You know you have audiophile system when...

@jb1 - I like this one.

@wyoboy - As often happens, the responses were not what I was looking for.  In my system I have considered it to be an audiophile system since I first purchased it, but after rolling tubes and playing with power cables and interconnects it because apparent that it was at a very different level.  I think the investment in cables that truly made the difference was about $250 which is relatively insignificant compared to the overall value of my system, but it made a huge difference.

@wyoboy - In my system, a Waudio 10AWG power cable made a significant difference for my amplifier and both Chicago and now Sydney interconnects from Audioquest made a significant difference between my DAC and amplifier. I have some other cables in the system, but really believe that these two made the most (if not all) difference. I’m not one to spend hours swapping things to verify everything to the Nth degree. I tend to decide what I want to upgrade to and if I don’t hear anything to the contrary I just go with it. The two cables above made immediate improvements in my system that were as significant to my ears as tube rolling has been in my Pathos Classic One MkIII amplifier.

I struggle to really describe the changes, but the change is signicant enough that I can "hear it" even on recordings that I have not listened to for a long time.  There's just a dynamic and depth that wasn't there prior to the cable upgrades.

@wyoboy - I have an Audioquest AC-14XL for my DAC and I have not noticed any obvious differences/improvements.

Before I upgraded from Chicago to Sydney interconnects I emailed Audioquest to answer some questions that had after reviewing their line-up.

The Bridges and Falls series are a single cable and the Rivers and Elements series are two individual cables (required for some setups) so the relative price point isn't an obvious indicator of quality across the series.

Their assessment was that Sydney would be a slightly better than Red River.  Red River is superior to Golden Gate.  They recommended Golden Gate ($80 for 1 meter) as being superior to Chicago ($100 per 1 meter).

My assessment is that I should have purchased Golden Gate over Chicago originally as a better value and think that Sydney is one of the better values when comparing price point to included design features.

I don't think that I'd upgrade from Red River to Sydney as I wouldn't expect a significant difference.  Part of the reason that I chose Sydney is that it was about the most I'd be willing to pay.  The Mackenzie is the next one up in price point and I believe that the triple-balanced design is optimized for balanced audio and they have just put RCA connectors on it because they can.  They did confirm that all other things being equal, the double-balanced design is superior for RCA use and that their lines will be splitting as they have done with the Yukon.

@wyoboy  - I specifically asked them about the double vs. triple because with single ended cables there is only two conductors, so there isn't anything beyond double to be balanced.  It doesn't mean that a triple-balanced design can sound good with single ended connectors, but I think it would be expected to result from other design factors.  It's kind of a snake oil move to put single ended connectors on a cable designed for balanced audio as the result is just a more expensive cable that likely doesn't have the same performance value as it would for balanced audio.  Too many customers simply assume that farther up the line and more expensive is always better.  Sometime audio manufactures advertise things that simply don't pass the common sense test.  The fact that the Yukon interconnects are double-balanced for RCA and triple-balanced for XLR with all of the other features being the same made me curious enough to ask about it.

There's only so many ways to connect a cable with either two conductors or three conductors...

@wyoboy - Sounds like you got a good deal and a solid value.

If I had it to do over I'd have gone with Golden Gate as a first step and then would upgrade to the Sydney.  The first step was an inexpensive step to prove to myself that upgraded interconnects would make a difference in my system.

@simonmoon - I'm not sure that I agree with you that the majority of audiophiles are "music first" in their enjoyment.

I know way more people that enjoy music than enjoy audio equipment.  People that are truly music first seem to be able to equally enjoy music live, on the radio in the car, or over the speakers that grocery store equally.  In my experience, most of them don't even recognize the value of an high end system.  It's curious to me why so few people will listen to a system like mine and not immediately recognize how superior it is to anything that they have heard before, but even within the subset of those that do recognize and enjoy the difference almost none feel any need to get into high end gear.  My conclusion is that for the vast majority of people the actual sound quality of the music doesn't improve their listening experience in a meaningful way.

Obviously, audiophiles do greatly enjoy music or else they wouldn't invest so much of their time and resources in the hobby, but I think that if sound quality is a factor then the music itself is already taking a step back.

On a related note, I queued up some music for my wife last night that I know she enjoys and the end result was an Amazon search for a better quality recording.  It was an exceedingly poor recording that was unlistenable even for her. I was prepared to gut it out with the goal of her truly enjoying the music.  Even her music first approach to listening has its limits.  I wonder if I played it through my home theater receiver with some processing if it could be salvaged?