Hi Audiotomb,
I think your comment, "am looking for neutral cable with warmth and harmonics of music", says it all. You first need to find electronics with these qualities before you think about the cables. The cables are not the porblem....the LS2 is THE problem.
Based on all the rave reviews, years ago I was absolutely sure the LS2 would be "my" preamp to replace the incredibly harmonically and ambient rich ARC SP-10. The LS2 was the disappointment of the century! How such a preamp ever got Stereophile Class A rating was beyond my understanding! Oh sure, there was more resolution, and much greater extension at the frequency extremes. But the musicality was gone...I wanted my SP-10, tube noise, truncated bass and top end, etc., back. Only when I heard the ARC LS5 did all them magic of the SP-10 return and also bring on a wealth of improvments in the areas the LS2 had indicated. The amp did not matter....even an Adcom 555, running from a single phase from the LS5, showed the LS5's strengths. But there was no way any component could bring out the life of an LS2 as it just didn't have it. All the 3D and bloom in the music is just not there with the LS2....it's that simple. If you're looking to bring this out with cable swapping, it will never happen. At least not to the level that you know exists in the music once you hear what an LS5 or BAT preamp can do for you.
I have a lot of experience with Cardas Golden Cross interconnects....and Silver Audio Appasionata and SilverBullet 6. I found the Cardas to be the best match between line stage and amp. For my system, this is the most critical link in the system. The SilverAudio has great resolution, but is a little analytical in this link, i.e., the ambience and bloom are reduced here. But too much Cardas in the system causes an excessive warmth and midrange forwardness/fatigue that is way too much of a good thing. So for a long time I used Cardas between DAC & Line and Line and Amp. I used SilverAudio from Phon- to-Line and Tonearm cable and Speaker cable. This is a great great synergy to balance the two cable companies. Recently I changed the Line-to-Amp from Cardas GC to NBS Statement and never looked back.
Cables are very important to fine tune a system, but I think you have to get the fundamentals down first with the electronics and/or sources before you try to correct for subtractions (or additions) elsewhere in the system. One other thing, just because a cable does not work well in one link, make sure you try it in other links....it just might turn out to be a great match there. And some links, as is with me, the phono-to-line, are nowhere near as cable sensitive as others (line-to-amp link).
Hope this gives you some additional insight as to what to consider.
John
