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Cable Suggestions for my system?

Greetings,
I’m seeking your recommendations for the final segment of my system upgrade – interconnects and speaker cables.

My system consists of:
Grand Prix Monaco equipment stand
dCS Verdi; need AES/EBU 1 or 1.5 meter digital interconnect to
dCS Elgar+; need 1 pair RCA/RCA 1.0 meter interconnect to
Art Audio Jota SET amp (with KR 300BXLS tubes, etc.) ; Need 2.5 meter/8’ speaker cables to
Avantgarde Duo hornspeakers.

Now, I recently tried the PS-500 and found it substantially veiled the sound. Prefer straight out of the wall – I’ve run two lengths of 10GA wires to the main breaker box. Thus, at this point, my only focus is cables and their generating sonic improvements in my system.

FYI - my hearing is check annually and is excellent, but I like to listen to my music at fairly loud levels – not damaging loud, just want to be enveloped by the sound.

Currently, cables are:
Stealth M-7 Varidag digital and interconnects (silver).
Silversmith speaker cables run in shotgun to the mid and tweeter horns and jumped to subs.

Music I like: World Music/New Age – Agricantus, Delirium, Vas, Enigma, Mythos, Libera, Vollenweider, Mouth Music, Loreena McKennitt, Hibernia, Deuter, Deep Forest. This listing gives you an idea of the importance of the percussion and female vocals in my music.

What I’m trying to accomplish is to pull out some of the brightness from the highs – just about 5% is all – yet retain ALL of the detail. System has just a bit too much “bite” on the highs in some passages.

Considering:
Nordost Valhallas
Siltech
Stereovox (currently auditioning/burning in – too soon to tell – but beautifully constructed)

Listened to the Audience au24 – substantial loss of detail and bass was not as crisp as I like.

I've recently started to think a good idea would be to keep the silver on the interconnects to carry the detail and then go with a silver/copper hybred speaker cable to just take the edge off of the brightness.

I would appreciate your suggestions and lessons learned.
Thanks,
Jack
tao

Showing 1 response by tok20000

tok20000's avatar
tok20000
608 posts
 
[if you want to change out dig IC] Digital Cables: Stealth Varidig is very good (It is MY reference), you may want to try also the Empirical Audio's top digital and Magnan's new digital cables. I have heard all three, and all are in the same ballpark. Each does some things very well. It is pretty system dependant which one is best.

ICs: I'm with Tireguy. Jena Labs IC is hard to beat. You can get different... but deffinitively better is tough. These will NOT give you bright highs. I would try to avoid silver ICs. I would not go with Valhalla if you want to curb highs.

Speaker cables: I have heard from friends I trust that Silversmith is quite good (I have not heard it though). I like a few speaker cables expecially for their price. Xindak FS-01 and FS-02 - These cables are great; however, I'd go with the FS-01 if you are worried about the high frequency range. The FS-02 has silver in it, and can impact the highs. (This can be a good thing for some systems). The other speaker cable I would suggest is the Supra Sword. It is the most resolute cable I have had in my system and it has the most amazing mids and highs I have heard in a speaker cable. Speaker cables just do not get much better than the Supra Sword... Period. Several of my friends have sold their Valhalla for Sword.

KF
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