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Which has more effect on soundstage, speaker cables or interconnects?
Just a thought. I personally have not compared the two for this effect.
Tim
Follow Ups:
The speakers are the most important factor. Then placement in the room, and electronics and cabling. The interconnects are the most critical IMO.
Edits: 10/03/14
...the lower the level of the signal, the more difference the cables will make.
Tonearm - CD player - preamp - amp - speakers.
But I don't think cables will make a huge difference in soundstaging - just fine tuning.
The biggest improvement in soundstaging can be optimizing your speaker placement in the room and adding some room treatment at first reflection points.
I think the quality of connections has a big effect on 'soundstage'.
I recently performed my once a year cleaning of all connections in my system where I take all the cables off and clean with de-oxit and progold, then reassemble.
Now the system has 'more' soundstage, not so much wider or deeper but it's just more apparent that there IS a soundstage. The other big improvement is the coherency of the sound, where all frequencies are better aligned in time (I think this is related to the improved soundstage).
The sound of reflections, reverberations, etc that give the sense of 3 dimensional space are fairly low level so it makes sense that the better the connections, the better these will be heard.
What you have posted so far is the equivalent of a blank stare.
I've never considered soundstage an effect. A characteristic of fidelity, perhaps, affected by all components in the signal chain, no single one more than any other.
Regards,
Tom E
Lighten up Francis. Just audio. Nothing that important.
I am looking to improve the soundstage of my system. I have Shunyata power cords and conditioner. My I/c's are balanced diy with clear cardas connectors and my speaker cables are Audioquest Gibraltar.
Tim
I would go with ICs then play with power cords.
In a totally different direction, have you tried any vibration control? Its rarely mentioned here, but if done well, it can improve the soundstage quite a bit, sometimes as much as cables.
Just a thought.
Jack
I have a bunch of Stillpoint Ultra's and they did make difference.
The I/C's seem to be the best option.
Tim
With that level of quality, I don't know that there is a LOT more to extract from better cabling. What I would try first is losing the power conditioner. I have heard an excellent system with and without one (perhaps not as nice as yours), and there was definitely better 3D presentation without it.
After that, I think adjusting the speaker/room interface and listening position might pay better dividends than wire.
I have also found that capacitors in the signal path can have a profound affect on soundstage. Don't know to what level you want to mess with that sort of thing.
So there you go, Francis. It is, indeed, just audio. You're the one who believes the soundstage needs improving, whatever that means.
Peace,
Tom E
I have moded my amp and done some other work to the system. The power conditioner is easy to swap out. I only have my amp and pre amp connected to it. My phono is battery powered.
My room is not great. I do have a nice level soundstage and the tone is good to me.
Tim
I seriously don't think "powerconditioning" does anything other then help Soundstaging. These effects are more dependent on the information coming from the recording.All you really need is any other pair of ICs that you are fairly sure work,
we're not really concerned about the 'SQ' of these test ICs as we're just listening to see if we can hear anymore 'sounstaging'information available from a different set of ICs(Please take no offense to this ,but your mentioning of your ICs threw up a "red flag" to the possible culprit for your lack of "staging" in your music
& particularly for the fact that you are running a "balanced"configuration)
Edits: 10/01/14
I have a pair of Shunyata Pythons coming this week. I'll report back.
Tim
Flemke-
w/o power cord(s),first, nothing else matters.
power cords first, interconnects second and speaker cable last. For when it comes to image unshielded cables are far superior. Yes that includes unshielded interconnects.
ET
.
Dodging bullets is the next best thing to not having to.
The power cord is a vital aspect of a power supply, which creates the modulated signal in the first place, which is than transmitted downstream via cabling.
I concur that the edge goes to the interconnect. Through experience, I've found soundstaging is more sensitive to the choice of interconnect, although having at least decent quality speaker cables is important.
A more delicate line-level signal is more sensitive in nature, so an interconnect cable upgrade that provides an expanded soundstage is a better first option. That said, a mundane speaker cable downstream that smears the soundstage would make an otherwise fine sounding upstream interconnect cable upgrade a moot point unless addressed...
It's the old "chicken and egg" puzzle.
Without good speaker cables you don't hear the performance of a good interconnect and likewise, there is no point in having top flight speaker cables being fed by an inadequate interconnect.
Add to that, the variabilities of source, amplification and speakers will also affect the outcome.
The British take on cables:
http://cablejunction.boards.net/
Not much on the forum link. I think you are on to something with the I/C providing the 1st link in the chain.
Tim
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