What's First, Interconnects or Speaker?

Love these chicken/egg threads.

I agree that in an absolute sense the differences in IC's will probably be more audible in a source application, but my version of which to chose first is just the opposite of many, especially if you have several sources which makes it more expensive to approach the source/IC first.

Sources sound different and you probably have several. You will want to pick your IC to match each source. They may not be the same brand/type of IC's. You will have a hard time really identifying source/IC/system synergy without already having already put together an amp/IC/Speaker (and speaker cable) which allows you to hear the differences that are made when you pick sources and IC's.

Now if you have only one source and it is the component you are building your system around perhaps starting there makes sense, but I still don't know how you will know when you have optimized its performance.

While there is obviously no universally applicable answer, and while obviously technical factors cannot provide a complete answer, I suggest that you take the following into consideration:

1)For line-level analog interconnects, the higher the output impedance of the component driving the cable, the more significant cable differences are likely to be.

2)The lower the nominal impedance of the speaker, the more significant speaker cable differences are likely to be.

3)The greater the variation of speaker impedance with frequency, the more significant speaker cable differences are likely to be.

4)The more critical damping factor and woofer control is to the particular speaker, the more significant speaker cable differences are likely to be.

5)Obviously, phono cables will tend to be fairly critical due to the low signal levels which they conduct.

6)Digital cable differences will increase considerably if length is less than 1.5 meters, and in general digital cables should be 1.5 meters or longer. That is discussed in a number of previous threads, and in this reference.

Of course, differences being "more significant," or the cable being "more critical," does not necessarily mean that a more expensive cable will outperform a less expensive cable in any given system.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks everyone. The chicken/egg first analogy is so true. Anything High Tec can drive me crazy-but its so rewarding in the end. Interconnects seem to be the consensus for first. I should mention that I built a PC with the I7 chip to run music thru an Ayre QB-9 into the system. That and the CD are the primary sources, but I'd love to connect the XM from the Direct TV DVR. Thanks again guys-keep the input coming please!

Yes, the source first approach is usually the best way. It certainly worked for me. But you could experiment and do it differently. Even better - wait and upgrade all at once.

Almarg:
Per your reference, longer lengths are specified for spdif (coax) cables. Does the same hold forth for optical (toslink) cables?