@ghdprentice — thanks for your direct experiences with cabling for ARC. It sounds like you went through a lot of cables to arrive at the Transparents plus the Audioquests for power. Unfortunately I am not seeing any options for a trial run but I suppose I could call them.
I also appreciate your perspective on the relative investment in cables. At this point I want to find a good match with my ARC reference gear and continue to ponder my speaker options. The Stage 3 cables have a reputation as super high end, but the $15k is just speakers and two interconnects, leaving me with 3 power cords to go!
Maintaining a "Balanced" System Design?
After recently upgrading my phono stage, amp and preamp to all ARC, I have begun to explore speakers and have plans to listen to some Joseph Audio Perspectives in the coming week.
However, in the process of talking with the dealer, it was suggested that I should upgrade my interconnects and speaker cabling. He has suggested all Stage III gear, which is almost as expensive as the JA speakers.
My question is not to necessarily debate speakers or cables, but to instead hear some thoughts about not over-weighting one's system with a component that exceeds the rest of the gear. For instance, I realized that my current turntable/tonearm/cartridge combination deserved more than the $3k phono stage I had been using. So I moved up to an ARC and really noticed the difference. Of course that brought me to looking at amplification and I am sure everyone knows the story from here...
But, how do folks allocate or balance their systems? I am pretty sure adding $15k of cables is more than makes sense, but maybe not?
Thanks to all who would like to share their philosophy and experiences.
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@williewonka - thank you for the thoughtful response. I will dig into the specifics you detailed as I look at my options. @gdnrbob — I am coming around as well and will try your suggestions |
First off- Congratulations on your new Audio Research gear! I use ARC as well and I’m sure it will bring you many years of enjoyment. In reading your post regarding interconnects I don’t think you mentioned what brands you’re currently using. As for a gauge of how much you should spend I don’t believe you should be putting any pressure on yourself to align cable/IC costs with that which was spent on your equipment, the two don’t even compare with regards to manufacturing costs or even research/dev/IP. I’m not an advocate of overpriced designer cables but I also don’t shame those who choose to spend their money on such. What I would offer is an easy way of determining the value for yourself. Canare L-4E6S is one of the best audio cables made (Star Quad) and you can purchase an 8’ pair of balanced XLR I/C’s for under $100 from Blue Jeans Cable. I’ve used this for all of my balanced cable for years and have never felt like I was needing more. This is one of the most (if not the most) highly used cables in the audio industry. The purpose of this is not necessarily to sway you into using Canare but to rather give you a starting point with an industry proven cable assembly that is the equivalent of what is used in most recording studio and live sound applications. Please purchase a pair to have on hand for comparison when you demo the multi thousand dollar I/C’s your dealer has suggested and also request your dealer make the cables available to you for a trial test in home on your own equipment. Even if you like the higher dollar cables better at least you’ll have an accurate gauge for cost comparison. Do these really sound $1K better each or is the difference so subtle that it’s not really worth the money? Do they sound different at all? That’s the big question! Best- |
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