If boulder is tops what is second tier?

It seems that the only person who read my post carefully and understood exactly what I said was Raul.

Very simply: cables can affect the sound of the audio passing through them via their unique characteristics, however they should never affect the operation of electronics if those electronics are properly engineered. If the function of an amplifier is changed because of the cable attached to it, then the amp has either been designed with a specific cable in mind and should ONLY be used with that cable, or it is an unstable product.

For those who wonder what audio cables we think are the most neutral, we really don't go looking. We're not in the cable evaluation business. Most of the sonic changes wrought by any sort of cable and its internal winding are inversely proportional, meaning that as one goes up, another goes down, etc. Because of that, the choice of cable is really user dependent - we all pick our favorites.

How do we do measurements? Everything is connected directly to a variac and tested on the bench. AC is supplied at either 50 or 60 Hz only, so there would be no issues regardless of what is used to carry power as long as it does not limit current delivery.

Power cables: most products do not build line conditioning and filtration into the AC line input sections of their products. We do. We have extremely high common mode rejection in our power supply designs, so there is little that a power cord can achieve with our designs other than greater possible current delivery if a smaller gauge cable had been used. We believe that any product that claims to be of high performance should take external factors into account (and in the real world, not just on paper) as well as internal operation, thus we do everything that we can to eliminate the need for external tweaks. For what you're paying, it should be optimized right out of the box.

Dear Eldartford: Right on target!!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Which sort of begs the question-What should cables do? The easy answer is to pass the sgnal so it is the same on both ends. It would seem to be simple. It is clear that many cables are acting as filters/equalizers. Either intentionally or as the result of poor design.

Albert seems to argue that Boulder should not be taken seriously because they don't take cables seriously.
Boulder seems to arguwe that they do take cables seriously. But that there serious conclusion is cables are not important if the electronics are properly designed.

The question of course is that many make the same argument against Bouders extremely expensive products. BTW a cursory tabulation of the of Albert's cables could be used to purchase some Boulder products. I assume Boulder is not a rip off comapany. No doubt using internal components that many would deem overpriced and uneccessary. To go through all that and have the signal lost in zip cord seems foolish to me.
I have examined a lot of scientific equipment. Nobody begrudges there use of quality power chords and connectors.

There should be some standadrs regarding cable. At this point it just seems to be to much emotion involved.

It seems that the only person who has not read carefully what Mr Maez wrote is Mr Maez: the interconnecting wire may affect the sonic result -- but it's not (or shouldn't be) affecting the operation of the circuit...

Well, of course it isn't, or shouldn't, for goodess sake. No one's complaining about that.
No one's complaining about the purported quality of Boulder products either.

Albertporter was not very happy about Boulder peoples' attitude -- not the design of the electronics power supplies.

The wire (and attachments thereof) seem to be affecting the signal transfer. That's what everyone's complaining about.

Raul notes:

a phonolinepreamp (...) output impedance remain at less or around 100 Ohms

Excellent point. In fact, try a max of 60 ohm, with the next stage at standard.

I am going to do something shocking, specifically, respond to Pedrillo's question.

You may wish to consider a used Rowland Cadence phono stage, especially if it is run from the Rowland battery power supply as opposed to the A/C power supply (it works with either, but better from batteries). The Cadence is flexible, offering four loading / output options. Used, it runs around $2,000-$3,000. In fact, what you may want to consider is running the Cadence with the Rowland Coherence II preamp, whereby both are run from the Rowland battery power supply. The Coherence II was Rowland's best preamp and goes for +/- $6,000 used (expect to pay $7,500-$8,000 for the Coherence / Cadence combo). I believe that Rowland was the first high-end manufacturer to go to battery power for components, the Edge, ASR, Sutherland and darTZeel designs coming years after.

If your budget is $3,000, I doubt the Cadence idea will get any argument from Rich Maez, as he was with Rowland during the Coherence / Cadence years and does not have a Boulder phono stage in this "modest" price range. I believe Raul likes the Cadence as well. So there, no more arguments.

Disclaimer: This combo is a personal favorite, as I run the Coherence II / Cadence.