall. In my new room (which is done but I have not moved in there yet) I will try it. I will also try @audphile1 suggestion to plug in directly to my dedicated outlets.

I spent most of my time and money on the interconnects so far. That was largely because I did not really have good ones and I needed to get some. Also, I don't know how bad (or good) my power is, so I figured I would try improving the signal path first.

@hilde45

For more powerful amps, some suggest direct connection to the wall vs through a power conditioner. Not sure it matters with lower power amps.

A couple years ago, audio bacon did PC shootout:

https://audiobacon.net/2019/03/22/15-audiophile-power-cables-hear-for-yourself/

From this shootout, I purchased used the Kimber Palladium PK10/PK12 power cables.

If you want to build your own which I may someday, I follow this on eBay:

"ACOUSTIC REVIVE Power Cable 1.0m POWER SENSUAL TripleC18000 Fast Shipping Japan"

In my rural area power and noise doesn't seem to be a problem. I do have a dedicated line though.The most profound positive difference was finding a really good pc for the amp.Next was the digital cable which took me many tries to find 'the one'.Then ICs and SCs to complement the source.

@hilde45 i’ll give you my rundown. First I bought pretty much of all I wanted for my audio gear.B&W 800 Matrix.
B&W Krell BAFs. (Bass Alignment Filters) 2 ( balanced ). Krell FPB 600 amp. Rega ISIS CDP. ARC REF 5 SE >>> ARC REF 6 >>> ARC REF 6 SE. Then I kinda knew what I was looking for, especially for my speaker cables. I knew my B&W 800 Matrix had awesome bass. That’s also why I went with the Krell FPB 600 amp.
speaker cables, Straight Wire Crescendo quad wired I loved the Straight Wire Crescendo speaker cables especially that they are phenomenal with bass., that I went with a Straight Wire Crescendo interconnects balanced I did a lot of research and reviews on power cords and I went with Shunyata king cobra CX. Shunyata Sigma digital. Shunyata HC ( high current) power cord. Last, but definitely not least were my outlets. Once again, I did a lot of reviews and research and decided to go with Furutech GTX- D (R). Oyaide WPC -Z2. Oyaide WPC -Z. Now I just purchased last week ARC REF 750s. And found another Shunyata King Cobra CX for the second mono block  ARC REF 750. Haven’t hooked up the 750s yet. Probably next week.