Comments on interconnect cables

What are your listening preferences - what type of music do you listen to?

Do you attend live performances as a reference when evaluating your system's performance?

Is your system set up to recreate the recording as it was performed? Is it optimized for frequency response?

Most people don't ask these questions yet these issues are critical when considering equipment.

Many audiophiles don't have their system set up to recreate the performance - the image and dimensionality of the performers playing in the room.

Speakers set up against a wall with a high vertical equipment rack in between the speakers, while possibly getting high WAF ratings, compromises that systems' performance.

Making recommendations (wire or other components) for such systems is difficult because fidelity (how well a recorded performance is recreated) isn't a criteria used to gauge performance. Or, if it is - the ability of the system to do so is limited at best.

I hope I'm not sounding like I'm on a rant. I'm an engineer, and if you ask for help from a qualified person (me or anyone else asking for suggestions) - these are prerequisite issues that must be addressed before a recommendation can be offered.

Time Portal Reference XLR are one in that price range that did well with me.
good luck

Tjassoc: Thanks for asking those great questions. I listen to classical, jazz, blues, country and new age recordings and streaming (uncompressed Tidal and Pandora). I listen to live music at San Francisco Symphony Hall and Freight & Salvage (amplified and un-amplified Jazz, Folk, etc). I also listen to music at various San Francisco Theaters.

My system was tuned by my local retailer to capture "the image and dimensionality of the performers playing in the room”as much as possible. My Sonus Faber Olympic II Speakers are slightly away from the wall and to the left and right of my fireplace. My equipment rack is on the left side of my living room. The IC cable goes from my Ayre QB-9 DSD DAC to my Luxman L-590ax amplifier. I have a MAC Laptop connected to the Ayre QB-9 DAC using the Synergistic Research Active SE USB Cable (powered). CD's were ripped to my LaCie 3TB d2 USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series Hard Drive (AIFF Format).

Several people have listened to my system and felt it sounded excellent.

Since my Harmonic technology Magic Link Two IC is 7 years old, I thought it might be time for an improvement. I am asking this question but might decide to keep my HT Magic Link 2 IC's. I am in research mode and in no hurry to make a decision. To be honest, it is more fun to just listen to the music. Thanks again for your input.

I'm pretty sure Wireworld uses rectangular solid-core conductors in its ICs and Speaker cables.
I don't believe I said the Wireworld and HT speaker cables sound alike (but both do sound like music).
All XLR/RCA ICs in my system are HT Magic-I which I don't feel compelled to replace.
And, rest assured, my system reproduces any detail available in the source.

"Many audiophiles don't have their system set up to recreate the performance - the image and dimensionality of the performers playing in the room."

If you weren't there when the recording was made, how do you know if you're setup is better than anyone else’s?