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Cable upgrades

Happy Holidays to all!

I’m reconfiguring my system and am interested in upgrading my interconnects and possibly my speaker cables, and I was wondering if you could make some recommendations.

I was running Audio Sensibility Impact SE XLR between my Benchmark DAC3 HGC (as a DAC/pre) and my Benchmark AHB2 power amp.  The amp is running bi-wired Kimber Cable 8TC (I think that’s the model #) to a pair of ATC SCM40 tower speakers.  In this setup the bass is tight and the mids are clean - overall I’m quite happy - but sometimes I feel, for my ears, I’d love a bit more openness / brightness in the higher end.

My questions are: would improved XLR interconnects help to open up the top end a bit, without being harsh, and perhaps increase the dimensionality of the soundstage?  Or would I be better off starting with upgrading the speaker cables?  I’ve been looking at the Cardas Parsec level of cable, and could perhaps stretch to the Clear line, pending your recommendations.

Also, one other question: pending the possible move to 2 AHB2s (in mono-block configuration), do both XLR interconnects have to be the same length?  If not, would it cause any timing issues between, say, a 2' XLR and a 6'?

I’d appreciate any guidance.  Many thanks in advance.

Best, JAMES

jimboman
jimboman OP
102 posts
 

Not to take away from your great advice @audphile1 , but it’s so interesting how many different opinions there are re running in process:

Cardas says you’re basically starting from scratch every time you move/plug/unplug a cable — Triode Wire Labs recommends an equal playing/resting period (6-10 hrs on, 6-10 hrs off) — Audio Sensibility says minimum 100 hrs on their cables before critical listening…and on it goes!

And to top it off — I’m listening to the Cardas Golden Reference now — not sure what they did at the factory besides reskinning the connectors, but — they’re sounding pretty darn nice!  Maybe not the best I’ve heard in my system, but much better than they seemed to me before sending them in. And they haven’t had any run-in yet!  Crazy!

At any rate, it’s not going to be a hardship to have them in the system for a month before I decide whether they’re staying or going. And that’s a great position to be in.  And I wouldn’t be in this position without the help you and others have provided through this thread  Much appreciated!

Best, JAMES

ghdprentice
7,225 posts
 

😊

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,340 posts
 

Hahaha I know. 

paulcreed
565 posts
 

There are to many good cables to suggest just a few. So I will just go with an unknown oddball brand that can sound as good as $2000 to $3000 cables for $100 to $200 used.

 

TImeportal is a copper silver wire. The heavy speaker cables were $2000 but can be found for $200, interconnects were $1000 but sell for $100 to $200, power cables were $1000 to $2000 now sell $150 to $200. Problem is they are not easy to sell, but they sound really good even for there retail price.

 

I know it’s a odd ball suggestion just thought I would throw it out there. They are more like buying a better component than just buying wire to make things sound a little better. 


They have really good bass and dig deep for information. I preferred them to my Acoustic Zen silver reference and some other more expensive cables. The Timeportals were more natural much better bass but could dig as deep for info and detail as AZ. 
 

They also sold under VALABS and King Cables back in the day. I still have some in the closet but will keep them there good enough to keep around. If I was on a budget or not I would check them out. 

 

 

pennfootball71's avatar
pennfootball71
278 posts
 

I would do an entire loom of Synergistic research SRX 

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