But seriously, a good question and all I've heard in addition to the above is that the preamp to amp connection does matter a lot, too.
Best Location for Best Cable
Today, I received my upgraded Audience AU24SE (some XLR’s and some RCA’s, all short) from Audience AU24 and AU24e. I put the AU24SE XLR between the DAC3B and HPA4 preamp and notice a very slight unveiling of the sound. It sounded even more excellent now. I am not even sure if the Audience cables are burned-in because they are upgrades not new (likely burned in).
I am now wondering where the best bang for the buck improvement in cable sound comes from. Is it the sources connected to the preamp or the preamp connect to the amps? I cannot permanently move my gear around anymore since I have committed to my current setup, which I love. I have a new stereo rack coming next week and it is too big to put between the speakers to have the preamp and amp close to each other. I am also not sure if non-Benchmark XLRs would work great sonically for very long lengths with my gear (cost is also a factor).
I am just curious as to where people put there best cables. This info will be useful to see what I should try.
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Thanks. The Benchmark StarQuads are very good cables and I would not have looked at anything else except for the fact that I had to get my Audience cables upgraded due to damage of the AU24 and AU24e originals. They are a tiny bit better than the StarQuad on the short run between the DAC and preamp. My SACD player and 2 FM tuners will get 3 foot AU24SE cables from this upgrade that yielded 5 cables from 1 very long AU24 and 1 short AU24e. I will set this all up next week when my rack arrives. I could sell all of these cables to buy a long XLR between the preamp and amp but it sounds like what I am doing is the next best thing. One thing that I really should ask Benchmark, and I will when I buy 2 more pieces from them (HPA4 + AHB2), is if their gear works well with long XLR runs and "non-professional" grade XLR's. I been bugging them a lot already so I will pace the questions to them They use the term professional grade vs consumer grade (such as my AU24SE). https://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/application_notes/balanced-vs-unbalanced-analog-interfaces STUDIO-GRADE BALANCED INTERFACES |
They will need some time after the factory SE upgrade to settle. The upgrade involves a new junction between the wire and the XLR plugs and the new plugs which benefit from some time and use as well as a crypt treatment that I in theory affects the molecular alignment of the copper in the wires. I had the factory do this same upgrade on a few pairs of cables in the past. I enjoyed the improvement that it brought after they settled a little. Started a little hot in the treble region. I have subsequently upgraded to the AU24SX balanced cables representing an additional improvement in my system. I use my best cables at the source and work in from there... |
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