Hello Teck,
It looks like your system is in need of some attention at the source. Before you spend a fortune on ICs and PCs, you should try to improve the front end first otherwise I do not think you will ever be able to benefit much with any cable you purchase.
Hopefully you can borrow some cables and compare to what you currently own before you commit to the temptations of cables on "clearance". Here at A'gon, there are always great cable deals. Buying new cables brings on no benefit compared to used ones at much reduced prices.
I don't buy into the issue of "system synergy"; it all comes down to our own priorities. The tradeoff for me is to find that balance between detail and 3-dimensionality. But if tonal coherency is a mess, dynamics are compressed or the presentation is distant and flat, it's impossible to go any further with the cable evaluation.
I think we all have been guilty one time or another to go with a cable that corrects for flaws elsewhere in our system. Throwing in cables to "warm up" the sound just makes no sense. And we can get carried away with buying the higher cost cables because they get a lot of praise. It's easy to get trapped into buying such cables when so often our system is not able to take advantage of such refinements.
There have been so many claims about power cables here but it was only the last couple years where these started to make a big difference in my system. A power line conditioner (PLC) brought on such a huge improvement to my system's resolution that only then power cables made worthy contributions. And this was with top-notch gear from ARC, BAT, Wolcott, Aesthetix and CAT with Magnepan and Talon speakers. Much of this gear's capability was masked until the PLC was added. And then power and speaker cable differences became far more evident.
ICs and phono cables have always made differences for me. The link from line stage to amp has been the most critical. I currently use a 10m Purist Dominus between the line stage and amps. Long ICs are tough to find and can be very costly. Of all the long ICs I have heard here, the NBS Statement, Kubala-Sosna Emotion, MIT 350 and EVO, the Dominus is the one I prefer. Between the phono and line stages, I have played with numerous XLR cables from NBS, Kubala-Sosna, Purist and Jade, and so far the Jade Gold is wonderful here. I hope to hear the XLR Stealth Indra here soon. For RCA cables between the DAC and line stage, I use the Stealth Indra. The Jade cables are quite nice here too but I prefer the Indra with how it renders the harmonic overtones and the top octave's clarity in my system.
Power cables can be kinda strange in how they react so differently with various components like I previously described the Dream. When I went to a VD dealer last year, I also was able to directly compare the top Revelation PC to the Dominus Ferox into my Manley DAC. With the VD, the presentation was very flat, decays much reduced, the body of the instruments also clipped off. A return to the Dominus and the performance was right back there. We tried the same experiment with the dealer's Wadia CD playback setup and here the VD edged out the Dominus in portrayal of upper frequency information. But the Wadia was not at all in the same league as the Manley in terms of the 3-dimensional presentation....and this is where the Dominus was miles ahead of the VD.
John
