Need help - High-end cabling strategy


I need some help - a little help and experienced ears on specific cable selection, but more importantly some thoughts on an overall cabling "strategy".

I have just completed an major overhaul of my electronics moving from a Mark Levinson integraed to a Mark Levinson 320S Pre driving a Halcro DM38 Power amplifier. My source is an Electrocompaniet EMC-1UP CD player all driving Egglestonworks Rosa loudspeakers. Current speaker cables are Analysis-Plus Big Silver Ovals. Power cords are all stock.

My first priority is (and should be, right?) interconnects. I am currently demo-ing a pair of Siltech SQ110 balanced ICs CD to Pre and really like the sound (focused, wide, balanced tone). Pre to power is a demo pair of Van Den Hul Jubilees (also balanced) I live in Shanghai, China so my choices with local dealer are really limited to these 2 brands.

So several "strategic" questions... I've got $40K plus into electronics, so I am prepared to buy serious cables to match the system, but I want to be sane about this. How to allocate and prioritize my cable investment on the front end (CD to Pre) versus the back end (Pre to power)? If I plan to spend another $4-5K on cables in the short term, should I put it all into killer ICs (like the Siltech Classic series) and live with stock power cords for a while or should I spread out more evenly across the system? Should I put a ultra high-end IC CD to Pre (like the Siltech Forbes Lake) and something much more modest from Pre to Power or am I better off "balancing" these two?

Thanks to all!

Brad
bradleypeacockba28

Showing 1 response by blindjim

Hi,

Personally I went another way around it all. I BEGAN with PC's for the most part... Putting in a good overall IC from pre to amp, not changing it at all and then I moved along from the source to pre to amp to speakers. I didn't see any real logic ... and there is no truly right or wrong way to do it actually. and let's face it, how do you know what's what until it's all hooked together with something anyhow? Ya gotta have IC's, PC's, and speaker wires at some point, or you've got a mighty expensive door stop (s). So I wouldn’t get too strung out on crazed idea of managing wires in some magic fashion that is end all or be all in scope. It’s a hobby for goodness sake.

Power cords, for me seem to make greater diffs in the sonics. More so than with IC’s. I found good PC's made even lesser priced IC’s sound OK. And naturally, better ones sounded better. You’ve a couple good IC’s already….though in the end you may do better with others… I put a better IC on the source, than on the amp…. And that seems about the standard approach. Dropping to a bit lower level in speaker cable again, or keeping the level of the pre to amp IC constant seems fairly common. Regarless the rhetoric if you look at the systems online most systems don’t have the same value of speaker cable as the ic’s… and perhaps because speaker wires are usually more costly. . . and oft times, longer. Due to config issues, and cost… I chose to do right by speaker wires last. Just got to get in where you fit in and pedal on through. Aside from wires, the BIGGEST noticeable change and likely the MOST noticeable, was in isolation devices. Simply remarkable.. were I to start over I’d start there. Isolation. Then conditioning, then PC, etc… Just ‘cause you’re a bit off the beaten path shouldn’t mean you can’t try stuff out direct from the makers… though you might have to pay for it up front, all I’ve ever dealt with have a fully refunded period for trials. Have fun.