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Hello all!!
I've always wondered about this:
What has the most effect on YOUR system; good interconnects, or good speaker wire??
Enjoy people!
Steve
Follow Ups:
Having IC's and speaker wire in place sounds much better
they behave differently in different setups. Take brand or type recommendations as starting-points only, and make your own tests.
nt
HowdyWith all of the obvious caveats:
In my system it was 1st) Power cords, 2nd) Speaker cables and 3rd) Interconnects.
I'm sure it all depends on where you start.
For speaker wire its all about the size (=gauge). For equal gauge, there just won't be any detectable sound difference in speaker wire. Now some wire may last longer, bend better etc. but thats not about sound.I do notice in my system a difference between cheap rca interconnect cables that come with your players and good ones though I cannot tell any difference between higher end cables. Probably a limitation of my low-fi system. CD player to pre-amp seems to be the more sensitive to cable than pre-amp to amp though I haven't experimented with that theory.
Speaker cables had the most dramatic effect. PCs maybe the next most dramatic. ICs the least dramatic, but still quite significant.
Speaker cables and PC's on about the same level, probably speaker cables first but it depends on the cable. ICs easily last but still significant.
For a long time, I refused "to buy into all this cable hype"!
Copper, with good connections - everything else is marketing bunk - so I thought.
One day, I called The Cable Company, and had them send me 3 different IC's to demo. Well, I was dead wrong - cables can make a huge difference. BUT, what I found was it is impossible to predict how a cable will sound with your gear - the same cable in two different systems can yield vastly different results!
So, you have to try before you buy, or have A LOT of disposible income to buy lots of different cables.
A local dealer then got a Nordost demo case, filled w/ICs, PCs, and speaker cables. I borrowed the case to try speaker cables, and again, I was surprised by the results. What I found was the cables I was using (Signalcables) were great, but there are better out there - for 10 times the cost of Frank's (literally).
I use Frank's PCs, and could detect NO IMPROVEMENTS whatsoever over his Signalcables.
So if money is an issue, go with SignalCables (IMHO) and rest assured you're getting 95% of what's in there. You can try them for 30 days. If you are after the last 5%, well diminishing returns set in, and you'll have to spend a lot more - but, yes, it can be done.
Hope this helps.
There is only one way for you to find this out and that is to try for yourself. They will all alter the sound to some extent, but it's up to you really as to whether its 'better' or just 'different'.
Thats probably not what you wanted to hear as an answer but... there are so many variables involved in any system... the equipment itself and the enviroment also.... and yourself has to be taken as part of the equation.
I have always gone for a 'try before you buy' retailer. If the produce doesn't work then all I have lost is the postage costs.
I have had good results from power cables but I was not in the market for spending funny money on them.... so I stayed at a reasonable cost. I have tried the 'stock' cables since and I still prefer the specialist cables. I know opinions vary dramatically on this also but thats life.But have fun experimenting.
K
They both have influence ... some more so on some components.And some would say PCs have a huge effect too (although I have not experimented with these much).
Regards,
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