Your opinion on cable spending

Speaker cables generally cost more so the 50/50 rule is not valid. If you spend $1500 on speaker cables then you will have $1000 left for i/c's which may be a couple of 1m pairs.

Sean I know you know the answer, but I will give you
my best shot,I have been in this hobby for fifteen years.
In my experience this is How I determine or figure out
which cable will match my system.
My system is Andra Eggletons speaker, Extreme monos stratos.
Sony 9000es Mod by Dan Wright.My system is very revealing.

1) I will choose copper with rich full sounding characterstis.In my case I will think of audience cable, cardas,Tara lab,
2) All silver wont be a good choice here.

If one cable upset the balance of other cable,dont stop
there,continue fine tuning the system,until you get
the right combination.Sean you know and I know this
is hard work, and very frustrating at times.Its
trial and error.I wont be surprise,If the system got
too dark sounding,I might mix a silver in between the
preamp and amp, or maybe I will put it in the source.

Sean thru experience, and familiarity of our system,
you will have a good idea which direction to choose.
Or if not sure ask the expert here at Agon.Read some
post here about cable.But it require experience and
auditioning every cable that are available.As you know
I spend time at Van L and bringing cables home.

This are the ff. I have auditioned.
AZ,HT, Audience,I own Siltechcs,Tara Lab,VD Nite,
TG audio,Costum power cord model eleven and top gun,
I own Luminous audio Synchestra sig,Kimbers, Marigos,
I heard them at John store.I own Pure Note,I own AQ
Lapis,opal,and some cardas,I heard most of the AQ cable
also the old one,Dragon,diamond,sterling,I own argent,
and sold the midnight.I heard the Nordost also,the golmund,
transparent, MIT I use to own one,I own a didgital PAD,
I auditioned the synergistics,a lot more.the only reason
I want to post so I can share my humble experience with
cables.But Iam not expert like you.

i think this is very, very good advice from jayctoy...

mike

Here's a brief but simple formula on how to achieve consistent results in system building. This procedure is known as "voicing a system". Most consumers and audio shops do not know or understand this concept, but those that have been around long enough know its value.

Let's say that you have a "typical" audiophile system with multiple sources. For instance, if your phono sounds warm and flat while your digital front end sounds thin and bright and your tuner is compressed and muddy, you will NEVER be able to get balanced sound out of the SYSTEM. You need to set up each source so that they share similar sonic attributes and THEN alter the cabling that operates the "backbone" of the system from there.

Since it is not abnormal for different sources to have different sonic attributes, you may end up with quite different cabling for each of them. This is why "voicing" each individual source to have similar sonics to the others in the system is very important. Otherwise, one will run into problems achieving consistent results from source to source or even recording to recording. Once you've got this done, we move onto the backbone cabling.

By backbone, i'm talking about the cabling that feeds from your preamp to amp and then from amp to speakers. If the sources all sound similar but the entire system is still not exactly what you're looking for, you can then play with the "backbone" components & cabling as they will affect the SYSTEM as a whole. This will allow you to have balanced sound (or the specific sound that you seek) from each and every source through-out the entire system.

As i've mentioned before, i choose to select speaker cables first as the electrical characteristics that we are dealing with there are pretty well known and reasonably consistent from system to system. As such, cables that are "electrically transparent" and introduce the least amount of electrical and sonic degradation should be your first choice. From there, altering the performance of the entire system would be left up to the cabling between the amp and preamp since you've already gotten the "voice" of the system dialed in via source cabling and speaker cabling. Since EVERYTHING in the system must pass through this cable, regardless of how many sources you have, you really need to choose wisely here.

Obviously, most of this is trial and error due to various impedances and loading characteristics from component to component. That is why i've stressed selecting speaker cables as a constant, as the characteristics in this part of the system are relatively universal. After all, if you have no constant's within the system, all you have are variables and that can get WAY too confusing.

Hope this helps. I know it is a bit "generic" in scope, but NOBODY can tell you what interconnect will work best in any part of your system. Sean
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or, get an equalizer.