Which cable is most important to spend money on...

regarding the order of significance of interconnects; there is not one answer. it will depend on a number of factors.

in my case my preamp (the darTZeel NHB-18NS) uses a propriatary BNC 50ohm cable (Zeel) that outperforms any conventional cable when used with the darTZeel amp. i need an 8 meter set of cables between my pre and amps so optimizing that particular interconnect is most significant in my system.

some sources have 'funny' output impedence or need long lengths. digital cables can be very sensitive to lengths. my digital uses 3 ST Optical cables which can be as long as you like with no difference in performance.

the answer here is that in a very general sense i would say that the order of interconnect significance would be;

1. tt to phono stage
2. source to pre
3. pre to amp

but at the highest levels of performance generalizing is not recommended.

If you want to catch the upgrade bug then go buy yourself a set of decent ICs and you will be in total shock with that first jump from the stock cables that come with components.

This, assuming you have components that can handle it......

Ye ole chicken v egg question, oh well, what the hell..

In order to answer your question I'm going to make two assumptions, just because you ask the question in the first place. 1) You are relatively new to audio and have yet to develope audio listening skills which will make auditioning and selection a simple task, and 2)that you are just developing your system and have not yet acquired highly refined equipment.

Regarding power cords - These are highly equipment dependent and the benefits of the different cords can be very subtle. To begin with I would get some inexpensive heavy guage Belden cord to use as a benchmark.

Power conditioners - more important than cords by a mile. Highly recommended if for no other reason to obtain something (filters) to seperate your CDP from your amp/preamp.

IC's - as in power cords the difference between good ones is subtle but there are some which are not subtle and can be used to really act as tone controls (not recommended). As with the P/C's I'd start off with an inexpensive IC noted for neutrality and use it for a bench mark.

Lastly there is speaker cable. This IMHO can produce the most easily audible differences to the tyro, especially as the lengths get longer. I would start off with an excellent low cost heavy guage cable to use as a benchmark which will reveal changes brought by other stuff as you trade up and fine tune your system. I highly recommend Canare 4S11 Star Quad for this purpose.

For a specific answer to your question, starting out I would get a good power conditioner, with a filter for CD power, and speaker cable. Next I would work on IC's and lastly PC's and then revisit speaker cable.

In the final analysis though all of the wiring is important to getting the best results from you system, however this should be consistent with your ability to detect the differences. There is no reason to buy stuff until you can hear the differences. This ability usually only comes with a lot of experience and very careful analysis of the sound of your system.

As in everything wire related, IMHO and YMMV. :-)

>>He says they're the best<<

Everything is system dependent. There is no universal "best" cable.

>>Everything is system dependent<<

I've learned through experience that phrase is a cliché used to justifiy not so good stuff/choices...or stuff/choices that compensate idiosyncracies/biases.

Robert Ridgestreet has designed his power cords to address something no one has, to date. Please read and or call tha man.

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