jafant,
"Interesting" is a good way to describe the evolution of my cable selection. At this point, I am unlikely to use a full loom of any one cable brand in my system. I guess I've kind of standardized on Shunyata for power cables and Cardas for analog signal cables. My digital cables are more of a mix.
My choice of analog cables has been strongly influenced by trying to avoid cables that make the music sound too bright or harsh. Brightness has tended to result in rapid listening fatigue for me, which has led me to trade away a bit of high frequency detail for smoothness/sweetness in the overall sound. However, as I have gradually reduced noise in my digital signal chain (using an ENO filter for Ethernet and an Innuos Phoenix reclocker for USB), I have experienced a more relaxed sound that allows for greater detail retrieval without producing listening fatigue. This has allowed me to consider cables that I would not have considered in the past.
Fortunately, I'm pretty happy with the overall sound of my system right now, so my cable explorations are focused on tweaking the sound rather than starting over from scratch.
If I remember correctly, you're using Ayre equipment in your system. Is that an integrated amp with a built-in DAC? If so, do you use your CD players as transports or have them send an analog signal to your amp? Just trying to figure out if you're relying on any digital cables that would also be part of your search for reference cables.
"Interesting" is a good way to describe the evolution of my cable selection. At this point, I am unlikely to use a full loom of any one cable brand in my system. I guess I've kind of standardized on Shunyata for power cables and Cardas for analog signal cables. My digital cables are more of a mix.
My choice of analog cables has been strongly influenced by trying to avoid cables that make the music sound too bright or harsh. Brightness has tended to result in rapid listening fatigue for me, which has led me to trade away a bit of high frequency detail for smoothness/sweetness in the overall sound. However, as I have gradually reduced noise in my digital signal chain (using an ENO filter for Ethernet and an Innuos Phoenix reclocker for USB), I have experienced a more relaxed sound that allows for greater detail retrieval without producing listening fatigue. This has allowed me to consider cables that I would not have considered in the past.
Fortunately, I'm pretty happy with the overall sound of my system right now, so my cable explorations are focused on tweaking the sound rather than starting over from scratch.
If I remember correctly, you're using Ayre equipment in your system. Is that an integrated amp with a built-in DAC? If so, do you use your CD players as transports or have them send an analog signal to your amp? Just trying to figure out if you're relying on any digital cables that would also be part of your search for reference cables.