2. cables
  3. 192296-1635

What % Of Your System Are Your Cables?

IMO, the “10% rule” for cable expenditure really should be stated as “when you’re building a new system and you have a limited budget, allocate 10% to cables” and I think this is a good idea. But again IMO, this is not necessarily the stopping point. I recently purchased some new cables and I was wondering, hopefully without getting into the cable debate, what percentage of your system do you have invested in cables?  No need to go into brands or actual cost, unless you want to. With my new purchase, I would say I’m around 25% depending on whether you count my analog rig as part of the system price, as I did not buy any new cables for the TT, because my TT has captive cables. Probably up to about 30% without the analog.  I understand the percentage numbers can be highly deceiving if you bought used. 25% used is probably about 50% of your system price if you bought new. Anyway, just curious to see what you’re doing with cables. Be well. 

chayro
yyzsantabarbara
4,860 posts
 

0.1% if you exclude the speaker cables. I like gear where the interconnects do not have to be boutique.

With the Audience FrontRow speaker cables it is about 10%.

Though in my office system, a Magnepan Mini speaker, I found that the Blue Jean cable at 10 AWG is as good as the FrontRow. So, selling that set of FrontRow speaker cables. On my bigger system the second set of FrontRow is considerably better than the Blue Jean.

 

mikhailark
278 posts
 

% is actually depends on the system. Tube amps require way more cable matching than solid state. Digital less than analog and so on. Some people like gold Ethernet, but whatever...

terry9
2,341 posts
 

Something less than 1%. And that's with all the electronics DIY (excluding 3 Bryston bass auxiliaries) in an all-vinyl, ESL system.

jsalerno277
181 posts
 

I neither establish limits nor calculate percentage of total system cost when I approach system upgrades.  I establish a goal as to the improvement in SQ I wish to realize and an upper limit for the spend.  I then audition components (which includes cables) to optimize the system to my goal.  Calculating now to respond, 16% of the system spend was on all cables and cords.  

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