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Which Cables Are of Most Importance?

In a hi-end system, McIntosh, B&W, which cables will give me the most bang for the buck between IC's, speaker, power and HDMI? Which cables are most important and which are least important? Will concentrating my $$ in any one or two cables give me the most bang for the buck?
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Showing 2 responses by frogman

frogman
7,494 posts
 
Any information lost cannot be retrieved further downstream, no matter how good the cable (or other piece of gear) further downstream. Any distortion added to the signal cannot be corrected by a better cable (or other piece of gear) further downstream.
frogman
7,494 posts
 
Just revisiting this thread. Almarg, you said:

****the converse is also true. Any information that is lost or distortion that is added by a downstream component or cable cannot be corrected by anything further upstream!****

Absolutely true. But the reasoning behind my comment, and it's suggestion that if a compromise must be made (budget-wise), it makes more sense to keep the signal as pure as possible, for as long as possible, by using the best possible IC. IOW, assuming that NONE of the cables in the system are total garbage (unlikely these days; thankfully), and barring any gross technical incompatibilities, it seems to make sense that the end result will be better if the speaker cables are asked to pass a signal that is less distorted by the IC (better IC), than to have a better (more revealing) speaker cable revealing the problems of a lesser quality IC.

I welcome your thoughts.
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