What most of us audiophools do is spend time and money on cabling when other issues should be addressed first...like frontends, amps, speakers etc...because in most cases it is the cheapest and easiest way to change the sound of your system. So in that case it is an endless search to alter your systems presentation when you feel the need....like tone controls.
That has brought me to this conclusion having been on this merry-go-round myself....the better the components in the system the better any cable sounds. Put classic "best bang for the buck" cables like Kimber PBJ and 8TC in a balanced high resolving system and they are hard to beat, damn hard to beat and you can spend as much as you want. Put them in a middle of the road system and they sound maybe "ho-hum. It's not the wire! I have tons of cables laying around, some reference, middle of the road, mega bucks and cheap and I put the Kimbers mentioned above in my system and they outperform just about everything I've tried, mind you not hundreds of cables but quite a few.
System context:
Meridian 200/563
CJ Premier 14
Mcintosh 501 mono's
Thiel 3.6
That has brought me to this conclusion having been on this merry-go-round myself....the better the components in the system the better any cable sounds. Put classic "best bang for the buck" cables like Kimber PBJ and 8TC in a balanced high resolving system and they are hard to beat, damn hard to beat and you can spend as much as you want. Put them in a middle of the road system and they sound maybe "ho-hum. It's not the wire! I have tons of cables laying around, some reference, middle of the road, mega bucks and cheap and I put the Kimbers mentioned above in my system and they outperform just about everything I've tried, mind you not hundreds of cables but quite a few.
System context:
Meridian 200/563
CJ Premier 14
Mcintosh 501 mono's
Thiel 3.6