Listen to wire both ways
That's it.
Only make sure you buy the best model of brand you like . So
In three year's you don't have to buy again. And you will.
Don't buy a $400 retail anything.
Only IMO
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When I was at Wisconsin there was a 92 year old student who had been
taking courses for 20 years since he sold his farm and retired .
The finally just made him graduate with a degree in philosophy, a subject
he had over 300 hours in . |
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Take out a $250K student loan, ditch the classes and buy the most expensive interconnects you can find. At least it will sound great until the foreclosure is completed |
Thanks Steve, I'm going to try your suggestions this weekend and you have a good weekend as well!! |
@luvrockin - something I've found that helps me when "listening intently" is selecting the perfect tracks to highlight system performance...
I start by listening to tracks that have lots of venue acoustics
- I tend to use classical quartets or live acoustic performances
- I'm listening for improvements in the reverberations and isolation of artists within the image and the natural tones of voice and/or instrument
Eric Clapton - Unplugged - is pretty good for both acoustics and natural tones
I also use tracks with very little "sound engineering" - I find some Norah Jones or Diana Krall tracks are very good for this
For sense of space I have two choices that are poles apart
- Classical orchestral tracks with big orchestras
- Bob Marley - Is this love - one of my most favourite tracks ever!
Both of these just melt the walls and extend the image way past my listening environment - uncanny!
Then there is the Pipe Organ - this tends to show up improvements in dynamics and bass control - the venue acoustics also tend to be very good.
Hope that helps with you listening this weekend - Stave :-) |
Very interesting! I think I'll play a bit over the long weekend. |
@luvrockin - it sounds as though you are aware that a good cable is only as good as your weakest link - be it a cable or a component. - i.e. If you have decided on a cable, then all of the cables in that signal path should be of similar quality. If a component is of a lessor quality than the cable connecting it - then that one great interconnect will not make too much difference sound quality wise. Having said that - you could simply try the cable in various places until the best sound quality is observed - i.e. trust your ears - or... - In a "phased-in" approach such as this, I would group the good components and cables together,
- so in your case I would use the good IC between the pre-amp and the main amp.
- Now you can rest assured that this signal path is performing to optimum levels.
- Later on if you try other cables between a source and the pre-amp you will probably hear more of a difference between those cables due to the settled signal path between the pre-amp and the amp.
Cables need to "settle-in" each time they are reconnected in order for them to sound their best - I have observed this can take from 24-60 hours - depending on the cable. In that time the sound quality can vary and colour a person’s judgement as to the improvements observed. Leaving a cable in place once connected is perhaps the best thing an audiophile can do. Re-seating can be performed from time to time, but no more than a couple of times a year - if that. And - make sure to re-seat all of the cables at the same time and then allow for settling. This applies to ALL cables, but there are times when pulling the power cable cannot be avoided - i.e. lightening storms. Hope that helps - Steve |
I’ve seen it both ways. The real truth is that this is system dependent and has everything to do with synergy between components. I was originally of the mind that the best cable should be on the source. However, I have found that possibly the best cable should be the last cable right before the amplifier (which contributes to the last bit of sonic signature character). It was in another system where we had two cables, one with a higher resolution. It turned out that the higher resolution was best placed between the preamp and the amplifier. When we put higher resolution cable at the source, the overall sound quality dropped and the sound became somewhat smeared from the lo-res cable at the amp. For those of you who don’t know, the preamp actually has the input signal run through a resistor (input impedance) and then through an op amp or discrete analog circuit with negative feedback gain. This analog circuit essentially "re-generates" the waveform using voltage from the preamp power supply. A preamp will typically have two inverting analog circuits with a volume control (potentiometer or resistor ladder) in between these two circuits (with gain). As long as the input waveform is close to what you need, the "re-generated" waveform is mostly dependent on the preamp power supply and circuit quality. So, the interconnect between the preamp and amplifier may play an even more important part than the interconnect from the DAC/source. Not all preamps have two analog circuits. There may be some that have a single non-inverting analog circuit, probably with the volume potentiometer before the circuit. This works more as a "buffer circuit". |
My advice: jump off the Transparent merry-go-round. Love my TA Reference XL XLR IC’s but there are a lot of great alternatives for far less $$.
However, if you have the money to spare, TA’s top stuff is hard to beat.
Dave |
All of my cables are now Transpareny Audio. They are more on the lower end if the scale using the Super MM2 technology and Ultra XL. All cables are balanced (xlr). Speaker cables are TA Super MM2 as well. The power cords are TA Premium. As for replacing the DAC, I'm not sure if I doubled the cost of the Codex on a different DAC, I could possibly equal it but not sure if would beat it. At that point, where does it end? I recently upgraded cables to the Super and Ultras and I noticed huge differences in sound quality. That was why I was kicking around upgrading once again to TA Referance balanced but I could only do one pair at this time. That's why I'm looking for opinions on the best placement of the TA Referance along with one set of my existing cables in the system. |
I think your biggest concern is which interconnect to buy that will work best for your tastes and in your system. It would be helpful to know what interconnects you're using now and what you're areas you're looking to improve upon and you'll likely get some good recommendations here. Once you choose you can try it in both positions and then it's up to you regardless of what we say here.
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I see. Usually at the source, yeah, but you would have to experiment. And I would certainly maintain one brand approach. |
+1 mr_m. Same for power cords IME.
Dave |
My experience is to use higher quality interconnects at the source component. |
I would not buy them at all but put the $$ into an EITR, an optical isolator or a better DAC.
If I were forced to buy cables, I'd try out the Lush which a lot of people like (no real listening tests on them tho).
I would always address the problematic USB interface and the speaker cables before mucking about with interconnects, which should be balanced anyway. |
So many great cables out there. Both from the industry mainstays as well as boutique makers. My recent experiences indicate that the actual sonic supremacy of the former has narrowed as the latter has improved at a higher rate (in some cases) over the past few years and often (but not always) sell at a lower cost.
However, a great cable is a great cable and the big boys’ $$ cables can be lifetime investments. At least they are in some positions in my system as I experiment with some newer brands in other positions with good success.
I am getting comfortable that extreme spending is not required anymore except in the most demanding equipment/listener situations. NOT to say that the entry level stuff is sufficient for most audiophiles with higher-resolving systems and a discerning ear, only that intelligently-selected moderately-priced offerings from the relative newcomers can be very close to the best (and most costly).
Dave |
I have Transparent Premium cords on preamp, power amp, Bluesound Vault, DAC and Equi-1800 power Conditioner along with hospital grade 20A receptacles and a dedicated circuit. |
I would first put a good power cord on the preamp and see what happens. |
Transparent Audio Super mm2 XLR on one end to Transparent Audio Referance mm2 which is a couple product lines higher in the TA line. |
what do you consider a higher quality set of interconnects ? |
It varies from system to system, of course. But more often than not the importance of a line-level analog interconnect can be expected to be greatest where the output impedance of the component providing the signal into the cable is highest, especially if there is a considerable difference between the output impedances of the two components. Sensitivity to cable differences will also tend to increase as cable length increases, and will often tend to be greater if the cables are unbalanced as opposed to balanced.
Regards,
-- Al
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IMHO, Yes, start at your source.
ozzy |
