Jena Labs Symphony vs. Valkyre IC's

It's comments like that that always tempts me to upgrade from the Symphony's. But when you really look at it, the Valkyre's are about 3 times the price and the Pathfinder's are 6X the price. Costs-no-object, I have no doubt that the Pathfinders or even the Dreamdancers are the way to go. But I think the Symphonys are at a level where it wouldn't be a weak link in a SOTA system. I have no reason to doubt that the Symphony is where the sweetspot is.

But it's not such a big issue. Upgrading from Symphony's is going to be easy. Since the cables are made pretty much the same way (except more wires), you can upgrade one IC at a time. But for the difference in price between the Symphonys and Pathfinders, I would bet using the money on 2 top of the line powercords would be a better upgrade. But I would imagine that someone with everything in place wouldn't be able to live knowing that there's something better out there.

Has anyone compared Symphony to Nordost Valkyrja cables or Virtual Dynamics Master cables ?

Well its a bit offtopic (but not much) but seeing how pathfinder discussions got in here I will. Tireguy, have you heard/compared the pathfinder from jena to the vahalla from Nordost?

Michael

I had a full set of valhalla's here for audition not long after I was using the symphony-valkyre interconnects and speaker cables. I preffered the symphony interconnects to the valhalla's so it only seems clear that the pathfinders would best the valhalla's(to this listener anyway). Don't get me wrong it was pretty close, but when it came to a cable I would want in my system everyday it was the jena's by a little bit. Another listener in a different room with different equipment may feel exactly opposite. I preffered the more defined soundstage, blacker background and more accurate bass. The bass was the largest imrpovement, the others were less obvious- I am in a no way saying I didn't like the valhalla's because if I didn't have Jena's I would use them- they are very good!

Just like Frankg stated its not good to mix, on there own they were good, but when you put them together I did not like the results.

I have tried a lot of cables over the years and still prefer the Jena's they seem to do everything right.

As to Howard's comment about powercord upgrades vs. interconnect upgrades, I can say I noticed a very significant improvement with the pathfinders that I have NEVER experienced with pathfinders. The things that the pathfinder's added I have never heard from any cable or tweak before. Powercords do make a difference but its not the same as signal cables(IMO), they will allow you to adjust the sound to your desires, more of a tweak then an integral part of the system. I guess this falls into audiophile grey area, where you draw the line would souly depend on your experiences. While I have noticed improvements with powercords(sometimes significant) its not to the same degree as interconnects/speaker cables. Again this will be VERY system dependent.

Tireguy, I agree that ICs make a bigger difference. Obviously when you have a top of the line $2000+ list price powercord, there's not too much room for improvement. But depending on one's idea of what a good powercord generally goes for, the difference between a $100 PC and a $600 PC or a $350PC and a $2000+ PC is going to be a lot greater than what the Pathfinders offer over the Symphonies (not to mention going from stock powercord to two $2000 one). This isn't because the Pathfinders aren't that good but because the Symphonies are that good (again this is my assumption).

If you have the Symphonies and you don't have your gear, room, any power tweaks (including dedicated lines) or at least the Symphony speaker cables in place, I just don't think upgrading the ICs to Pathfinders will be the most efficient upgrade. It's a case of improving your weakest link vs improving a strength and identifying the point where diminishing returns really kicks in. It is tempting to upgrade ICs though since they're so easy to switch out.