Most Beneficial Cable Upgrade

My point was that when you speak of upgrading it depends on what your upgrading FROM. You can't tell what the weakest link is until you know what the links ARE. That said, anyone who can't hear the difference between power cords in either profoundly deaf or has a crappy system. I have tried substituting cheap cords for good ones many times and have always been disappointed. I wish this was not so as I am as cheap as the next one. I think the reason many systems sound bad is insufficient attention is paid to peripheral gear.

Preamp to amp interconnect, then Speaker cables in my system. I have good PCs but didn't notice a meaningful difference beyond not using the $1 stock cords especially after dedicated circuit.

the question of why does the last 3 feet matter when there are miles of the other stuff out there has not been answered yet

The last three feet are the most important because that is last section of cable that influences the signal right before it enters the power supplies in your components. Think of all the crap that can contaminate your water. A good filter at the tap will remove 99.999% of the impurities right before it touches your lips. Do you trust the water that flows through 60 miles of pipe that is 50 to 100 years old? I personally do not.

A properly designed cable "can" I did not say "will" (depending on the quality of your equipment and your ability to perceive changes), improve and enhance certain frequencies, lower the noise floor, increase resolution, etc, etc. I am not trying to convince you one way or the other.. Your own ears and experience is more valid than anyone on a forum.

It is possible that the reverse could also happen== bad sound. So much of what we do and experiment with in audio is system dependent and user dependent. We call that SYNERGY. That is one reason why we have forums here and elsewhere and 15,000 manufacturers. There is room at the bar for everyone! All opinions are valid to the owner of said opinion. Just because someone cannot detect a difference does not prove that it does not exist or is not valid to those who do. There are too many things in this world that cannot be proven or seen but we understand them to exist(ie God particle, string theory, anti-matter, miracles, faith).

The best part of all of this is>>>... Try as many of the cables and products as you can from vendors that will allow a 30 or 60 day trial. If you do not hear any differences or perceive any gains you can send them back. Put your stock cables back in and laugh all the way to the bank. Think of how much money you saved and how much time you can now devote to listening to your music and not worrying about making it sound better.

Not having "Golden Ears" can be a blessing, Can it not?

Some things I did not mention in my previous post.

IMO what I said above can apply to interconnects and speaker cables also.

AC treatment and proper grounding are very important.

Be practicle, treat one problem at a time and try to keep an open mind, remember your budget.

If and when you do try cables try to find something in the middle of a manufacturers line up. That is usually where the best bang for the buck can be found. (trickle-down).

Lastly, be careful. If you do find that you can detect differences between cables and components and things start to sound better, clearer, more musical, more like the real thing... then you are screwed! The Merry-go-round will have just begun and your conversion to the dark side is just one upgrade away:>) Good Luck with your journey!!!!