To loom or not to loom?

I've been heading in this direction myself. I was drawn to the fact your using DH Lab cables.

I was looking for a reasonably priced USB cable from Streamer to DAC and ended up with DH Lab's Mirage. I wasn't expecting much difference to what I had, but against my expectations, it was noticeably different.

I then wanted to try more DH Labs so went for the Air CryobMatrix RCA ICs, and also the Reunion Ethernet.

All very nice and a reasonable price. I am going to try the speaker cables next. 

I've never made a conscious effort to go full loom, but I guess if you like what a particular brand's cables do for your system/enjoyment, makes a kind of sense to keep going.

My PCs are a mush mash of Triode Wire, NRG Custom Cables and Furutech; not sure I'll go that far, but I'll will going full DH Labs for signal cables

Should I look at consolidating each system to a specific brand and model of cables or is this a fool’s errand?

@audio_is_subjective64 I’m going with fool’s errand.

For speaker cables the right cable varies with the amplifier and loudspeaker. You’ll find tube amplifiers to be more sensitive in this regard. So a specific cable manufacturer may or may not have the right cable for you (and all speaker cables are compromises due to the physics involved, which is why you hear differences). Note that I said ’right’ instead of ’best’.

The better your preamp is at controlling the interconnect between the preamp and amp, the less artifact the cable will have. This is partially a function of the output impedance of the preamp but also the topology. The logical extension of this phenomena occurs with balanced line cables if the surrounding equipment supports the balanced line standard, known as AES48. Passive volume controls are incapable of controlling the cable so you’ll find them to be the most picky about which cable to use.

RCA cables, lacking any kind of connection standard are the most susceptible to changes in materials and construction technique. One rather large problem with them is the shield is often part of the audio path as it is used for the return current which is essential to create an electrical circuit. Noise in the environment can influence the signal as a result. This can be reduced by using a cable that employs a twisted pair for the signal and ground, with a shield around that, tied only at one end of the cable (usually the source end). In this way if noise impinges the cable its less able to affect the signal itself.

You can see that some manufacturers make cables like that and others don’t. So it can be tricky to find everything with one-stop shopping.

I suspect this is one of those darned, it depends questions.

I have been slowly migrating from all different brands of components to the same brand for everything over the last fifty years. In a way, this is a reflection of the industry. A great system in the 80’s required choosing the best of class from different manufacturers. Each brand had a really great component made by the founder and a bunch of mediocre ones… think Pass.

Over time I migrated to all components from Audio Research. They offer top of class components voiced exactly the same in all categories… and putting all these together is shockingly synergistic. In this situation a full loom seems logical, and in fact, in general is really good. There is a known synergy between audio research equipment and transparent cabling. But I still had great trouble with my amp power cord. I tried many different solutions until I found the audio quest hurricane.

So I think, it is system dependent.

@atmasphere I thank you for your input. I prefer Balanced AES48 but unfortunately not all component manufacturers subscribe as you do,. So it is a game of compromises.  I am using an unshielded RCA from DH from my phono section to my pre, noticed a more open sound from the shielded RCA I had in place. 

So I must ask as a mfr of both tube and GaN amplification what have been your experiences and are their brands and types of cables you prefer. I do find that the WW Mini Eclipse 8 speaker cables work very well on my tube gear and they are only 5 foot lengths, great buy from The Cable Co for $360.00 vs $600. 

@ghdprentice Thank you and I suspect you are right. I may just stand pat on IC’s and Speaker cables. May make some moves on PC.