Interconnects

many do not realize that Transparent makes some great low cost cables

Cheetahs or heavily discounted Colorados are both good choices. The Colorado is warmer and more laid back, but has more 3D imaging. Cheetahs are more neutral. For 500 bucks used you may also be able to get a Niagara, which I like better than either -- though that impression is based on only 1 pair from SUT to phono stage, vs. multiple pairs and multiple usages I’ve had of both Cheetah & Colorado. On all of these you should be able to resell with minimal losses, but of course beware of counterfeits -- I’ve seen a counterfeit Sky pop up a couple of times here, recently.

Long ago I ran an A21 with Legacy Signature III. The A21 was a great amp and pretty much got the most out of those Sigs that they had to offer -- close to even the JC-1 monos I acquired later. I think the A21 has a nice sonic signature (the right amount of warmth for a SS amp) that would work well with silver cables.

Check out Darwin cables. They are not frequently advertised and they are an exceptional sounding cable for the money. 

Check out a used set of AUDIENCE Au24 SE. Great clarity, speed and very natural and quiet.  They should be close to your budget

I found some Clarity Cables Organic on here so I bought them. Thanks to all for your time and input. This forum is a great resource.
Al

$500 and something really good.  Hmm.  Good luck with that or try to buy used, but even that option will leave you with old generation.  There have been so many significant advancements with cables.  You have a great system why downgrade it.  I think you should reconsider the budget.

A year ago I tried several different interconnects, I landed on the SR Atmosphere Level 4.  They're the bomb.  Exepensive but they perform well above their price point.

Good luck with the hunt.

RCA cables can only ever equal or be second best to XLR. RCA connectors were developed as a low cost solution for phonographs which is why they are often still called phono jacks. They are perfectly adequate if you simply need to connect a TT, however they are a bit of a compromise for other active audio equipment that run on line level signals. You really should consider equipment that has XLR connectors if you are prepared to spend that kind of money on cables.

Many of the problems with RCA interconnects come from inevitable minuscule grounding differences between various powered components. Balanced XLR seeks to eliminate or minimize these inevitable problems from connecting two devices running off their own separate power supplies. XLR also has better shielding and immunity to RF/EM.

If you invest in quality balanced components with XLR interconnects then you are always in advantageous position compared to RCA. RCA might equal XLR in a perfect world with no slight grounding differences in the different components you have chosen (this is luck) or RF/EM issues (again luck).

In the audiophile world you may connect TT, Phono Amp, pre-Amp, power amp which is 4 devices and already there is a reasonable chance of a problem. In the pro world a lot more equipment gets connected and the probability of an issue is even higher. Pro has remained using XLR while consumer audio uses the cheaper solution of RCA.

Audiophile equipment manufacturers that offer XLR in addition to RCA are providing you a trouble free route to connecting a variety of high quality equipment from other manufacturers. This allows you choose equipment that is best for you and the sound you seek rather than trial and error of finding gear that connects well together.

Note that as equipmemt ages you may also develop ground differences between equipment that may have worked fine with RCA in the past - so balanced XLR also helps ensure interconnect troubles are kept to a minimum even as equipmemt ages.

The best cables for more applications in the world are van den Hul. They have 63 pages of Audio cables. They supply cabling to 38 equipment manufacters including B&W Focal SME to name a few. van den Hul has been in the cable business since 1980

IMO: Auditioning cables is not one of the great pleasures of life.
In fact, it can consume way more time than it’s worth. ;^)

Whatever you decide to get, $500-$600  should buy a very good but not excellent new cable.

Add me to the list recommending you try ClearDay.  The price is right and they are very musical.

Look into Silnote.. They are all over Audiogon. When my system was in your ballpark, they sounded fantastic. And they are very reasonably priced and discounted.

AQ. Great selection. Great build quality. Great sound. 

" In my system the Audioquest Cheetah works best between CDP and preamp."

Same here. I can't get the silver to sound good between an amp and preamp. It always sounds like the highs are detached, or separated from the rest of the music. I have to use a copper cable. 

In my system the Audioquest Cheetah works best between CDP and preamp. I use Wywires Platinum between pre and power amp. A match made in heaven.

Musaeus LE.

It's worth to try clear day cables, they are good.Paul is a very nice guy to deal with.although cerious cables are also worth trying, I have read good review, I have the Columbia it's also on sale,at music direct it's a good one.

there really are dozens of good choices, in part you need to decide how much time you want to spend auditioning cables in your own system and room...

