Spkr cbls & IC's-must they be same brand

Not always. Usually it's just a dealer trying to keep you from buying something he doesn't carry. It's always quickest and easiest to get you in, get you out, and on to the next customer...if you just buy whatever they say, and keep it all in the same series, in the same brand. Salesmen are always pushy (and sometimes subtle about it), and when you're dealer isn't trying to get you to buy something, that's when he's being honest........I would say, if you are staying in the same brand, it wouldn't hurt to get interconnects in the next level or two up from the speaker cable. The reason: the interconnect is upstream, and a better speaker cable can't correct what a lesser interconnect has done, but a lesser speaker cable will do very little harm to much of the refinement that the better interconnect affords the signal, which is then amplified by the power amplifier, before it gets to the "lesser quality" speaker cable. THIS IS PART AND PARCEL OF WHAT THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO HIGHEND AUDIO SAYS...although I think he recommends always staying in the same brand, since he thinks both ic and speaker cable will have been designed from the start to synergize well with each other. I DISAGREE, because I've heard some of the best NOT synergize, but instead exaggerate the relative weaknesses of each. Even the great Harley cannot convince me that I don't hear, what I DO hear. TRUST YOUR OWN OBSERVATIONS...hardly anybody really does, but I do, and I won't apologize for it. good luck...

On the technical aspect of things,speaker cables and IC's should be the same material[conductor,insulation] for optimun performance and coherence.Since cables have better chance of matching these factor from a same manufactors than a different cable company.For entry hi-quality playback music or HT i think it'OK doesn't hurt using cables from the same company.However,for top flight system i'd try to reserve the integrity of the original signal as far down the system chain as much as i possibel can.

I see absolutely NO reason that all cables have to be from the same manufacturer. Firstly, your components are surely not from the same manufacturer, right? (unless you have an all Naim system or something, in which case I would say stick with all Naim wire too...). Anyway, consider the different "jobs" of the different cables. At the least, you will have CD->Pre, Pre->Pwr, Pwr->Spkrs. A particilar brand's interconnect may work best with your CD to solid state Pre, but the same brand's cable may not be the best match from the solid state pre to a tube power amp for example. Then, what if your tube power amp is running high efficiency speakers, or instead electrostatics? There is no way a manufacturer will ever convince me that THEIR speaker cable will work well for both combinations, just because I happen to like their interconnect for my cd player. I agree with Carl to the extent that when someone tells you to buy all the same cables, it is either an easy way out for the salesperson, or a built-in tactic for the manufacturer. Personally, I have never had the same interconnects and speaker cable, although I have on occaision used the same interconnects from source through to power amp.

Unless you have a strong reason not to, i.e. you really know what you're doing, stay with the same manufacturer. My only qualification to this statement is that it applies to "good" wire manufacturers. As a system gets more complex and moves towards statement status, it is more likely to require some mixing and matching. However, for a large percentage of listeners the mixing and matching of wire, will not yeild better results than going with single brands. Find a good dealer (probably the hardest thing to do in audio) and follow their advice. Yeah, the dealer is trying to sell you something, but in our capitalist world everybody is pushing something, if only an opinion.

Carl's experience, which I think was that Audioquest Diamond did not synergise with Audioquest Dragon, proves there are no "golden rules" in this game. But equally, on two occasions I have experienced systems suddenly coming right, when the final cable was changed to match the existing cables. I suspect some manufacturers deliberately voice their cables to work synergistically - but that equally they could not survive unless their cables could stand alone - since this is how they will be listened to very often. My point is that I reckon it is better to find a brand that has an even-handed presentation (in my case I like the neutrality of Wireworld cables) and try a whole set of them to see if they work with your system. As opposed to putting an interconnect cable in your system that is too [insert anything here you like] and then be forced to limit your choice of speaker cable or even components to items that provide the appropriate form of countervailing distortion. I certainly have found that there is a significant benefit from getting a synergistic relationship between interconnect and speaker cables which, if you do not get it, cannot be overcome by playing elsewhere with your system. I have not found the same to be true of digital cables (ie. no real synergy issues with interconnects, for example), and I have found that power cords need to synergise with the components they feed, rather than with any other cable in the system. Hope this helps.