Which cable to change first-intercon. or speaker?

Could you please say what you're using now, and what length(s)?

I think the whole philosophy of always putting the "best" anything upstream is questionable if not nonsense. Unfortunately, it's just not this easy or I'd be spinning LPs on a Rockport turntable driving my old Marantz receiver and Pioneer HPM speakers.

What improvements would you like from cable changes? Do you want more resolution and detail, more dynamics, more dimensionality, midrange bloom, etc? I think the particular brand and model of the cables here will be a bigger factor than simply IC vs. speaker cable.

Please share with us the cables you are currently using. I owned ARC electronics for 15 years and can suggest a few ICs for you to try that worked very well. The performance of a few IC's in the $300-400 price range on the used market is quite amazing compared to the much higher models.

I have recently tried a speaker cable at this same price that is so darn close to the speaker cable I have using that I am truly very impressed. I find the point of diminishing returns to happen much sooner with speaker cables though. Your experieneces and trials could be very different here.

You simply need to try out several ICs and speaker cables with the money you are willing to spend, and hear for yourself what works in your system.

If you're interested in some suggestions for auditioning, send me an email.

John

I upgraded the ICs first in my recent overhaul. Basically the ICs deliver the music from source to preamp to amp. Once I replaced them I got a good idea of what my speaker cables could deliver. I ended up replacing them but the important thing was I knew more about why I needed to replace them and found an excellent match for the ICs.

You're asking a question that often polarizes the membership. There's Jafox and the "iPOD/Wilson" school of thought and the school of thought I belong to: "garbage in/garbage out". So. more specific information will elicit more helpful responses.

Louisl,

I just went through selecting speaker cables which is the last cabling I have addressed in my system. I was so impressed with the improvements, and this is with all 4 sets that I auditioned, that it left me wondering the same thing. "Should I have changed the speaker cables first so I could hear the differences in the ICs?" Seems it could go both ways. That is, if you're IC's aren't up to it then you don't really hear what the speaker cables can do, or if you're speaker cables aren't up to it then you don't really hear what the IC's can do.

With all of the choices in quality cabling these days I'm not sure that it really matters. You may not end up with the exact same combinations by starting from the sources as you would by starting from the speakers. But if you are auditioning each with your system I still think you will choose the best synergy anyway.