mountz, it’s just my experience (not merely my opinion), but having too many different manufacturer’s cables in the system is not, perhaps, the best idea. Since manufacturers have different goals for their cables, the end effect is not very uniform.
For example, I’ve mixed Transparent’s Reference speaker cable with Shunyata’s power cords - and that sounds fine. But if I put in a Shunyata interconnect? Not as harmonious an effect, and noticeably more "colored" in the sound coming out the speakers. And I’d avoid altogether putting Nordost and Transparent in the same system.
I see people all the time on here saying, "I need a cable with ’better bass’." They’re using the cables as tone controls for what they don’t have (either the component or some other power cord/interconnect/speaker cable). Frankly, that’s a recipe for confusion, and, if you’ll notice, the REALLY professional reviewers almost NEVER have two or three different manufacturer’s cables in the same system.
I’m not saying this as a criticism of your system itself, but the mixing and matching approach has rarely yielded the highest results in a system. Nordost, for example, is just a bit lightweight in the bass (all the way up to the Valhalla!), so if you wanted more midbass, you might install a Shunyata or a Transparent cable. HOWEVER, Transparent’s (older cables, anyway) lop off the highest frequencies, and while they give music weight and "majesty," they then revealed a certain lack of rhythm, if you then listened to Brazilian music, or even funk, both of which are groove-oriented musical genres. Oh, it’ll sound "good enough" - until you put in another Nordost, say, a Frey interconnect/power cable, and then the sound coheres much more noticeably. It’s hard to know this until you fit the system with a full "loom" and listen. And then later, if you can, THEN you substitute another manufacturer’s cable into the system (after listening for weeks, NOT hours) and you’ll hear the difference right away.
Just the voice of experience here.
For example, I’ve mixed Transparent’s Reference speaker cable with Shunyata’s power cords - and that sounds fine. But if I put in a Shunyata interconnect? Not as harmonious an effect, and noticeably more "colored" in the sound coming out the speakers. And I’d avoid altogether putting Nordost and Transparent in the same system.
I see people all the time on here saying, "I need a cable with ’better bass’." They’re using the cables as tone controls for what they don’t have (either the component or some other power cord/interconnect/speaker cable). Frankly, that’s a recipe for confusion, and, if you’ll notice, the REALLY professional reviewers almost NEVER have two or three different manufacturer’s cables in the same system.
I’m not saying this as a criticism of your system itself, but the mixing and matching approach has rarely yielded the highest results in a system. Nordost, for example, is just a bit lightweight in the bass (all the way up to the Valhalla!), so if you wanted more midbass, you might install a Shunyata or a Transparent cable. HOWEVER, Transparent’s (older cables, anyway) lop off the highest frequencies, and while they give music weight and "majesty," they then revealed a certain lack of rhythm, if you then listened to Brazilian music, or even funk, both of which are groove-oriented musical genres. Oh, it’ll sound "good enough" - until you put in another Nordost, say, a Frey interconnect/power cable, and then the sound coheres much more noticeably. It’s hard to know this until you fit the system with a full "loom" and listen. And then later, if you can, THEN you substitute another manufacturer’s cable into the system (after listening for weeks, NOT hours) and you’ll hear the difference right away.
Just the voice of experience here.