Full loom of the same cable brand vs mixing and matching.

Different.

Same

Both approaches are fine depending on the system and cables. More often than not you may end up with too much of a good thing using same brand/line. 

I have two brands for interconnects and one for speaker cables.

Mogami and DH Labs for the former, Mogami for the latter.

I've gone down the boutique cable route and I've found that without exception they were all subtractive.  That is, one way or another they took something away from the original signal. 

For instance, I've found Wireworld Eclipse a little dark.  Having IC's and speaker cables in Eclipse meant the whole system seemed darker, but also seemed to image better, at the cost of some overall musical energy.

I just don't have the energy and time anymore to try to split hairs among boutique brands and now just have settled on products that to me seem to let it all through.

it will likely depend on your system.
 

For most of my 50 years pursuing the high end I was forced to choose the very best components and therefore needed to choose cable and interconnect specifically for each connection. But over time a few companies began offering best of class / sound family components for DAC, Phono Stage, preamp, and amp. In this case it is preferable to ID the ideal cable / interconnect and use all the same. So, for me all my components are Audio Research and they are highly complemented with Transparent wires. So that is what I use except for the power amplifier power cord, where I use Audio Quest Hurricane… a great cord… but at the time I did not want to spend $6.5 K on the Transparent Opus and the Hurricane was better than the Transparent Reference level.

So, do you have a mixed brand system or single brand? 

I wound up with a full loom of Acoustic Zen cables just because every time I added another the sound kept getting better.  That said, I’m firmly in the “whatever works best” camp and if something comes around that sounds better I wouldn’t hesitate to change.

I prefer a variety of fruit in my loom. 

I asked the same question a while back as my dealer was insisting that my mix of cables would not sound as good as his very expensive loom of cables. The consensus I received was the quality was the same is important and that the same manufacturer was not necessarily better. 
saved me thousands. 

Whatever sounds good to you.  Just don't overthink it or overpay for it.

@mitch2 I think it’s safe to say there’s a tremendous amount of overthinking and overpaying in this group.

When someone is seriously contemplating if it’s worthwhile to upgrade a $1500 power cable to a $4500 power cable, or they are surprised that they couldn’t hear a difference between the two, it has passed well beyond the threshold of sanity and reasonableness.

But it sure is entertaining to read about.

Just my ten cents of course. 

For type A neurotics with OCD tendencies, I recommend a mix-n-match until the compliment starts to seriously impact sleep and stress levels. For the religious and superstitious, a heavy dose of experimentation amongst brands will often yield the worst results, so I'd recommend full loom. 

I TRY to use the same brand (I've pretty much settled on SR), but it doesn't always work out that way.

The way I figure it, the cables were designed and engineered in their lab/equipment space using the other cabling from their own brand, so it stands to reason (at least to me) that the cabling would be "tweaked" to match.

Again, doesn't always work out that way.....but I try to stay in my lane, whenever possible.

Currently a mix of Acoustic Zen speaker cables and WireWorld Eclipse interconnects. Erik, you are right about the WW’s, however I would describe their sound as full bodied or rich. But, I have a pair of AZ interconnects on deck, we will see how they fare against the WW’s. 

Looks like either option would work just fine @kennymacc according to Dr Poop

@ghdprentice +1

I will add a qualifier to any philosophy that a full loom/array is a preferred pathway in this alchemy of cables choice ….it depends entirely on the resolution capabilities of your system components , AND the performance capabilities / resolution of the cable model itself.

For example, from personal experience:

(1) comparison of LEIF strata models in NORDOST vs REFERENCE strata models by NORDOST

Expecting a Jesus moment uplift with a full loom in the comparative budget former model was a loser exercise, whereas an audio performance improvement with a full array option in the latter loom array was clear, unambiguous, and not insignificant.

(2) A mix and match hybrid using a mix of lower end CARDAS and third party OEM options, versus a CARDAS CLEAR full array.

