if you had my system and $2,000 budgeted for an upgrade, where would you spend it?

Low rider,  That is a good observation.  I bought all of the Cardas 300B ICs as I needed a decent amount of cables, I and I couldn't spend 8-10 grand on cables.  I figured these would be a good entry level into high-fi cables.  At $200-$300 a pair, these were affordable (in the insane hi-fi world anyway) and I thought would be a huge step above $10 garbage, and hopefully a big step above Best Buy stuff.

Can I get a big boost from improving the IC  for any one source component?  Or do I have to also upgrade the amp, pre, and sub?

Thank you everyone, for the thoughtful responses so far!

Alpha, I agree, be happy with what I've got!  Beer and vinyl sounds like a good move!

Almarg, excellent insight. I called Wisdom and the impedance is 25k.  Do I have any reason for concern there?

Totem, I have been contemplating some DIY room treatments. Where would you begin?

thanks all,
Mark

skoczylas, I made the art and the cabinet!  If you're in the market for some interesting large format photography, give me a call!
http://www.marktomaras.com

Inna, why do you dislike Cardas?  What cables do you prefer?

Lowrider,  I am using the same Cardas 300B XLR cables for every connection in the system, save for a USB that connects the mac to the dac, which is a transparent performance usb.

There are 4 runs on IC.  Would it make sense / make a difference to change only one to start with, or would I need to change all (save for the sub)?

What would be the order of importance in these connections to effect the most change?

amp - preamp
preamp - phono pre
preamp - dac
preamp - subwoofer

Thanks!

Hi, thanks Lak, I have a dedicated 20 amp breaker in my house box that feeds a shunyata outlet.  The main house box also has whole house surgery protection, to eliminate that from the audio rack.

The 20 amp circuit has feeds the Shunyata Talos on one outlet, and the other outlet is empty.  All of the other audio gear (amp, pre, phono stage, table, dac, sub) is plugged into the Talos.  The mac mini and hard drive are plugged into a different wall receptacle on a different breaker circuit.

Low rider,

The cable company seems amazing.  Perhaps cables will make the biggest difference.  

In fact, I do not have $2k for an upgrade now, but that doesn't diminish this post one bit!  I am a planner and a researcher, so I like to think about that $2k for a while, perhaps 6 months or more before I pull the trigger.  That said, I may do an experiment to listen to some excellent cables.  perhaps I can switch out the amp-pre and the pre-phono cables together and listen to the source all the way to the amp with better cabling.  I can also switch them to the DAC for testing there.  I think I will call cable company and ask for advice.

thanks!

danvignau, thank you for the input. I think the B&Ws are outclassed by the Rockport speakers and Wisdom sub, but I have daydreamed about a full range floor standing speaker!

jafant, I did not demo any Shunyata audio cables. In fact, I feel I should come clean about my cables, system wide. I never did any proper demos. I simply decided that at some point, I should have reasonable good quality interconnects, and so I began my research. I read a lot, looked at a lot of prices, and in the end, I was romanced by the Cardas story. The 300b cables represented a step above the company's most entry level cables, and they were affordable. For the speakers, I found the Cardas Cross cables to be even a notch up the pecking order, and so I added them to the system. As for power, I started with some Pangea power cables as they were a step above the cheap included cords, and were very affordable. Then I had some budget, and based on a ton of research, reading about PS Audio Powerplants, and looking at Shunyata conditioners, I scored a demo price on a Talos, a 1/2 price close out deal on the sidewinder VTX cables, and added the Venom HC for the more power hungry stuff. Last but not least, I picked up a Transparent performance USB as I was running the computer store cable. So that's the story with my cables. I am getting the feeling that the 300b IC cables are the weakest link, and that stepping those up properly to a better cable, with auditioning different options is a way to go. Any advice now that you have more info?

Mystic river, really? The DSD version is a huge improvement? Of course I have heard that, but is the difference THAT big? Does one need DSD files to realize the improvement? Most of my music is Redbook CD ripped to AIFF, but I do have a nice collection of higher res stuff.

Lak, what is the reasoning that fuses make such a difference?

Fitmartin, can you elaborate?

Thank you all for the thoughtful comments... Keep ’em coming! I am inspired to try 2 things, one at a time of course. First, room correction. I am looking into a diy sound panel. As I am a photographer, I was delighted to discover there is a printable acoustic fabric that can cover an insulation material and simple wood frame. This sounds perfect for 3 panels: one behind each speaker and one big one on the wall behind the listening position. I believe I will be starting there. Do you guys who know about room treatments think this is a reasonable starting point?

the fuses are also interesting. A rep from the cable company told me to research to see if there is a fuse between the output transformers and speaker taps in each channel in my power amp. He advised, if so, to start with those points with two high quality fuses and listen. If the results are good, continue to replace all of the fuses in the system. Does this forum agree?

thanks again,
Mark

Thank you Charles. I agree. In fact I would like a better arm and a better tone arm Cable. Since I originally wrote this post, I sold the subwoofer and Rockport monitors, and bought a pair of Wilson Sophia Series 2 speakers. It was a really nice move, the system sounds excellent.