Mix & Match Interconnects

I've mixed and matched quite a bit over the years, but I'm currently living happily with the synergistic sound of my whole system (2 channel only) wired with the same interconnect/speaker cable. The Tara Labs Decade.

I'm kinda scratching my head at the last couple of posts, starting with S23chang. So I'm supposed to get a clean, neutral cable from source to preamp, and then a different cable between preamp and amp to help offset the things I don't like about the source cable? I'm confused. Why wouldn't I just pick a cable that I like and use it? I'm not saying that you have to use the same cable, I just don't understand why I have to use a clean, neutral cable if that is not my tastes. I've heard plenty of cables that are called neutral, they sound lean or thin to me. Do I have to use them? And then buy a cable that is overly colored and slow to off set the leanness? Using Mike's example, he likes the XLO Signature, that's his cup of tea. I find that my Tara Labs Decade balances nicely between the syrupy Cardas and the lean XLO (my cup of tea). So I use the Decade throughout my system. You're saying that I should get a pair of XLO Signature between my source and preamp and then balance that out by using a Cardas Golden Reference between preamp and amp? Is this what you're saying? I would then ask why? IMO that's like heating up food so it's too hot to eat, then putting it in the freezer to cool it down so it's edible. Why not just heat it to the proper temperature in the first place? Yes, accidents happen, and we all might need to use the freezer from time to time. However, if you've learned to cook to your tastes, why make the freezer part of the cooking SOP?
In other words, yes, you can put a yang cable in to help balance too much of a yin cable, but if you find a cable that's balanced to your tastes, why not use it everywhere?

Maybe I just misread you, but I don't understand what you're saying. Could you clarify?

Cheers,
John

Jayctoy, so you are recommending getting to most open and neutral cable for the source, even if I don't like the sound of it? Then band-aid the leanness that I hear in cables that are deemed neutral by placing a slow, syrupy cable between the preamp and amp to add body. That is the formula for a good system setup? Well, I guess whatever works for you. I've been there and done that, but personally, it didn't work for me. I found it best, for me, to buy a cable that I liked the sound of from the start. Then just buy another one, and another one. That was easier for me than constantly trying different cables to help band-aid faults I found in the other cables that I was supposed to like, because they were alledgedly neutral.

I do realize that there are more than one way to skin a cat, so if buying a neutral cable and then buying another cable to help mask that sound the neutral cable makes works for you, then I'm all for it.

Cheers,
John

Jayctoy, that makes more sense. I did that 'fine tuning' for more years than not. I was only trying to make a point that it is possible to find a cable that you like the balance of so much that you can build your whole system around it. It's not easy, and takes years of searching, and for some, it may never happen. It may not be the most neutral or musical or blah, blah, blah. If it pleases your ears, why not buy more of it? That's all I was getting at. It's like a happy marriage, they are not easy to find, but they do exist (or so I'm told).

Cheers,
John