There will be no consensus on this. I am sure you know that.
If you believe in the company and their products, ideas, philosophies and engineering etc. I think that you owe it to yourself to use a complete system. Without doing that you are taking a huge gamble that may or may not pay off sound wise and synergy wise with your set-up.
A single Manufacturer will "Know" that all of their cables and interconnects "play well" together and have complimentary electrical characteristics. They will not be fighting each other and creating bad match-ups.
(inductance, resistance, capacitance, geometry, EMI/RFI, shielded/unshielded, copper/silver/gold/platinum/brass/graphite.) Do you know enough about this field to determine the different interactions??? (The designer who is probably a Phd or Engineer will have a better chance of finding synergy than a layman or even an old audiophile who has no formal training.)
There are so many variables that have to be right that you as a hobbyist will never be quite sure you have made the right choices.
That is in my opinion why there are always cables for sale on here. (Trial and Error!)
At least at audio shows and in dealer showrooms you get a chance to hear what a complete system and design approach can sound like. Too few audiophiles think that they can do it piece meal just buy reading reviews and selecting what meets their price point. That is a fools game which will empty your wallet!
I bet that less than one in a thousand achieves full realization of their system by haphazardly buying what is on sale or reading reviews and combining cables from different manufacturers.
Even professional reviewers who have access to the best of everything fall into this trap, always jumping and pimping the newest darling that comes along. I guess it keeps the ad dollars coming in.
To be sure, it certainly takes a lot of the headache away if you can find a manufacturer who has a philosophy that mates to what you like to hear and can match that to your equipment and musical tastes.
If you believe in the company and their products, ideas, philosophies and engineering etc. I think that you owe it to yourself to use a complete system. Without doing that you are taking a huge gamble that may or may not pay off sound wise and synergy wise with your set-up.
A single Manufacturer will "Know" that all of their cables and interconnects "play well" together and have complimentary electrical characteristics. They will not be fighting each other and creating bad match-ups.
(inductance, resistance, capacitance, geometry, EMI/RFI, shielded/unshielded, copper/silver/gold/platinum/brass/graphite.) Do you know enough about this field to determine the different interactions??? (The designer who is probably a Phd or Engineer will have a better chance of finding synergy than a layman or even an old audiophile who has no formal training.)
There are so many variables that have to be right that you as a hobbyist will never be quite sure you have made the right choices.
That is in my opinion why there are always cables for sale on here. (Trial and Error!)
At least at audio shows and in dealer showrooms you get a chance to hear what a complete system and design approach can sound like. Too few audiophiles think that they can do it piece meal just buy reading reviews and selecting what meets their price point. That is a fools game which will empty your wallet!
I bet that less than one in a thousand achieves full realization of their system by haphazardly buying what is on sale or reading reviews and combining cables from different manufacturers.
Even professional reviewers who have access to the best of everything fall into this trap, always jumping and pimping the newest darling that comes along. I guess it keeps the ad dollars coming in.
To be sure, it certainly takes a lot of the headache away if you can find a manufacturer who has a philosophy that mates to what you like to hear and can match that to your equipment and musical tastes.