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Interconnects priority

Greetings!

I am mulling over my interconnects and one question I have is, which interconnect is the most  important, if any, in the chain.

My setup is a Rega P8 with a Hana SL LOMC cart, into a Moon 310 LP / 320S phono stage, onto a PrimaLuna EVO 400 preamp and finally into a McIntosh MC312 power amp.

I am contemplating which interconnect (using XLR in my case) is the most critical to the sound/signal path, the one from the phono stage to the preamp or from the preamp to the power amp?

Or, looking it from another practical budget perspective, if I have a total of of $1,000 to spend is it clear that I should spend $500 on each XLR pair, or should I “overweight” my spend on one set because it’s the more “important” interconnect from a sound quality perspective.

(Of course assuming the interconnects are of equal length so that’s not a factor.)

Would love to hear this knowledgeable group’s thoughts on this - thanks!

128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xbimmerlover
phantom_av's avatar
phantom_av
326 posts
 

I find Pre to Amp and Source to Pre most important. Had Fantastic Results with the Albedo Silver Mono Crystals over any Copper iv compared them against.

decooney
2,039 posts
 

source first

coralkong's avatar
coralkong
664 posts
 

I'd say preamp to amp, simply because EVERYTHING travels through this line. Get this one wrong, and it'll foul up the entire chain.

They're all important to the end sound, though.

mclinnguy's avatar
mclinnguy
491 posts
 

My system only has one pair of interconnects.  I believe the simpler the system is, the better it sounds.

@carlsbad (links don't seem to be working...)

I would think if that were your philosophy, you would be considering the Grimm LS1 speakers, and could eliminate all the interconnects? 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,141 posts
 

Bimmer…in my experience the best ROI in interconnects is preamp to amp. There are exceptions though. In case of silver/ copper mix, having silver between source and pre and copper from pre to amp always sounded more natural to me. In example I had AZ Silver Ref II and Matrix Ref II interconnects. The Matrix between pre and amp were much better the Silver between there. And Matrix is a cheaper cable. You have to try. 

If I were to upgrade cables, I’d start with speaker cables though and work my way up the audio chain. 

Have you considered cartridge and phono amp upgrade?

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