Where to put best interconnects


Getting a new tube pre-amp into tube mono blocks with one CDP as front end.  Will have one very good, new set of XLRs to use and one good but much older set, each at 1.5M.  Where to place the better set?  

128x128jafreeman

 

jafreeman OP

691 posts

 

Will place the better cables at source, according to Lalitk.  Have SR Atmosphere Eurphoria SX as the newer, and Transparent Reference from 2003 as older, which are ok, but not as revealing.  
 

try it in both places. You don’t want a bottleneck between pre and amp. Tone, focus, imaging, soundstage are mostly attributes of preamp and amp (speakers too of course but we’re talking interconnect). Yes source matters but I assume you already have a decent source and you definitely have a decent cable in transparent. I bet the system would shine much brighter with a better cable on pre to amp. But I’ve been wrong before…definitely try though. 

When I used Transparent Audio Cables, they recommended source to pre as most important, then speaker cables, then pre to amp...I have generally found that to be true...

First-best option is between source and preamp.  

Second-best option is between preamp and amp. 

Easy to test.  Put your best at preamp to amp first. Listen for a while. 

Then, swap the best to the source-to-preamp, and notice the difference.  

I was always under the impression that your best interconnects should be between the amp and preamp.