Interconnects priority

In my experience the closer to the source the more important/impactful the interconnect can be.  If one interconnect is better/more resolving than the other then put that one on the source.  That’s how it works best in my system anyway.  Hope this helps. 

Or, looking it from another practical budget perspective, if I have a total of of $1,000 to spend is it clear that I should spend $500 on each XLR pair, or should I “overweight” my spend on one set because it’s the more “important” interconnect from a sound quality perspective.

I think what is clear in one person's system is not so clear in another. Here's another curveball- suppose the suggestion above is correct and the phono to the pre amp has more of an effect than the pre to the amp: would it be better to entirely "overweight" the spending by adding just a $1000 XLR from phono to pre, instead of 2 XLR's in both places?

I would lean towards the former, because eventually you will probably have the itch to upgrade the $500 XLR's, but if you have one $1000 XLR you would just need to upgrade one, and you would probably get a bigger "wow factor" by hearing what the $1000 XLR can do, compared to $500 ones. 

Providing of course you don't have a "throw away stock" XLR, and at least a Mogami or equivalent for the pre to amp XLR. 

My system only has one pair of interconnects.  I believe the simpler the system is, the better it sounds.

Jerry

I've been swapping out cables between my dac and preamp trying to find the best fit. I've also got a couple of cables on order. 

I had a pure silver cable between my amp and preamp that I think is pretty good. On a whim, I replaced it tonight with a different cable and I'm liking the results.  I had it in my head that amp to preamp was less important, but I think both source to pre and pre to amp are important. 

I find Pre to Amp and Source to Pre most important. Had Fantastic Results with the Albedo Silver Mono Crystals over any Copper iv compared them against.

source first

I'd say preamp to amp, simply because EVERYTHING travels through this line. Get this one wrong, and it'll foul up the entire chain.

They're all important to the end sound, though.

My system only has one pair of interconnects.  I believe the simpler the system is, the better it sounds.

@carlsbad (links don't seem to be working...)

I would think if that were your philosophy, you would be considering the Grimm LS1 speakers, and could eliminate all the interconnects? 

Bimmer…in my experience the best ROI in interconnects is preamp to amp. There are exceptions though. In case of silver/ copper mix, having silver between source and pre and copper from pre to amp always sounded more natural to me. In example I had AZ Silver Ref II and Matrix Ref II interconnects. The Matrix between pre and amp were much better the Silver between there. And Matrix is a cheaper cable. You have to try. 

If I were to upgrade cables, I’d start with speaker cables though and work my way up the audio chain. 

Have you considered cartridge and phono amp upgrade?

It depends on your components. Unless you have a very cable sensitive power/pre combination, I have found that digital source gear has the widest discrepancy with IC's. 

@mclinnguy Thanks.

Can you/someone explain to me how you take a part of a previous post and include it in your own, like you have done a couple of times above (the pasted text in the yellow box), and do the @xxxxx references (like I have tried in this post) actually work and notify that user they are being referenced, or how do you make those references actually a true tag?

I am trying to learn the Audiogon posting/response ropes…

To format something as a quote just copy/paste what you want into the text box, and then with the cursor at the end of that sentence/paragraph click the quote icon at the top if the text box and that’s it (or maybe you can highlight the text and hit the quote icon but not sure). To have someone notified you’re referencing them in your post just type their username preceded by @ so by me typing @bimmerlover here you’ll get notified even if you’re not the OP. These @ links used to autofill and turn blue, but as of recently for some unknown reason that doesn’t happen anymore.

To format something as a quote just copy/paste what you want into the text box, and then with the cursor at the end of that sentence/paragraph click the quote icon at the top if the text box and that’s it

Thanks @soix!

By George I think he’s got it!

I agree with the source first calls.

@soix

 These @ links used to autofill and turn blue, but as of recently for some unknown reason that doesn’t happen anymore.

It is a short term glitch I am told. 

+ 1 @coralkong & phantom_av

I recently had this same discussion with a friend who works in the audio business; and, we came to the same conclusion (# 1 = pre to amp); but, we also agreed that speaker cables would be a close second. 

A big thanks to everyone for sharing their opinions, which interestingly varied quite a bit.

“The phono stage to the preamp [as closer to the source is most important]” - 2+ votes

”The preamp to the power amp [because everything goes through that ic]” - 2+ votes

”They are both important but start with the speaker cables and work you way up backwards”

Spend, in essence, $970 on one and $30 on the other, with at least minimum quality (eg a Mogami cable from WBC) “so you can upgrade the second one later and thus end up with two great ic’s”

“Have you considered upgrading your cartridge” - this was an interesting one, as it didn’t address the question but, hey, that’s always a possibility at some point

So, I ended up buying three different pairs of ic’s and one pair of speaker cables, to play around with…:

XLR ICs:

Townsend Audio DCT 300

Wireworld Equinox 8

Vogue Audio Silver Strand Ultra

Speaker cable:

Harmonic Technology Pro-9+

(all purchased used from various places - mainly USAM - in very good condition)

So, plenty to play around with in different places in my audio chain…

How much fun, and thanks again for everyone‘s input!

(the new but not improved thumbs up, kind of looks like hitch hiking emoticon)

Let us know the results of your experiments

Perhaps you could let us know your answer to your question: insert one a time and determine which has the greatest impact. 

Source then preamp to amp then speaker cables.

Here is what I did FWIW.

I went from RCA to XLR from phono to integrated - this was a really noticeable improvement - and I a/b tested using same brand of cable 

This lowered the noise floor and boosted the SNR

I use Zavfino Fusion which is very well made solid silver/OCC copper IC and IMO a bargain for the price at $357 for 1.5m 

I will probably try Acoustic Zen, Voodoo or maybe Audio Sensibility Statement Silvers at some point but this is very low priority (I replaced entry level Zavfino speaker cables with AZ Holograms which are really nice)

I ordered a DH Labs Air Matrix ic and received it today. I installed it between my dac and preamp. I'm using a Harmonic Technology RecTa oc between my amp and preamp.  I'm using a Inakustik Referenz USB between my streamer and dac.  After messing around with various cables including pure silver cables, I think I've found a winning combination. 

I've got to do something with the pile of cables that I've accumulated.  Lol. 

@sls883

Cool. I like DHLabs a great deal. Tell us what it sounds like once it is broken in. Allow well over 100 hours.

I used to keep my old cables to allow me to experiment on the next upgrade cycle.

Early on I bought some really good high end cables that were too good for my system. This became clear when I upgraded and the old cables (much more transparent) sounded way better than the ones I transferred from my old components that were warm and not at all detailed. You can learn a lot by having old cables around as long as they are high quality.

@ghdprentice

It's funny that you mention that. I've had the Harmonic Technology cable for a while. It was recommended by a rep with The Cable Company. I tried it with my previous gear and didn't care for it.  It's been sitting in a box.  On a whim, I got it out last night and tried it. 

I thought silver cables were the ticket, but they had an edginess that was annoying.  The current combination has detail, soundstage width and depth without the harshness.

I've got two Synergistic Research cables, XLO, Nordost, Core Power, and other misc cables in a box. Lol

My speakers cables are Fidelium by Silversmith Audio. I'm not a big spender on cakes, but after auditioning them, I chose to keep them. I had been using Synergistic Research cables. 

Cables, not cakes. 

I don't spend a lot on them, either.  Lol. 

😊👍