Stage III Concepts Cables - Any Advice/Feedback/Thoughts is deeply appreciated.

Who cares about 30% overpriced if it sounds so good ? This particular dealer was absolutely correct in his recommendation. Dealers sell, this doesn't mean that they are all dishonest even to a degree.

ebm, you send me one more PM with any content and I will report you to Audiogon. 

Jetter I actually really appreciated your post before last. No worries. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated as well.

As is yours dave_b.

dave_b you provided some solid info and help.

Look, I was struggling trying to figure this out and sure enough I put my thoughts and issues on this website and I’m now in much better shape so I appreciate it.

I had to give a shout out to Jafant because he’s just such a gentlemen I appreciate him but that’s all that was.

I bought the Soulution with trading a Pre and cash and the Pass I bought by flipping my entire Analog front end, table, cables the works which I bought by flipping other stuff.

Other than gear that I traded or already owned and sold to raise funds the only actual money out of pocket was about $7000 which is pretty strong considering Pass Labs XA-160.8 and Soulution 530 and not cheap amps.

So now when I sell one of these I need to put back the $7000 back in account and the rest is my audio funds I can put back into my system.

So lets say i sell either for $15k then I have $8000 left to go back into my rig. It’s my audio money and most of it was invested in 2009 and I just keep pushing it forward by keeping my rig fresh and trying new stuff.

With my new Magico S5 MK II Speakers I really wanted to liquidate all my analog and extra stuff and get the best amp/Pre I could and that was my goal and what set me down this path.

I put my preamp for sale a couple weeks ago a guy with the Soulution 530 reached out to me asked me if I wanted to trade my pre and add some cash for the Soulution?

I was like no I don’t think so but looked into it a bit and was like man the Soulution gear is kind of bad a--. I said heck with it and did it. This was only a couple days after I got my Pass amps.

I was not looking to confuse myself or really get into any of this.


What I wanted to do was get a preamp for my Pass Labs and was looking long and hard at ARC REF 6.

But I pulled that trigger on the Soulution and plugged it in and was like dam. I like the Pass way better - what a waste of time and energy. I actually put it up for sale and had a guy in Singapore begging for it but he needs me to convert ot to 230v.

That was why I called the Soulution Dealer and that Dealer was like dude you have the wrong cables. I’m a Soulution Dealer I sell tons of these so trust me they are super particular about cables and insanely good sounding amps. I was like thinking on it.

He said hold off on the conversation to 230 and try these cables first.

I emailed the guy in Singapore. Nice guy, while Dealer is trying to get conversion parts for 230v I was going to try these cables.

i try them and them bam here I am.

Long story but I’m not some guy waking around stroking huge checks for all this gear and being like look at me and my gear I’m cool. That’s not it at all. I’m confused on what to do but doing a bit better now.

im a guy that kind of bit off more than I can chew and now don’t want to screw up going forward. I want to make the right choice and be happy with my choice.

Do I sell my Pass and spend $6000 - $8000 on new cables. Do I sell Soulution and spend $6000 - $8000 on a preamp for Pass?

Im trying to wrap my head around this situation and this is main reason why I am looking for help.

Sorry about typos I’m on my phone. Hope this sheds a little light on my plight.

As they say - road to truth has many turns. You of course would have to listen a little more but it seems to me that you definitely like Soulution/Magico match much more overall than Pass/Magico match. With the right cord on the amp and ideally all Stage III cabling.
Not familiar with Soulution but read about them. I guess, Soulution and Magico are much close to each other in terms of 'school of thought' than Pass to either of them, so the outcome of your experiment should not be surprising, at least this part of it.
Before you make your final decision, I would suggest playing poor quality recordings and see how they sound thru Soulution/Magico with both KS and Stage III interconnects and speaker cables.