Several people have mentioned power cords and they can make an incredible difference, but not until the wire is refined. The power cords influence changes that are so much of the finest detail resolution that the improvements they make aren't resolved by the inferior cable. The same holds true, the best components are only different from lower quality in the realm of the suble nuances.
Price is very misleading, there are cables that seem stupidly cheap compared to Valhalla. It is very hard to do comparative listening on interconnects without upgrading the speaker cables because the influence or coloration will be there from the inferior cable. The same holds true in a worse manner doing speaker cable first because the clarity and resolution should allow you to hear the coloration of the interconnects in too much detail. As much of a catch twenty two as this is keep in mind that if the interconnects are tried in your system first you will be unable to hear the finer nuances of what they do but you will catch it when upgrading the speaker cable and probably think that is the culprit.
Valhalla can get ugly in high resolution systems because it not only is ruthlessly revealing, it places a slight edge frequency emphasis in order to make it seem like there is more more detail by being more transparent. It actually distorts the correct balance of tonal frequencies and also emphasizes any flaws that might be inherent in mid grade interconnects. The interconnects should be a higher or equal grade to the speaker cables.
There are only a few good neutral cables out there and they stay neutral from entry to their highest end cables which will compare to $10k for $2500 and $800 on interconnects. These neutral cables will stand any system in the correct light as it is colored cables that get quirky as to what kind of system they work well in.
As a dealer I spent over two years trying $400k worth of wire in every combination of entry grade equipment with every grade cable to extreme with budget to extreme wire. In both tube and solid state neutral is what works best in everything, the difference in grades of neutral is only how transparent and detailed they are. As you upgrade a wire you don't have to worry about hearing flaws in the tonal range because there are none, it's just how much detail that's determined by the grade.
Once you have a good set of wires the power cords will knock your socks off, the differences they make are in the area of detail within the detail, layering, sharpness, etc. These are changes that are to things you aren't aware exist before the wires are good enough to start hearing them.
I am writing a book on system synergy and decided to knock a section on cables in the context of understanding how they work, what they do, and which ones are most important so that you can see that good equipment means nothing if the cable loses signal detail at every set. The best equipment in the world can't deliver details that were lost in passing through cable. This logic undeniably establishes that a cable determines the amount and quality of detail that can get to the speakers. What happens if you give the signal the benefit of the best cable made? You have the highest possible detail and resolution, if you put that cable in way lower grade equipment it will make use of the detail and you will hear qualities that the megabuck gear couldn't because the inferior wire eliminated the detail.
Price is very misleading, there are cables that seem stupidly cheap compared to Valhalla. It is very hard to do comparative listening on interconnects without upgrading the speaker cables because the influence or coloration will be there from the inferior cable. The same holds true in a worse manner doing speaker cable first because the clarity and resolution should allow you to hear the coloration of the interconnects in too much detail. As much of a catch twenty two as this is keep in mind that if the interconnects are tried in your system first you will be unable to hear the finer nuances of what they do but you will catch it when upgrading the speaker cable and probably think that is the culprit.
Valhalla can get ugly in high resolution systems because it not only is ruthlessly revealing, it places a slight edge frequency emphasis in order to make it seem like there is more more detail by being more transparent. It actually distorts the correct balance of tonal frequencies and also emphasizes any flaws that might be inherent in mid grade interconnects. The interconnects should be a higher or equal grade to the speaker cables.
There are only a few good neutral cables out there and they stay neutral from entry to their highest end cables which will compare to $10k for $2500 and $800 on interconnects. These neutral cables will stand any system in the correct light as it is colored cables that get quirky as to what kind of system they work well in.
As a dealer I spent over two years trying $400k worth of wire in every combination of entry grade equipment with every grade cable to extreme with budget to extreme wire. In both tube and solid state neutral is what works best in everything, the difference in grades of neutral is only how transparent and detailed they are. As you upgrade a wire you don't have to worry about hearing flaws in the tonal range because there are none, it's just how much detail that's determined by the grade.
Once you have a good set of wires the power cords will knock your socks off, the differences they make are in the area of detail within the detail, layering, sharpness, etc. These are changes that are to things you aren't aware exist before the wires are good enough to start hearing them.
I am writing a book on system synergy and decided to knock a section on cables in the context of understanding how they work, what they do, and which ones are most important so that you can see that good equipment means nothing if the cable loses signal detail at every set. The best equipment in the world can't deliver details that were lost in passing through cable. This logic undeniably establishes that a cable determines the amount and quality of detail that can get to the speakers. What happens if you give the signal the benefit of the best cable made? You have the highest possible detail and resolution, if you put that cable in way lower grade equipment it will make use of the detail and you will hear qualities that the megabuck gear couldn't because the inferior wire eliminated the detail.