Highest component/cable ratio?

Hey John- I've often felt the same way: If I could ONLY turn back the clock! If I had only been born without an innate love for live music! If I only had not become a sound tech, perhaps I could be happy with Cryin'Ear Hi-Fi equipment and would have saved mega-bucks over the years. BUT ALAS: I can't turn back time, and I can recognize/appreciate the differences. Gotta bite the bullet and spend a few bucks for the satisfaction!

That first jump from the cables that came with to component to almost any quality, albeit not expensive cable is such an improvement that I can see why we get hooked. Early on, even when I was using Bose 901 Speakers I was really amazed in the qualitative jump when I went from Radio Shack's 'gold series' to my first custom cable. Of course, I also used that opportunity to untangle all of my interconnects/power/speaker cables, having been told hereabouts that is a good thing to do....

This first improvement is most certainly the single best and greatest jump in quality. After that, there are incremental improvements but I don't know about investing $2,000.00 in a one meter cable.

John, I tried, believe me. I went through Virtual Dynamics, Audience, Shunyata, Audioquest and others over many years. I have had systems costing almost twice as much. Eqipment by Pass Labs, Manley, Totem, Resolution Audio. I have tried quick A/B changes to try to pick up a difference. I have gone long term with months before swapping out for A/B comparisons. Today, I'm getting the best sound of my life with what I have now, go figure. My comments are not meant to denounce the worth of cables or those who hear differences, rather, just to state my experience. I will try other cables in the future, but right now, I don't want to mess with what works for me.

Mijknarf, consider yourself a very lucky man, I envy you. Hearing differences can have very expensive side effects. :)

Cheers,
John

After years of ultimate DIY speakerdesigning I`ve come upon a few discoverys, cables included. It`s years since I concidered replacing anything in my system now, even if I know the digital-trafo could be uppgraded by a custom built one. Socalled high-end stores can offer me nothing except making me shake my head and smile.
And what kind of cables do I use? DIY all over off course, no fancy junk;P
Speakercables are thick solid copper, not flat,twisted or anything else that would influence sound quality. One separate cable to each element, all shielded. 10awg gives a good dynamic midrange;)
Unlike most others I don`t see the negative conductor as a "retur" but as the other half of a AC-signal so I treat it just as carefully as the positive half.
I stumbeled over a TV-coax years ago (while I was re-building my CD-player) that showed to have unseen audio-qualitys, first in double configuration as an IC and later it showed up to be the only coax to definitively outplay a AT&T optic by beeing cleaner in both ends. No other coax even came close. The secret is called Vivanco KX-710 and looks like just an ordinary coax. Off corse; only inner thread fore signal, fully shielded.
Now I`ve come to realise that signal- & sdpeakercables has to be solid to keep the signal clean, but still my jaw dropped (my friends too) when I first started experimenting with solid powercables.(shielded;)
My intension was to use them on his Jadis monoblocs, but since my rebuilt Electrocompaniet outplayed the tubes they were put on his CD-combination during a CD versus vinyl duel. And the dynamic gain was jawdropping on a system like this.
I`ve seen grown, sober audiophiles cry over my Vivanco-IC`s..