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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 nsgarch

nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
That system is right up there in terms of getting top cables to show what the can really do. Brands? Siltech of course. Also Purist, Transparent, and a couple others -- we know who the are, and who they ain't! It's a short list in any case (Definitely Purist Dominus for PCs IMO)

There is disagreement about which to implement first. I say pre to amp then speakers, then sources then PCs. Here's the "why" of this strategy: By having great pre-to-amp cables (and speaker cables) in place first, you'll be able to better determine what cable(s) work best with your different sources, since that's the place where you'll be trying the most combinations of different things, and you want to be able to make accurate comparisons, which you can't do if you leave the pre-to-amp and speaker cables to last.

PCs definitely last -- because though they do make a difference, you won't be able to hear it confidently until everything else is dialed in.

FWIW, I (and others) have found that sticking to one manufacturer throughout the system seems to work best (except maybe for PCs)
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