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One Super high end cable or mid level set?

Has anybody out of choice decided to allocate all of their cable budget on one super high end model (say for just as an example a Nordost Vallhalla or Odin interconnect) whilst keeping there other cables at a much cheaper range or evan stock.
As opposed to the presumable much more common practice of buying a more 'balanced' mid level but complete cable loom ( again just as an example Nordost Red Dawn)
I suppose the question is can an 'incredible' never to be upgraded single cable produce a more magical ( or even equal) sound ,( supposing of course that it is of suitable quality to reveal these qualities.) than the compromised but more balanced set?
128x128pcoombs

Showing 3 responses by mceljo

mceljo
1,351 posts
 
Let make the assumption that you're getting the last 10% of improvement for ten times the cost and the mid-level cable cost is $250. It would make far more sense to have 10 cables that are capable of 9 out of 10 compared to a single 10 out of 10 while the rest are only 1 or 2 out of ten.

Having said all of this, I think the last 20-50% is mostly placebo or at least not much beyond different rather than better.
mceljo
1,351 posts
 
Pani - Your response makes no sense to me. Let me explain.

Assuming a CD player outputs a perfect signal via a perfect cable, that signal is going to be processed in a pre-amp and sent via an 80% "perfect" cable to the amplifier. I don't understand how the second cable would be any less important than the first as it would be the limiting factor. The only way to justify that a cable sound better, rather than different, is to assume that it somehow carries more or more detailed information that would be filtered out in the second cable. Obviously, the better the signal at any one stage the better the end result, but I don't see how one super cable could really make a significant difference beyond the bling knowledge.

I'm certainly not an expert, it just doesn't make sense to me.
mceljo
1,351 posts
 
Pani,

Your "scientific" explaination makes sense to me. I wasn't thinking about the reletive magnitudes of the signals at different points in the system. It would seem that if it does actually make as much difference as you suggest that having IC specifically designed for each application would make sense and would certainly sell to people that have more money than synergy.

I'll probably be a bit skeptical of the difference in sound simply from chaning IC's, but admittedly have not heard an A/B and might be surprised.

All cables have some level of loss in the signal so it's really about purchasing cables that eliminate the part of the signal that you prefer to have missing. Cables cannot add information so the only explaination for any change in sound is a loss. It's a necessary evil.
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