2. cables
  3. 1440655922

interconnects

How important is the cable between the Preamp and Amp? I have been told and read that it is the last one to upgrade. You get a bigger up grade for the money if you do speaker cables or the interconnect between your Disc. player and Preamp? So if you have the chance to upgrade one of them and your Speaker cables and the interconnect between the Disc player and preamp are level above the Preamp-Amp connect. Would you upgrade the interconnect in the Disc player-Preamp to a higher level or would you do the Preamp-Amp interconnect to match the level of the other connection of Disc-Preamp? Yes to upgrade the Disc-Preamp interconnect would cost more than bring the Preamp Amp interconnect up to the levels of the rest.
Thanks for your impute
68pete
zd542
5,339 posts
 
It varies from system to system. The only way to find out is to experiment.
almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
I agree with ZD.

I would add that the importance of the cables between preamp and amp will tend to be greatest if the output impedance of the preamp is high (as it often is for many tube-based preamps), and their importance will also increase in proportion to the length of the cables, and their importance will generally tend to be greater if the cables are unbalanced as opposed to balanced.

The same considerations apply to the cables from disc player to preamp.

The importance of speaker cables will tend to be greatest if the impedance of the speakers is low, and it will increase in proportion to the length of the cable. If the speakers are electrostatics, choosing speaker cables having low inductance will also tend to be important, especially if the cables are long. The importance of the speaker cables MIGHT also tend to increase if the amplifier uses significant amounts of feedback and/or has particularly wide bandwidth, and (for dynamic speakers) if the woofers are particularly sensitive to damping factor.

Hope that helps. Regards,
-- Al
tonykay
1,312 posts
 
Generally, I'm a skeptic on the benefits of insanely expensive cables, power or interconnect. However, I remember the first time I upgraded my CD interconnect from the manufacturer- supplied one to an Audioquest Ruby (modestly priced). It was a huge difference! Since then I have used KimberKables and Tara Labs for all interconnects in my system.
More to discover