DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

I think I may have commented on this before.  I really do hear a difference in phono interconnects.  I have a medium priced set  of Verastar Silver Stream phono interconnects and can definitely hear a difference between them and say a generic brand by MCM electronics.  I use xlr cables every where else.  They go under my floor, over the river and through the woods.  Question:  I have many feet of xlr cables between my preamps and power amps.  If I switch to a higher quality, do you think I will hear a difference?  Subjective question I know. I am using a set of Transparent MusicLink Supers, but have a simple extension, to increase their length.  I’ve read that when using balanced cables, quality doesn’t come into play that much.  What say you?

@elizabeth ,

In another thread, you mentioned that you live in an apartment and that you move every 10 years.

On your history alone, that’s quite a bit of changes to have a quantitative opinion on any one device in the audio chain. Most of us live with our components/room for our lifetime. This is a basis for a recommendation that holds "more water".

BTW, I have always thought that your moniker is a personal familial way of honoring a close family relation.

@handymann

I would certainly expect that there would be a significant difference changing from cables such as your Transparents, which incorporate a network of unknown design, to just about any non-networked cables. Especially given the considerable length that is involved. I would not want to speculate, though, as to whether that difference is likely to be for the better or for the worse, regardless of the cost of the replacements.

Also, I noticed that you mentioned in a recent thread that you use an Aesthetix Calypso Signature preamp. Stereophile had measured the balanced output impedance of the non-Signature version of the Calypso as being 112 ohms at mid and high frequencies, and 3900 ohms at 20 Hz. The doubled capacitance of the output coupling capacitors in the Signature version will reduce that 3900 ohms by approximately a factor of 2, while the output impedance at higher frequencies is low for a tube-based design even in the non-Signature version. I would expect those impedances to result in less sensitivity to differences among long balanced cables than many other tube-based designs. But there are of course other unknown component-dependent variables involved (for example, whether the cable shields are connected to circuit ground or to chassis ground in the preamp and the amp, and how those grounds are interconnected within the components), and so I wouldn’t want to speculate beyond that.

Good luck. Regards,

-- Al