Cable advice


Looking for some opinions on cable mixing. I’ve read that all the cables should be the same brand and same line up to have a more cohesive sound. That does seem to make sense in my head but how important is that? Are you for mixing cables or are you strictly one brand one line and why? What has your experience been?

 

 Thanks 

128x128dman1974

@petg60 

This is particularly true if you liked the house sound of your components and therefore bought all of your components from the same manufacture. 

I personally don't think it's that important to have all cables from the same manufacturer (a "loom").  In several of my rooms I have Synergistic Research, Acoustic Zen, Wireworld, Lavricables, Nordost.  All of my systems sound great. All my powercords are Shunyata except for one which is a VooDoo.  All my power conditioners are Shunyata except for one which is Synergistic Research. My choices are driven by price - almost all of it is purchased used from Audiogon or Audiomart (US & Canada) I don't have the inclination (or budget) to  try different cables for a given piece of eqiupment.  I couldn't really really tell a difference between them anyway.  The one exception is that I like silver conductors (with an occasionalmix as in Nordost) in preference to copper - I can hear a difference there and I don't perceive them as too bright.  So, don't fret about whether you have a loom or not. 

About 25 years ago, I asked a gentleman who sells NOS tubes (an individual who most on A'Gon seem to have a lot of respect for) about mixing tube brands in a certain application.  He told me it wasn't his favorite thing, but not as bad as mixing cables.  I asked him what was wrong with that, & he told me (and I am paraphrasing) that if Cable Brand A did one sonic aspect well, but was upstream of Cable Brand B which fell short on that attribute of Cable Brand A, but did a different sonic aspect well, the positive aspect of Cable Brand A was being negated by Cable Brand B's failure to pass it on.

Anyway, that was his logic; he sells tubes so I guess he doesn't have any skin in the cable game. 

I have no qualms about mixing manufacturers for cables. For me affordability has to be taken into account, I will buy "bang for the buck".....but the sound has to be there. I personally mix cables, based on what each company does well and sounds terrific.

I use Morrow Audio for analog RCA and XLR cables, Supra Cables for digital cables (USB, ethernet, HDMI/I2S), Audioquest Vodka for HDMI/I2S, Anticables for speaker cables, Cullen Cables for C7 power cables, and Pangea Cardas copper power cords.

I will soon be replacing the power cables (not sure what with yet, suggestions welcome), and rolling in some Zavfino interconnects for comparison.