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Stupid Question-What's the best way to choose?

OK-Here it goes. The more I read on this board the more confused I get. It seems half the posts here talk about cable manufacturers selling snake oil and the other half completely buying into what they are selling. Are they both right/wrong? I just ordered some new equipment and am not new to this hobby but I'm far from technical. If you want to talk wine I can hold my own with just about anyone. I know if I lay out my component list and musical preferences, I'll get 50 responses sending me in 50 different directions. What does one do if they know they love the sound they've chosen but can't see having to spend ANOTHER fortune on cables they thought they already owned? I'll lay out what I own and it may clarify my previous question.

Source: Cary 306 SACD
Pre amp: Aesthetix Calypso
Amps: Quicksilver V4
Speakers: Vandersteen 5
Interconnects: Magnan Vi, Audioquest Diamond
Speaker Cable: Biwire Audioquest Sterling and Midnight

I'm looking for a common sense approach to this process. Obviously I've made a serious investment and am not looking to cheap out when it comes to sound but honestly I don't have any idea where to begin.

Thanks in advance for any insight.
128x128jeffmazen
wsanders43
5 posts
 
Hi, since you bought the stuff, I'd advise to properly install your equipment, let the system run and enjoy your music. Give it time to settle. My experience is that being patient and waiting till everything has run in is the hardest past. After a few months you might make modifications in placement of loudspeakers etc to finetune staging etc. The mature sound should be 98% satisfactory. Then start experimenting with other (already run-in) powercables and interconnects. Start at the source, whether interconnect or powercable. This will benefit most, in my humble opinion.
rlew
19 posts
 
i second the comment on room treatment, IMHO, the best system money can buy would not sound good (right) in an untreated room,
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Make careful and critical listening tests - blind listening if possible.

Perhaps, audio may be deeply affected by perception and expectation, making it is quite easy to think something sounds better just by the look of it or by some technical hype and testimonials (all of which makes you concentrate harder and percieve something new you had not noticed before).

Just like in medicine, there is a 30% efficacy with just a placebo....no wonder some speakers, turntables and amplifiers look like they came from space ships.

If you look in pro audio magazines and pro studio equipment lists you are unlikely to see odd space ship shaped speakers and you are even less likely to find anything other than ordinary copper wires connecting them (they might be shielded or XLR but that is about all the differences that are likely to be found.)

If pros don't buy special cables and what you buy was mixed and mastered on ordinary copper cables.....then 1000's of dollars spent on exotic cables may be an unwise choice. Small degrees of difference may exist between cables but do they make an audible difference; pros do not appear to think they do.
audiofreak32's avatar
audiofreak32
253 posts
 
Great amp you have... but drop the CD player totally. A reasonable DAC from $800-$1500 (used) fed with hi-res files will DESTROY that CD player - it will not even be close.

I used to have Audioquest cables on the entire system... bought mostly used to save the $$$, but the Clear Day cables I just switched to are in a totally different league.  You can try them for free, return if you don't like them.

Power cords are some of the EASIEST ways to make the MOST improvement.  Clear Day does not make PCs, but the LessLoss are superb.  I have the LessLoss DFPC Original and Signature on my entire system... great stuff.
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