Maintaining a "Balanced" System Design?

@thr1961 - having been involved in DIY cable construction over the past 10 year here are some basic things I have found makes a signficant difference

1. Cable Geometry i.e. how the wires are positioned within the cable
   • e.g. Braiding is an exapmple of a cable Geometry
   • the more advanced the Geometry, the lower the noise floor of the cable
2. ​​​​​​​Metalurgy i.e. what the wire is made of​​​​​​​
   • e.g. OFC Copper, UP-OCC copper, Silver, and UP-OCC silver
   • The better the metal, the faster the dynamic performance
3. Type of Insulation
   • each insulation has a specific Dielectric Constant e.g.
     • A Vacuum - Dk = 1.0
     • Air is 1.1 = Dk = 1.1
     • Cotton or Silk - Dk = 1.3
     • Foamed Teflon - DK = 1.45
     • Teflon - Dk = 1.2
   • a HIGHER the value of Dk - results in more distortions being "injected" into the signal carried by that piece of wire
   • Lower Dk values result in improved clarity and significantly improved micro details

So armed with that inforamtion a person can assess how well a cable will perform provided the brand of cable thay are looking at makes the information known in theri advertizing literature.

Some Companies that use the above techniques include

• Zavfino - they make excellent cables that start at a reasonable price
• In-Akustik - very good cables with a very interesting geometry, but a little more expensive
• HIJIRI - rated by Audiogon members as being one of the very best available today and again, even more expensive, but not outrageous.

I don’t subsribe to the "percentage rule" where the premise is that cables should cost a certain percentage of a system,

• because it contains absolutely NO SCIENCE !

But I do believe that cables are significantly more important than most people tend to beileve because I have applied it to components of every "level", from a $300 Mini System, to systems costing over $70k, and each time the performance improves significantly

Hope That Helps - Steve

Of course that brought me to looking at amplification and I am sure everyone knows the story from here...

Yup . . . I definitely know the story.

@thr1961 ,

I can understand your dilemma. I was out of the audio loop for 30 years, until I had the funds to re-pursue my audiophile dream.

If I were you, I would try to find other Joseph Audio owners. Perhaps JA has a forum?

I own Vandersteen, and have come to learn there are certain combos that really work with those speakers. I would expect the same with Joseph Audio.

As far as cable go, I was a naysayer, but after listening to the newer Audioquest models, I was definitely a believer. Unfortunately, as you have discovered, this 'finer' listening came at a cost. So, my workaround is to buy the model or two below the newest model when they came up for sale used. Eventually, that 'new' model will be up for sale used, but at least I am buying it for 50% or so less.

Patience is a virtue...

A penny saved, is a penny earned...

Bob

Congratulations on your ARC equipment. I have been a fan of ARC for forty years and only slowly over that time were able to buy, used at first and finally moving up over the last few years to all Reference level Audio Research gear. You can see my system under my ID.

While I agree that your gear requires the top notch interconnects, cables, and power cords to get the most out of them. I don’t think I would necessarily buy it all at once and the brand your dealer is recommending. You may want to take your time and find the brand that is perfect for your tastes. Transparent are a known synergistic brand with Audio Research and the one I use the most of.

$15K is perfectly reasonable given the equipment you are talking about. If you have good gear 10 - 20% the value of your system is a good rule of thumb. The most likely big gains are likely to be the speaker cables and power cord for your amp. I use Transparent Ultra speaker cables. ~$5K, but after a year of trying to figure out the correct power cord for my Audio Research Reference 160s I found The Audio Quest Hurricane (2 meters, I have a 1m and 2m on the Ref 160m monoblocks I am currently using the 2 m sounds better) . I also experimented with all my other components and found Transparent sounded best.

I have spent a lot of time with Cardas, WireWorld, DHLabs, Harmonics, Nirvana, and several other brands. With Audio Research gear you want really transparent (not warm or cool, low noise) wires to get the very best from them. Maybe Stage III interconnects are great… never heard of them. Dealers can’t carry a lot of brands, so they carry what they can… but always recommend that.

I could write a thesis on this subject and would be happy to have a more in depth discussion.

Perhaps purchase cabling on a trial or loan basis with an iron clad return policy….