Your opinion on cable spending

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.

El: That is a completely backwards approach that creates as many problems as it solves. I am NOT recommending cables as a tone control so much as i am striving to achieve a high level of linearity throughout the entire system, from start to finish. Cables that allow the signal to pass through with the least amount of harm are obviously the most linear. The only time that "flavoured cables" would come into play would be if the components selected were not up to snuff or if personal preference dictated their use. This is why i've repeatedly tried to stress that the system is only as strong as its' weakest link. If it has a weak link, you'll end up having to band-aid it. In most cases, the band-aid itself introduces even further problems, giving you even more to deal with than if you had just addressed the faulty device to begin with.

Having said that, EQ's can alter tonal characteristics for the better, but they can do nothing about transient linearity. In fact, they typically destroy transient linearity due to all of the phase shifts involved with the filtering necessary to achieve the desired results. If one has a system that is that far out of kilter that it requires an EQ for tonal balance adjustments, they have either chosen very poor gear that doesn't mate well together, have a very poor room / speaker interphase or a combo of the above. The only other alternative is that they have very specific system preferences that they place of higher value than that of relatively natural sound reproduction. If the latter is the case, they probably aren't worried about "audiophile quality reproduction" or reading these forums. Sean
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Bobheinatz, can you tell us more about your system.
Its easier for us Agoners to recommend how much cable,
and what kind a cable that is right for your system.
For $2500, you will be able to dress your system with good
used cable,and achieve the musicality you are looking
for.Thanks

Sean...My four word comment was intended to highlight, by contrast, the complexity of your solution to the problem. Maybe poke a little fun at it :) Most cable-ophiles do cite tonal balance as their objective.

I don't think that equalizers quite deserve their bad rap. Few if any recordings have escaped equalization during the mastering process, so I have trouble getting upset about one more pass through an equalizer. Also, in my experience the greatest benefit of an equalizer is that after you diddle with it for a while you can convince yourself that the original tonal balance was OK after all, so you set it flat, or switch it out. But the doubts are gone.