RCA interconnect recommendation

I find it a bit odd that someone who owns Weiss and EAR has no idea about interconnects, because they're pretty sophisticated components.  But if you never fooled around with cables, I suggest you buy a couple of pairs of ICs from Blue Jeans for about $30/pair and listen for a few months.  They are good, pro-quality cables and will give you a baseline.  Later on, you can try some higher-priced cables and see if you think they're better. Without a baseline, you have no way to know.  As to the "10% rule", I think that may be good advice when you're purchasing a new system and you're on a tight buget, but I have used expensive cables on cheaper components and found they made a huge improvement.  If you're of a mind to move ahead right now, I would look for a pair of used Audience AU24s, which are great cables for the price.  The older models are excellent and the company has great customer service when you need it. 

Tube amps are all about the sweet midrange. I like Kimber solid copper. I would try a PBJ. Not too expensive but a nice sounding cable. 

Your best approach with wire is to understand wire is every bit as important as every other component. Then from there you consider your system goals. Are you building a system over time? Let’s say you find a speaker you really fall in love with, but it costs as much as all the rest of your system combined. But you can afford it. Would you buy it? If it will serve as a foundation upon which to build for years to come, why not?

Cables are no different. I once built a $1200 budget system for my father in law. Set it up in my room to burn in and during that time I thought, wonder what if I put my $1200 interconnect in there? Well, it transformed that budget system, let me tell you! So never, ever fall for the story that one thing is "too good" for another. It if is good, it is good- period!

In my system my speaker cables cost about as much as my speaker, and my amp. They are all right around $5k each.

The point of having a budget is not to tell you what to spend. The whole point is to make you aware of the fact this is a system and a system demands a system approach. Otherwise without the budget everyone runs out and buys the biggest speakers they can, blows almost all the rest on the amp, and then spends the next five years running around trying different speakers and amps trying to solve all the problems that never would have been there in the first place had they put as much attention into wire.

That’s it. No sales pitch. Figure it out from there.

Two suggestions:

1. on the Zodiac use the Schroeder method with double RCA cables. I run mine on Sommercable Epilogue which is reasonably priced but phantastic.

2. on the phono link it all depends on the tonearm cable you are using. My best experience is with Auditorium23 all the way through.

Thanks everyone.

I have what I think are a decent set from the phono stage. Don’t recall what they are. Last night I switched them out to the digital side and yes there was a noticeable difference..

As for not believing how I could not know about cables: I’ve put this system together over a relatively short period if time. I’ve been reading about cables ever since and my eyes glaze over.

To antigrunge2: tonearm is wired with fine silver angel hair. It’s an Nottingham 12" Anna arm with a Lyra cart.

The idea that there’s a different cable for digital side and analog is exactly what’s on my mind.

Thanks.