An average Joe decides to take his wife to a fine high end restaurant for a nice anniversary dinner. He stares at the menu, sees salads and appetizers start at $25. He is thinking to himself, I can get two dinner size salads at Zaxby’s for less than that. Then he sees the steaks with the prices starting at $75. Of course he is thinking about how he could have gotten a whole steak meal for the two of them at Longhorns for less money. Nearing the end of the meal he is hoping his wife is too full to enjoy a dessert. The tragedy here is multifaceted. First, he missed out on a fine dining experience with his wife and likely stayed quiet or didn’t listen to her very well because he could only think about the prices. Two, he missed out on enjoying the best meal he is going to have all year. (Yes, this used to be me.) If you go out for a nice meal, count the cost ahead of time and then enjoy a really special time.
My point is: If you want to play in high end hi fi you have to pay. Everyone loves showing off their gorgeous new speakers or shiny amplifiers but do not want to put much money into cables. I don’t like buying expensive cables either but they are a vital part of a hifi system. People spend big money on speakers and amps, dac’s etc and then wonder why the system sounds no better than a good mid fi set-up. Well, power cords- which were my last hold out, are the most important consideration, I found followed by speaker cables and then interconnects. If streaming then, the USB cable and ethernet cables matter too.
If you want to go hifi then it’s either all the way or don’t bother. This is a big boy game. Count the cost before even starting. I really didn’t think I would ever spend half the cost of my new speakers on amp power cords and speaker cables but that is what it took to get the sound I was after.