SameSspeaker Cable and Interconnects

I agree with Charles1dad. There really is no universal answer to this question. People have different kinds of gear. Some mix-up cable brands and have great results to their ears others have uniformity across all cables with great results to their ears in their systems. The only universal answer is you are going to get different opinions and thoughts on this topic.

In my systems I have ICs from the same cable maker but SCs and PCs from different cable manufacturers. It just worked out that way and my systems sounds good to me so far. Part of me is itching though to try uniform cables across everything though.

For me sometimes I take the maker of the cables into account if I'm going to use their cables for my entire system or for just a portion. It is my belief that some cable manufacturers really test/evaluate things so that their cables are meant to work with their own throughout a system. Others just put out an IC, SC and PC all from the same product line. Again my opinion. I haven't done the research into this in detail.

look at the question logically and empirically.

there is no justification for keeping the brands the same and there is no necessary condition for mixing and matching.

it would seem that since there are so many cable brands available, there is no definitive answer.

personally, i have not found a single company that can satisfy my preferences.

so, i use different brands of ics, power cords and speaker cable.

The general model that I think wiring makers tend to follow is the notion that each of the 3 physical elements of cable design (connectors, conductors and insulation) of any given wire necessarily contibute, in their own unique ways, to sonic degradation. You could think of it, for simplicity's sake, the way an oscilliscope would see the wave form - that is, some electrons in the signal path are arriving on time and others are arriving late...each wiring element contributes in its own way to the total degradation effect of each and every wire design, every design being somewhat unique. But, in general the later the arrival of more and more electrons causes more smearing...which translates into less sonic cohesiveness and more of the sonic sensation that the music is being electronically reproduced...a more "canned" sound, if you will. The thing is, with wiring of different designs from different makers (or possibly even differing designs from the same maker) these differing effects in fact accumulate. That is, if for example both the IC's and the speaker wires have the same (or very similar) detrimental effect on the sound, then their paired impacts will be singular. But, if the IC's have a different negative impact on the sound than, say, the speaker wires (seen as a different delay pattern in the oscilliscope), then BOTH sets of degradations will be heard combined. The more sets of wiring in a system that have differing delay patterns we have, the more complex the overall delay pattern we will be hearing. That's why same-maker wiring is often recommended. Actually, none of this is exactly new, I think it was first noticed many decades ago, but, if anything, the idea has sort of fallen through the cracks over the years, I suppose in the ever-quickening rush to the latest and greatest in cable designs out there, but it's still perfectly valid. Nothing wrong per se with mix-n-match either, even if the advantages ought to at least outweigh the disadvantages, but it's perhaps most helpful to begin with in system building just to be aware that this effect does actually exist.