Experiences With Costly Balanced XLR Interconnects Above $3,000

+1 @tomic601 on Audioquest Pegasus ICs.

I had an experience at HiFi Buys in Atlanta recently that made me curse out aloud.

Brought in my Berkeley Reference 2 DAC to audition just for kicks. (HiFi Buys does not carry the BAD DAC Ref 2.) Connected my BAD DAC to Vandersteen pre-amp feeding Vandersteen top-of-line amps driving Vandersteen Kentos. (Richard Vandersteen was in town showcasing his new pre-amp,) At first, I substituted my Audioquest Earth XLRs from home for Pegasus XLRs that were connecting reference DAC to pre-amp. The Earths are no slouch. Sound was coarse compared to what was emitted by reference DAC just before. Might even say BAD DAC Ref 2 sounded broken in comparison. On whim, asked Ed of HiFi Buys to swap Pegasus ICs back in. Night and day. Now my BAD DAC Ref 2 sounded as sweet, refined, and precise, as the reference DAC, if not more so.

#$%@! Now I have to replace my carefully assembled loom of Earth ICs with Pegasus ICs.

G 

Blind testing is a great idea because when one pays a fortune for a cable one expects some marvelous change in sound that doesn't exist. That's psychology, and these cable tweaks are a fetish. When I read some reviewer of a component saying he hears different responses when using different cables I become skeptical because that is pure nonsense. Go to ASR and read Amir's excellent review of some crazy Nordost cable and also the one on a Wireworld USB cable. The Wireworld, despite extravagant manufacturer claims, sounds no different than an Amazon basic USB. I can see where people like certain badly rated speakers or prefer tubes to Class D or whatever because they like the sound they are getting which is certainly different. But this cable business is absolute rubbish, unless you are manufacturing and selling them. Some of these cables look very cool. but I'd rather enjoy the music and leave neurosis behind. 

If you can’t trust your hearing then you are in the wrong hobby. 

Have had some great results from AntiCable and some of the higher end Cardas options.  

The funniest thing is that the “Box” cables like Transparent and MIT are frequently bashed as being snake oil.  Those are precisely the only cables that actually offer a musically significant increase in performance.  Otherwise, I agree with fact that wire is wire.