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Double your pleasure with same cable throughout?


Howdy sports fans,

I’m a bit aprehensive and certainly more than a little confused about recent events and would really appreciate some insights from those who have done a likewise effort…. I'm talking about runing SAME BRAND and/or brand & model IC throughout a system. As to culminate this venture by so doing, will be a fairly costly thing and thus delay my finishing things up with my sys…. though I'd rather a delay than a re-do. Been there, done that, on the re-do thing.

I’ve been in the hunt for a different XLR IC from my preamp to amp lately. I found something quite interesting during that process. After (and still), trying several previously ‘untried’ brands in that spot, along with some of the same brand/model, as was/is already exsisting upstream, I’ve thus far found that the EXACT same brand as the source to preamp cable provides the greatest enhancement. The same brand & model, even more so…

Is this common?

Perhaps much of the ‘cabling’ going on in the majority of systems I see here at Audiogone in the various posted systems is a ‘cost’ driven exorcise. Can’t say for sure… and perhaps not, though surely it would be understandable were it so. Given the results, which really speak for themselves, I fail to understand Why then, aren’t more systems running the same brand IC and/or even the same model IC, as wel throughout a system?

Using a MIT Mag 3 on my source, and inserting another MIT offering between pre & amp, remarkable improvements were realized. First was the Shotgun S2, and following it, a Mag 3…. I stopped there as info I gained about which level of IC should be put where seems to indicate the source IC should be of a higher level than the pre to amp IC... or the same, but no further up than the upstream IC as a general rule.

Is this simply a thing MIT has going for themselves? Would even greater positive attributes be realized by adding MIT speaker wires too? Or maybe that’s too much of a good thing?

Or is this just a fluke?

I’m still looking and have a few more items to review before making my choice… but it’s getting closer to ‘buying time’ and I thought I’d ask those in the know… still I want to try both Synergistic REs Ref, and Nirvana SX & SL, as well before deciding. Other cables I've put in have been from decent to outstanding, for the most part thus far, but 'same same' sure has the edge right now.

SURE DO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND INFO…
blindjim

Showing 3 responses by douglas_schroeder

douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Just last night, I put in a Tice Infinite Speed power cord in place of the Tice PC-2 cord which was going to the cdp. That one power cord changed the dynamics of the MIT 750 Shotgun S3 speaker cables I had just bought.
Initially, I was unimpressed with the MIT cables. They sounded no more detailed than the Tice cables. It sounded like someone electronically changed the pitch of the music (which makes sense, when one considers that MIT uses electronics inside their boxes on the cables!). However, just the change of one power cable radically improved the MIT speaker cable's sound! The cabling end of audio is constantly surprising me!
My point: Every cable in a high enough resolving system will have a large enough impact on sound to merit experimentation. I have tried rigging the entire system with two or three brands: Audioquest, Harmonic Technology, Tice. Of the three, Tice speaker and IC wires are my favorite.
However, only through mixing and matching of power cords has the best of the system been brought out. Currently with Xindak FP-Gold power cords running to amps and the Tice to the cdp.

It truly is an art similar to becoming a good chef. Experimentation/trial and error will bring you to a good conclusion. Be prepared to have several hundred dollars, even a couple thousand tied up in wires for a while, but in the end you can (if you purchased them prudently) will be able to recoup most of your money and will have significantly improved the sound.

If you stick with only one brand of cabling, you will never really know what your components are capable of.
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Blindjim, you have great insight; outersight may be a bit rough, as based on your moniker and comments, but good insight! :)

I must say, I AM thoroughly enjoying the MIT speaker cables. I am actually using a run of the Tice for the subwoofers, which seems to sound marvelous along with the MIT's on the mains. I am hanging on to the Tice second set since when the new speakers arrive, they will be quite different sounding, and a new test will be in order.

I found that "synergy" with cables all being one brand is a double edged sword. Both with Audioquest and even more so with Harmonic Technology, the characteristic sound that their wires gives was pleasantly increased by addition of more of their proudct into the rig. However, at some point, it seemed to me the scale was tipped and I found myself thinking "that's too much" of their characteristic sound. Audioquest, I found had nice detail, but the soundstage was not all that large. Harmonic Technology was expansive sounding, shockingly "open" but when multiple cables were used it actually began to sound distorted to me, like it was losing focus.
It seemed a case of "too much of a good thing" where at first, the novelty of the change seemed superior, but with time, I found I was still fidgeting to try and eliminate the negative aspects of the "full system" wiring. Only using a mix and match method has yielded the results I was listening for.

The Tice cables are the only ones I have owned where I could live with it wiring the entire system, but even there, I ended up moving in two Xindak FP-Gold power cords on the Pathos amps, and WALA a new world opened up! I was SOOOO glad I didn't stop where I was.

I hear a very dramatic change in the sound just by swapping power cords! If I were to reverse the setup, and put one Xindak on the cdp, and two Tice on the Pathos Classic One's, the sound would easily be noticeably different (I actually did that, but the Xindaks were far better on the amps).
When one changes speakers, as well, the cable "merry go round" starts all over again...
It really has been a headache at times to get to the point of high quality throughout the cabling in the system, but once done, oh so well worth it! I can tell I'm at a VERY good place in the system which is almost perfectly pleasing to my ears, since I have several power cords, IC's and speaker wire laying about and yet I have no compulsion to be swapping them out. To me, that says, the system is sounding very musical/fulfilling to my ears. I agree that the ultimate test is if the head bobs and the feet twitch when the sound is pleasing. A very good indicator of things going right.
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
One last thought; I would not try to use cabling to "fix" what's perceived as a major flaw in the system's sound. If you just don't like what's happening, look for a component change, not a cable change. There may be exceptions, but typically I have seen that one gets "larger" payoffs by changing other components than cables.
If you like your gear and want to tweak it to improve what's already enjoyed, then go for the wire wackiness!
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