Good USED XLR Interconnect Choices for $300-$400?

Tom,

I'd submit the Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference (original version) as a very warm and musical interconnect. Tons of tonal color and image density with very refined highs.

Ghstudio, it makes not one bit of difference what the recording studios use. We're just trying to optmize the sound we hear in our own listening rooms using whatever means necessary to get there. If that means Belden cables and pro audio electronics/speakers so be it, but I suspect that if we duplicated as best as possible the equipment/cables used to make a recording in a studio it would not sound optimal in our homes regardless of how accurate it may be.

So your point is made that we put a lot more emphasis on equipment than maybe a lot of recording studios do, but it doesn't change or invalidate what we're after or how we'll go about trying to achieve it.

Hi Tom, have tried and used many cables in my systems over the years and have had good luck with Audioquest diamonds until I tried Revelation paradise silver cables. Now am useing the interconnect Revelations and have never been happier. These are great cables and can be had on the gon for about 300 dollars for a meter pair of XLRs. Most of mine were bought here. Give them a try.

Ghstudio,
Maybe that's why so many CDs sound like crap. There's a lot more that sound like crap than sound excellent that's for sure.
It's a shame that audiophiles care more about sound than the people who record the music. Fortunately, there are those who do care (and they do pay attention to cables) and produce fine recordings.
As far as high quality audio amps, Crown...? I haven't seen an audiophile use one of those since the early 70s. Are we in the same era?

I was suggesting duplicating what you might find in a recording studio...crown amps, mackie monitors, etc. to give you the same sound experience that the sound engineer created.

I think CD's sounding like crap is somewhat subjective. Remember that most CD's are made to sell to the masses and to sound good on the typical home/college/car sound system.
By creating an exceptionally good sound environment in your home, you are not creating the environment that the CD was made for. Ditto for most movie DVD's.

The folks who do the audio work on CD's absolutely do care about the sound...they get some big bucks to make that sound right...they are just creating a final CD tuned to a different sound than you want.

Of course the simplest example is on voice recordings where audio is expanded/compressed, reverbed, effected to the point where you probably wouldn't recognize the performer if they sang in front of you without a mic. So tone control using wires or whatever is almost rediculous.

Then again, most of us have only heard the performers after being processed by all the electronics, so we are trying to recreate a sound that isn't natural.

(BTW, I spend lots of time tuning my home system too...I just think that some who take audio too seriously have to really sit back and think about the whole sound thing)

IMO: Using your logic, there would be little reason for audiophile equipment to exist.

At the same time, I will admit that some equipment has surpassed the quality of some source material. It's obvious that traditional source paradigms are in the process of shifting. It seems that all the technologies are no longer in sync. Not only that, traditional business model paradigms are also wacko.

It certainly is an interesting time. Sometimes I wonder if symbiosis will ever be achieved again.

Off the original subject, for that I apologize.