Can hi-end cables benefit less expensive electronics?

A lot of good advice already.  My experience is that cable matching to your system is critical.  More expensive is not always better.  But IMO, cables do make substantial changes and possible improvements allowing you to get the most from your system.  
 

A couple of years ago, I upgraded my CD transport and was considering to upgrade my 30 year old DAC.  Before the additional expensive purchase, I decided to invest a bit in a digital interconnect (Cardas Parsec) and a power cord (SUPRA LoRad) for the DAC.  For the first time, I actually like my CD playback.  I may buy a new DAC someday, but I am in no rush.  I have become quite happy with my old DAC.  My total cost was $300, not $4K.  

Thank you so much for such great response to my question. Of course, somebody who said, paraphrasing, how the hell one should know what I would personally experience with cable upgrades in my system that nobody knows is right. This was meant to be a general question considering people's experience in buying expensive cables for relatively cheaper electronics, and I'm grateful that you shared. Cable topics always raise controversy but I have not seen a similar discussion before, and perhaps this discussion will benefit some people using this forum in the future. I guess many people might be tempted with serious cable upgrades because it's always cheaper than upgrading electronics, so I believe this topic might be useful. I guess it is true there is no point in going over the top with cable upgrades, even if tempted by reviewers who always speak of huge differences with whatever they review (even really minor upgrades such as footers). 

As I see it, if I were to sum up, it's worth upgrading but not necessarily to the top-of-the-line cables like Transparent XL (in case of digital), because a hi-end cable (an expensive rip-off for some) might actually show the system's weaknesses more than a more forgiving cable. And, at the end of the day, it's the pleasure from listening to your favourite music that counts the most. 

I don't know anything about digital systems, but my rule of thumb is to limit the cost of cables to 5% the cost of my overall system.  That seems like a reasonable compromise to keep the cables from being the weak point.

Hey there,

Just thought I'd lend my experience to this discussion. Several years back when my system was real basic, I tried out some nice rca cables far outclassing the quality of components and was floored at being able to hear the difference. As my system progressed, I tried some even nicer usb and rca cables and again couldn't believe the level of improvement. Last week I was doing a cable demo and set things up for my dac and popped in a cheap power cord because I didn't feel like grabbing my regular nice one out of the other room. Big mistake, as I immediately could hear a crappy, harsh, grainy sound. I quickly swapped in my proper power cord and fired it back up and just laughed at how much nicer things sounded. Very, very audible improvement. Point being, if you have decent components and speakers, pairing them with quality cables is an absolute improvement. Think of the cables like tires on a car. If you were to have a race car, would you put tires from a Prius on there? Probably not. On the flip side, if you were to put soft racing slicks on a Mazda Miata, you think it'd be an improvement on the track? Heck yes it will. Can everyone tell a difference in how their car drives with different tires? Probably not.

After lots of demo cables through my system, I've landed on Hapa Audio Aero Cu usb cable, Hapa Ember rca, GR Research B24 power cables, and next is GR Research 24 speaker cables. Each and every one of these cables have been a major step up in quality of music reproduction that improve every aspect of sound in my system. I've heard some very nice other cables through here as well, but they surpassed what my wallet is comfortable with. Lol.

In my system, I've found that I prefer good copper cable over silver in most cases, but there are a few silver cables that bring something special to the party. I recently did a demo of Empirical Audio new Kloud 9 rca cables and was thrilled at the level of detail and soundstage from them without any harsh edginess. I guess my point is, have fun and try some stuff out. Buy from smaller cable producers as your quality/cost ratio will be far higher and likely have a good demo/return policy. Listen to your system and try to see where you'd like an improvement. Is the soundstage kinda flat and you wish it were deeper, more 3d? Do you wish you could hear some more detail in plucked guitar strings and drums? The really nice cables should be able to bring a good bit of everything to the table in quality tone, improved details, increased dynamics and bigger soundstage. Giving yourself an idea where you'd like to go should really help direct your purchases to be big wins rather than trial and error.

Hope this helps,

-Lloyd