3 things I learned from using MANY interconnect cables


At last, I am posting here for the first time! I got so much help from this forum and always felt a bit guilty about not contributing.

Over the past several years, I have used the following interconnect cables: Audioquest Golden Gate, Audioquest Columbia, Audioquest Sky, Monster Interlink 300 MkIII, Harmonic Technology Pro Silway (I have used both Mk I and Mk II), Silnote Morpheus, Anticables (the original version), Tara Labs RSC, Nordost Heimdall, Straightwire Crescendo, and Chord Anthem. They were all purchased used and I always had 2 or more pairs to compare at a given time although I didn’t have these cables all at once. Through the journey, I learned the following:

1. The price was NOT indicative of the sound quality unless you go very cheap (less than $100). I think this point is self-explanatory so I am not adding any elaboration.

2. Disconnecting and re-connecting the cables had a very positive impact on sound quality, which will affect any AB comparison. If you are comparing two pairs of cables that had comparable sound quality, the new cables will sound better because the connection would be fresh.

3. In my experience, the cables were NOT system dependent. This might raise some eye brows as it goes against the commonly held belief so I am going to explain a bit here.

All I am saying is that I have never seen a case where my preference order of two sets of interconnect cables got reversed when tested on two or more components (e.g. cable A was better than cable B on amp X but cable B was better on amp Y, etc). With any AB comparison I ever did, the better cable always won no matter what component I was testing them on.

Oh in case someone is curious, the best pair of interconnect cables I have ever used was Chord Anthem. It had a wider frequency range and a more natural tonality than others. And I would rather not add the qualification "but it was the best only in my system" because of the 3rd point I made above. Cheers!
johnson0134
OP, glaringly missing from your extensive cable inventory is WireWorld. FYI David Salz was Straightwire's designer from the very beginning. They split up well over a decade ago. WWs series 7 and now 8 are phenomenal

@geoffkait he lost his marbles a long long time ago!

Here’s one for you. Bill has ten marbles. Paul takes three of Bill’s marbles. John takes two of Bill’s marbles and two of Paul’s marbles. Then he gives two back to Bill. How long before Bill loses all his marbles?

Re: point 3 of original post.... while I have never had the order of preference between 2 interconnects change from one system to another, I have noticed that once that preferred interconnect is in place, let’s say between pre and amp, it does not guarantee that the preference will still apply to the next length between DAC and pre. (Even if it was first choice in that position before being inserted between pre and amp.) 

in fact my recent experience has been that stopping just short of a full loom of a single brand/level of cable has been ideal. That one foreign element seems to keep the rest from seizing up into predictability. I have no real explanation, just the experience. Ymmv. Anyone else ever notice that?