Would you sleep better at night if.....

$2500 is a lot of money. I can't imagine that you would be better off spending that on some other component than cables. You could buy a decent analog rig and a bunch of albums for that kind of money.

Don't get hung up on equipment, buy some music.

I completed 2 pairs of DIY silver interconnects about a month ago. I have never heard bass so tight and with such impact. It auditioned Bryston 7B-ST's in my system for a week prior to this. My current setup laughs at the 7B-ST's.

Jazzdude: Thanks for the reply, but I don't fully understand your comments. How did you terminate the DIY interconnects? What amps are you using?

I have all Classe equipment and under the advice of Robert at Classe Audio I switched to balanced interconnects. The difference is very significant but Im mot sure its $2500 worth of change. If you are going to upgrade the level of the cables I would say its worth it but if you are going to replace them with the same model then I think $2500 would make a greater difference elsewhere.

I have noticed that Classe equipment likes good cables.

Well, I will only speak to the balanced part. If you are not stringing wire from down the block immersed in strong electric fields there is nothing balanced wire will do for you. You are spending money to fix a problem you do not have. Pros use it because they string so much wire through areas having tons of electronics in it and a balanced system can get a clean signal even if the noise signals are greater than the amplitude of the signal. This is not a problem in residential systems. Balanced line has the pro mystic because pros have a use for it and people demand it and there is a market for it. As Abe noted many amps that accept balanced line do even have the circuitry for it (looks cool though)! If the XLR would somehow be better for another reason I cannot say. There are plenty of real improvements to make in any system, eh?

Balanced cords will not improve your base, at least i have never encountered that claim although the way wire is marketed I would not be surprised to hear it.

Sincerely, I remain