How many quality interconnects to I need ?

Fredman,

These topics appear here every day. The quality of interconnects realy doesn't depend on price. The pricey ones just look nice but offer nearly the same as RadioShack Gold or generic Monster ones. If you apply some little DIY skills you can get parts from www.newark.com MCM brand wire $7/9' + MCM solderless locking RCA with wire clamp you can build yourself interconnect that will have a great performance even less pricey than RadioShack Gold.
If you go this way you will save a tremendous money for music or better components.

If you want to get superior interconnects for only one connection, I would recommend the CDP to preamp. This is because the CDP typically has the weakest drivers and benefits the most from a low-capacitance cable. Next in priority would be the pre to power connection.

try the ICs in different places til you know which you like best.

normally I agree the best IC goes from CDP to pre but in my system I tried both ways and preferred the best IC between pre and power. It was a big difference as well with the preferred way being much more extended and vibrant.

Audioengr: While i would basically agree with your comments, i recently did a cable shoot-out with various interconnects between my SACD 1000 and my Pre-Pro ( Sunfire Theater Grand Mk II ). One set of cables had a total capacitance of 23 pf's per run while another was over 1200 pf's per length !!! Obviously, the majority of cables made will fall somewhere between the two of these with only a few falling below the 23 pf figure.

Quite honestly, the 1200 pf cable did amazingly well in this position. I was expecting "bad things" to take place when it went into the system, but it more than held its' own against everything that i threw at it. I was more than surprised by the results and actually left them in the system as the sound is quite good with this specific combo. I would have never guessed that these would have worked well in this scenario, but.... Sean
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2 pair of interconnect- cd to pre and pre to amp.

most interconnects fall in the 2 camps:

1. warm / bloom / body ( ie. cardas )
2. fast/ imaging / revealing (ie. xlo)

despite many different opinions- there is connection between price and performance .
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interconnects do make a big diference and sometimes the ones that are a balance between the above ( tara decade and transparent are a good example) go for big bucks.

interconnects matching is system dependant. the question is where do you want to take your system ?

i use tara decade(warm and detailed) between my cd to pre and xlo signiture II (revealing,incredbile bass and imaging) between my pre and amp.

good deals can be found...fatwyre has the xlo signiture II ( discolored seconds) for $275 meter vs $600. it is a pretty incredible cable that is transparent and clicks in my system.

if you are looking to warm up your system, cardas is a good choice. this is a warm cable however it doesnt have image specificity and the newer ones have a midbass bump. transparent is a little pulled backed on top ( the plus, super, ultra) and is a very coherant ( pretty amazing) cable.

the only cable that is a good mix is the tara decade and despite being a "older cable" it still commands $250-$325 /meter.

BTW, the coincident is a nice cable also- very neutral with a little pulled back on the top.

hope that helps !!!

mike