Does creating a loom in cables in a system make a significant difference?


I use a mix of different cables for interconnect, speaker and digital cables.  I have no complaints. The music sounds great!   I seize upon good values for superior cables from Audiogon and Audiomart US.  I'm setting up a system in another room  and I'm wondering if I should stick with one brand of cable throughout or just keep buying high quality cables regardless of brand.  I'd appreciate your thoughts.

styleman

Man, I’m SO tempted to just say yes, but my experience is that cables can be such a crapshoot who the hell knows? I personally think there’s more than one road to success here, so unfortunately that means it’s really a trial and error affair in the end. I actually have all Acoustic Zen except for power cables that are Cullen, but I’ll likely try an AZ power cable at some point just to see what I get. I’d suggest if you have a favorite cable in your system try adding another and see if it improves or not. I really liked my AZ Satori double barrel shotgun cables and as I added their interconnects and finally their MC2 digital cable things kept getting better, which is how I ended up where I am. That said, I think it’s perfectly possible to get great sound from mixing n matching as you’ve obviously already discovered.  How’s that for a wishy-washy non answer?

I say no. A look at my system will show you a bunch of mixed brands, equipment and cables. And the end result is more than plenty satisfactory to say the least. It's more about getting each component and cable that has the best sound for value, and it will rarely be the same brands.  Open your mind. Who cares whether it's all blue dials... or identical color cables. Your ears certainly won't.

using cables from the same company makes more sense but if you're going to use any kind of cables get OCC single Crystal because it is far superior than anything ofc on the market at any price, but there's also cheaper and higher-end OCC single crystal wire as well so as you go up in price things get better and better but OCC single crystal is the best wire for audio and it has been proven for over 50 years to be the best.

While I respect the views of those who through personal and in some cases very long positive experience with a cable loom, my ears will probably never discern a difference among high quality elements from different companies. I don't have the Golden Ear ability to distinguish between the subtle differences in SQ described by equipment reviewers and members of this forum.  When I was at Axpona in April at a Nordost exhibit, the rep there put me down for not having a Nordost loom. My system sounds great nevertheless with mix and match.  I am able to distinguish some differences in cables. I started out with inexpensive Cullen IC and digital Cables (heavy gauge copper) but I sensed a "blanket" over the music compared to my older Kimber cables. My speaker cables were Nordost Blue Heaven, (upgraded to Tyr 2) in both cases.  My outlets are 20 amp and my conditioner and power cables are Shunyata.  I then switched to Synergistic silver and the difference to me was dramatic (and no harshness as some have warned).  But posting the question was my own reality check.

I always thought a wire loom was a way to keep your wires neat and tidy, regardless of brand.