Unity in cable manufacturers?


Is it important in a high end system to have all interconnects and speaker cables from the same company, i.e. Transparent, Nordost, Audioquest, etc.?

pianoconcert

I haven’t done any testing on this and I only have my system and common sense to go by. But here are my thoughts:

1. Yes. It is system dependent. 
2. But aside from that I think that it may not matter that all your cables are of the same maker and the same series within their lineup. 
3. But I do believe in the weakest link concept in that while your cables may be from different makers, they should all be of similar quality as your system (or my system) IMO, is only as good as the weakest link. 
Have a good weekend. 

Willy Wonka you forgot a couple cable companies, acoustic Zen Harmonic technology and Neotech all have cables that are OCC single Crystal, and all three of those companies have their cable made by Wan lung in Taiwan which is one of only three manufacturers in the world that make OCC single crystal wire, when lung also owns neotech and are also closely aligned with both acoustic Zen and Harmonic technology, and all three of those companies OCC wire is much cheaper than some of the other companies that are charging in the arm and a leg for it like audioquest and Clarus cables and a few others.

 I sold audio equipment in Retail, then Wholesale and Internationally for almost twenty years. Additionally, I played in a band and worked both full and part time in Radio and Recording Studios. It is no wonder I have countless bags, boxes and four large plastic tubs, full of wires, cords and connectors, representing varying degrees of technology and quality of construction to choose from, when hooking up my toys.

I have recently (over a period of three years) replaced all of the speaker wires, interconnects and power cords in my main 2 channel system, with new stock. All of those interconnects, shielded interconnects and speaker wires were purchased (on line) from the same manufacturer. All the new AC powercords are also from one (but a different) manufacturer. Included in those changes are several upgrades (from the same manufacturer) of interconnects and speaker wire from entry level to progressively higher end versions. Virtually every upgrade or change produced an improvement (of varying degree).

For what it is worth, sticking to one brand was not my original intention, it just worked out that way this time.

Happy For Now....

I can't see why. Makes no more sense than buying amps and speakers from the same company.

I would say technically no - you can use whatever works best for a given connection. That being said, I currently use Transparent Super for all analog connections and AudioQuest Carbon for HDMI and Optical connections.

The system is based around Linn (TT. and preamp), McIntosh (amps), Dynaudio (speakers)