The full CARDAS CLEAR loom option was the distinct and graphic performance winner….full stop, in my $50K “A” 2-channel system. It also was my preferred performance option in MY system (emphasis added) over the NORDOST full array ioption $1 immediately above,

(3) Room acoustics matter and MAY influence your choice 

Force example: I was already a full loom card-carrying CARDAS convert when I asked Josh Meredith at CARDAS about the choice between CARDAS CLEAR  vs CARDAS CLEAR  REFLECTION ( lower model)  speaker cable choices to tame the brightness in a large glass wall room. Josh explained that he had the same issue in his house. The CARDAS engineers recommend CLEAR  RELECTION as a “warmer” option based on their like glass-wall room experience. 
imfollowed their suggestion….eureka …. Thetbweeccirrect! Who knew!

TAKEAWAY: Choose wisely.

I use a full loom of the same cable in my system, I use the NeoTech Sahara which is the rectangular OCC single crystal copper not cheap but even better than the round OCC.

zlone,

if you want even better OCC single crystal try the Neotech Sahara or Amazon that's their rectangular OCC wire it blew away my round OCC from harmonic technology It's not cheap though.

I use a mix.   I have many components (e.g., 3 Nak cassette decks--that's 6 pairs of cables right there) bought over several decades, and I chose cables for each that sounded best among several I tried.  I leaned toward Cardas, but didn't think it was worth upgrading to Cardas for every component (e.g., FM tuner), so I have retained several other brands.  Most recently, I replaced my long preamp > power amp cables and speaker cables with Morrow Audio cables, and that improved transparency, but I have no urge to do a full loom.  I'm happy with the system as it is.

There's always been more than one way to skin a cat to achieve the best possible sound quality in any given audio rig.  And, cabling is no exception.  It's all good, whether you go with a full loom of the same cable brand or not.  It all depends on the individual whim of the individual audiophile.  Just that simple.  One size fits all has never applied in high end audio.  Over 15 years ago, I purchased a very expensive loom of cables from the same brand.  Currently, the only cables left in my system from 15 years ago are the speaker cables, which I'll never let go.  Now, I run three different brands of cabling in my audio rig, which I strongly believe will carry me though for at least another 15 years of service.  Happy listening.      

I believe that cable manufactures use their same level of cables throughout when designing and listening to them. I mean why not? It would be strange to use another brand.

But that being stated, unless we have all the same manufactures equipment including vintage, each component would probably perform differently with different cables.

So, mix and match to find the best cable for a particular component.

However, for the first time in a very long time, I do have a complete loom of one brand. I have made my system quite simple, with just a streamer/dac directly to mono block amps.

ozzy

Does the internal wiring of the DAC / amp / speaker / etc. match that of the interconnects and power cord? Then how’s that system “full loom?” Hipster kitsch-phrase marketing, anyone?

Feels like I read about this kind of socioeconomically-based exploitative jargon in an article by Bloomberg’s. But I don’t recall reading the full article - that would’ve cost [too much] money. 😉

@kennymacc -

 As a matter of fact, I currently use three different brands of cables in my audio system with excellent results. 

                                                          DITTO:

        Synergistic Research for my Main, monoblock amps' interconnects,  PCs on Stealth XXX Purifier and Subwoofer amp (into outlet).

                                    Zu Mothers as PCs on everything else

                                 Kimber Kable interconnects on all sources.

                                                     Happy listening!

Early on I had closer to a single loom from one manufacturer. As I heard more stuff and made more mistakes, but learned from it, I started and have continued getting the best sounding cable I felt like paying for and now have a very good sounding system with many manufacturers contributing. You have to be able to trust your ears and it helps to have good friends who have stayed with you for a while and give you second and third opinions along with good recommendations. I definitely have some good helping friends for 10+ years that assist me.

Bob

I’m using Shunyata, MIT, and Nordost!

Couldn’t be happier!! Well maybe lol. 

Michael. 

The only thing that matters is it's copper and the proper gauge for the run length. That's it. You could use coat hangers.