Which way to go for a long interconnect.....

I've tried the pro-silways and have had mixed results with them in a system cabled with silways, truth links and pro-9 speaker cables. Between the CD and the pre-amp they were glaring and irritating. The bass was tight and accurate but there was also a reduction in warmth of the mids compared to the truth links. The truth links were more musical and seemed pretty neutral relative to live music, however the bass was not as articulate...a bit fuller though. With the truth link in the CD location and pro-silways between the amp and pre I though there was the best of both worlds. The truth links provided the body and the silways gave a little more air on top without being glaring. I ended up needing 20 ft runs and i found some truth links for cheap so my ICs are all truth links now and i can't say i really want to change anything. The truth links are single ended and i have not had any noise problems even considering the fact that one side had a much shorter run and the excess had to be bunched up. The pro-silway whent to between a low-buck phono pre-amp and my pre-amp and it is working fine there as well. For the money the Truth link is hard to beat though i would like to try a long Silway again if i could find one cheap enough. System: VTL 5.5 pre-amp and MB 185 monoblocks, ARC CD-2 player and Dunlavy Athenas.

Can you use balanced cable between those components? You'll notice a differnce on long runs like that...

sorry, I can't comment on your cable choices above...

I have used a 15 ft run of Coincident CRT interconnect between my First Sound Preamp and Art Audio amp with good results. The sound was very immediate and musical without any glare. I have since replaced the Coincident ICs with a reterminated 14' pair of Nordost Quattrofil ICs which proved to be a little more laid back, but at the same time more detailed, open and revealing of a sense of space.

I have no experience with Pro Silway, but from what I heard from other people, I have a hunch it will be very open and airy in your system but perhaps a bit "light" and diffuse (unfocused) at the same time.

My experience with AR electronics (a bit dated, I must admit) leads me to believe that you might prefer the warmer, more engaging sound of good copper cables in your system to the more open, airy but "lighter" (sometimes brighter) sound of silver cables. Quattrofil is silver clad copper, and seems to have given me the best of both worlds. Of course the long run of Quattrofil was quite expensive, and I probably would not have gone to had I not already owned the long pair already and only needed to reterminate it from balanced to single ended. It depends on the type of sound you are chasing.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck.
Ron

I too found that long quattro-fil is head and shoulders the best I've used with my old arc ref1/vt100m2 setup. I A/B compared it to several other cables. It's scary how much better it is. It's speed and transparency really come out when the length increases. In fact I am not sure if I could tell the difference between a six meter length and a 1 meter length.

If you don't want to sell your car, the audio-research litz cable is pretty good with arc equipment. A little shy on the transparency, but very warm, and nice to listen to. Emphasizes the midrange a little. You can get that stuff pretty cheap.

The harmonic tech pro-sil II is a very good cable too. It has a little of the silver harshness, and it's less transparent than quattro-fil, but excellent nonetheless. I think it's the best no 2nd mortgate cable out there. It's colder but more transparent than the ARC litz cable.

There might be some truth to silver harshness with ARC equipment. I also tried some silver audioquest diamond x3 and found I could really hear the harshness. It was very transparent, but definitely not my favorite cable with that combo. I would take the harmonic tech prosil II over it.