I have considered Morrow Audio because Legacy used their cables at trade shows 

I have been using Morrow Audio cables for some time now and am very pleased. They seem to perform very well for the price but then who knows? Maybe I'm missing something, maybe I'm not. Hard to know unless you try several options. I like the fact that they offer regular sales and a good trade up policy along with good deals on used cables. They make it easy to upgrade. Check them out.

I also agree with the Audioquest Cheetah,,, I have a set. IMHO, the Clear Day Cables are better. Additionally they are under $500. per meter, XLR or Single Ended. 

N

Tara Labs RSC series IC's are wonderful !!  ( RSC stands for Rectangular Solid Core)

Hey 8lanair
Im very happy with the Sigs. 
Thanks for the input 

Acoustic zen throughout here ..

You could also try Mad Scientist HAC..
Very neutral, excellent stage.
I'm using Pass XP 20, 250.8 and PS Audio Direct Stream with the same speakers you're using.

" Go to musicdirect.com   They have Audioquest Colorado at 60% off!  My entire system is wired with AQ Colorado.  Clear, clean sound!  Go for it."

Those are very good cables, as well. I have a couple pairs myself. In this case, I would still recommend the silver, unless you plan on moving the cables around. AQ copper IC's always sound good no matter where you put them. Silver, on the other hand, will either sound better or worse than copper in the same application, so you need to be careful. 


 

Go to musicdirect.com   They have Audioquest Colorado at 60% off!  My entire system is wired with AQ Colorado.  Clear, clean sound!  Go for it.

mb 1audio +1

Audioquest Cheetah with 36 volt supply. Make sure it is not a counterfeit.

There are so many options and prices, I don’t know where to begin.

As might be expected, you are receiving a wide range of suggestions.

Cable performance will be significantly affected by the design and technical characteristics of the components the cable is connecting. I note that the Cyrus CDi appears to have a two-prong AC receptacle, as does its optional external power supply if you are using it. That will, to some degree, work in the direction of lessening the criticality of your interconnect choice, because it will eliminate susceptibility to ground loop-related noise and/or jitter issues, that in turn can increase sensitivity to interconnect cable differences.

My suggestion is that you can narrow the range of choices by researching the cable types others are using in conjunction with solid state CD players having unbalanced outputs and two-prong IEC receptacles or power cords. I believe that many of the CD players made by Marantz fit those criteria.

Also, FWIW, the suggestion by Herman strikes me as intriguing.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Check out Darwin cables. They have a special offers section that may accommodate your needs, price wise. All of my ICs are Darwin.

All the best,
Nonoise

The very best cables in the world are as follows, in no particular order: Purist Audio Design, Echole, Jorma, Stage III Concepts, HB Cable Design. Of those you can only get some Purist and HB, I guess.

Second the Clear Day ICs that Paul makes. I found them pretty transparent.

Clear Day Cable. Paul makes some very nice silver interconnects. 

N

Thank you all. Always nice to get a helping hand

the previous Cerious Nano is also excellent

I'm having trouble navigating Cerious Technologies web site 

Cerious or Discovery

Al, I suggest you take a look at the Cerious Technologies Graphene line of products. Under your price range and outperforms products costing much more. Here is a link to a discussion on Audiogon:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/cerious-technologies-new-graphene-cables

You should be able to find a good used pair of AQ Cheetahs for less than $500. For your application, I think a silver cable will be a better choice. No reason to spend more. I use the same cables on some very expensive equipment and have no desire to upgrade.

These are definitely worth a look and consideration... KLEI gZero2 & 3 ICs

That's a nice setup. If you can save up a bit more, I would recommend checking out the new Jorma Duality cables from Sweden. Duality replaces the previous No.2 model & has twin runs of cable for positive & negative. Jorma cables in a word sound natural, and are well balanced, smooth and have good tone and texture.

Duality will be the same price as the old No.2, hence about $1750 for a 1.0mtr pair. More than your budget, but in my experience, if you start out with better cables than you think you need now, they will be keepers when you upgrade your amps, speakers & front end later on. FWIW, I run a full loom of Jorma cables in my system, so i'm a bit biased. But I rate Jorma very highly against Siltech or Nordost for example.