One Super high end cable or mid level set?

Pani,

Your "scientific" explaination makes sense to me. I wasn't thinking about the reletive magnitudes of the signals at different points in the system. It would seem that if it does actually make as much difference as you suggest that having IC specifically designed for each application would make sense and would certainly sell to people that have more money than synergy.

I'll probably be a bit skeptical of the difference in sound simply from chaning IC's, but admittedly have not heard an A/B and might be surprised.

All cables have some level of loss in the signal so it's really about purchasing cables that eliminate the part of the signal that you prefer to have missing. Cables cannot add information so the only explaination for any change in sound is a loss. It's a necessary evil.

I know exactly what you mean and I will probably end up doing the same thing as you ( and like most others) if I ever decide to upgrade.
But conversely maybe as Pani's excellent posts to my initial question suggests the alternative might in fact , in certain situations work equally or even better for a similar outlay.

Edit, my last post was in response to Jedinite24 comment.

Pani & Mceljo,

Keep in mind that with typical components at typical volume settings, signal amplitude (voltage) out of a cdp is not much different than the corresponding preamp output, and will often be higher in fact. Likewise for the amount of current flowing in the two sets of cables.

Full-scale (maximum) output from a cdp is typically about 2 volts. The input amplitude required to drive typical power amplifiers to full power is usually in the area of 1 to 2 volts. Therefore the preamp volume control will tend to be set, depending on the dynamic range of the music among other factors, such that the preamp provides a gain of less than one. That is why digital sources are commonly played back with volume controls set at the 9:30 or 10 o'clock positions or thereabouts.

My own expectation, assuming both sets of cables are equally long, is that whichever of the two components (cdp or preamp) has a higher output impedance is likely to be more critical with respect to cable selection, especially if the capacitance of the cables (picofarads/foot for the particular cable multiplied by cable length in feet) is high. (And along the lines of Tvad's comment, imo "more critical" does not necessarily mean "more expensive"). High output impedance into a high capacitance cable forms a low-pass filter, attenuating the upper treble and causing sluggish transient response. Although that may or may not be subjectively preferable, depending, among other factors, on the upper treble response of the speakers and the room.

Best regards,
-- Al