Seeking help finding the weak link(s) in my system and offering suggestions please.

The high gain (48 db) and wide bandwidth (150 kHz) of your amp raises a bit of concern in my mind about how well the amp would react in terms of sonics to the highish capacitance of the 8TC (about 1600 pf for the 15 foot length you require, and 3200 pf if you biwire which it appears you are now doing with the Blue Jeans cable). Presumably the cable’s high capacitance is a consequence of low inductance taking priority in its design, but the 8TC’s inductance is lower than is necessary for your application given the impedance characteristics of the SF speakers.

On the other hand, Audioquest does not provide technical specs for the Rocket 44. I would contact them and ask them to tell you what its inductance and capacitance per unit length are. If they can’t or won’t tell you I would look elsewhere.

While cable specs are of course not generally useful in predicting how a cable will sound, IMO they can often be useful in identifying and ruling out candidates that have a low probability of being good matches for a particular application.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

I’m very interested in learning more about DSP Room Correction. Does anyone have experience with this and where do you start?

A good way to start may be with the following page at MiniDSP.com, and then proceeding to look into the specific products referred to near the bottom of that page:

https://www.minidsp.com/applications/digital-room-correction/drc-basics

I have no experience with and no particular knowledge of MiniDSP products, but I’ve seen them mentioned favorably here by knowledgeable members. Personally I use a DEQX HDP-5 in my system, which performs room correction as well as numerous other functions, but that and other DEQX products would not be consistent with your stated budget as well as being complex products requiring substantial learning curves.

Best regards,
-- Al

Krell Vanguard Integrated Amp.
Cambridge Audio AZURE 851N Streamer/DAC.
Sony SCD2000ES Transport/SACD player.
Luxman T117 Tuner (Best sounding component)?

I took a quick look at the descriptions and specs of these components, and I’m wondering if a factor in your perception that the tuner might be the best sounding component may be the fact that the Krell integrated amp has unusually high gain (48 db, corresponding to a sensitivity of only 0.16 volts), and consequently the relatively low output voltage of the tuner (0.7 volts in FM mode) may result in using volume control settings that are more optimal than with the other components.

I’m thinking that the high gain of the amp may be causing you to run the volume control of the Cambridge at a setting that is well below max, which can be sonically disadvantageous in the case of volume control mechanisms operating in the digital domain (as is the case with the Cambridge). And perhaps you are having to run the amp’s volume control at undesirably low settings when you listen to the Sony.

If so, you may want to consider inserting Rothwell attenuators at the inputs of the amp to which the Sony and/or the Cambridge are connected. I and a number of others here have reported fine results using Rothwell attenuators, while a few have reported them as causing some compromise to dynamics. I suspect that the latter cases may often be due to impedance issues, which would not be present with your particular components. I would avoid any inline attenuators other than the Rothwells, though, as I know that some of the others have impedances which are much more likely to be problematical.

http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/attenuators.html

Finally, since the Cambridge unit provides both balanced and unbalanced outputs, if you already haven’t I would try both and compare. I would not assume that either one would necessarily provide better sonics than the other, as it will depend on the designs of the interface circuits in both that unit and the amp.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al