Interconnects - better before preamp or after preamp?

@noromance +1 — IME the interconnects that make the most difference are closer to the source.  I used to use silver interconnects from my DAC to preamp and then copper from my pre to the amp.  Didn’t work nearly as well the other way ‘round.  

If you have a World class preamp, is there a need to go nuts buying some really nice cables before the Signal reaches the preamp?. Let the preamp do its thing and then provide Royal treatment for Signal‘s Journey to the amplifier.

It only seems logical to me that you would want the signal arriving to that fantastic preamp in the most pristine condition as possible. And it also only seems logical to me that you would want the signal leaving that great pre in the same condition.

That could just be me, however.

@noromance +2 

I’m using the same on everything, (Audioquest Colorado RCA and XLR) but my source.  It’s using an Audioquest digital something but I want to change to a USB and haven’t picked one yet.

@emergingsoul

I just replied to another thread, more or less on the interconnect topic.

I relayed the advice I received from a highly regarded seller of vintage NOS tubes, and since typing is such a laborious task for me, I am going to copy & paste that post I just typed.

around 25 years ago I bought a bunch of vintage NOS tubes from someone who most on this & other sites hold in high esteem. At that time he did not sell interconnects, and I don’t know for positive, but I don’t think that he does today, either. I asked him about mixing & matching brands of tubes:

he told me that was not his favorite thing, but not as bad as mixing & matching interconnects.

To oversimplify his explanation on that, if interconnect pair-A from source to preamp do sonic-thing#1 quite well but lack on sonic-thing#2 and is matched with interconnect-pair-B from preamp to amp and those interconnects lack on sonic-thing#1 but do sonic-thing#2 well, those two pairs of interconnect cables are cancelling each other’s best attributes out. Meaning that his advice was to stick with one brand of interconnect from source to amp. At the time, at least during that conversation, he did not have any skin in the interconnect game.