[Mister Pig]

I think its pretty well understood that amp and speaker pairings are defined by the partner on one end or the other. For instance SET amplifiers heed high efficiency speakers, lower efficiency speakers with aggressive impedance curves need high current/high power amplifiers, Quad 57 don't want high power amplification...usually no more in the 30 watt range. And so on and so forth.

Phono cartridges on the other hand are considered to be transducers, and we accept that there is a wide variety of sound quality and personality with them.

Cables are an ugly subject on most boards, and there is little consensus of what they should be, at what level of measurements they should be evaluated at, what they should be priced at, and what their sound should be....if any.

Recently I have been working though combinations of two amps and pre amps that I have, trying to find the most favorable pairing. What I am finding is that the amp and pre amp combinations define what I like best in terms of interconnects and to a lesser extent phono cartridges. One amp and pre pairing is far darker and the cabling that works in the other one does not work well at all with the second one. I use a second cable loom I have and its improved, giving me an idea of which way I would like to go. Yet I use that loom with the other amp and pre, and its a non starter.

I also found that my preference for my small stable of cartridges change depending on which amplification pairing I have in place. So in a way, the evaluations I have on all my phono cartridges are dependent on the amplification in place.

What I find interesting as I think about this over a cup of coffee, it comes down to that old realm of subjectivity versus objectivity in some respects. That audio gear has character that is beyond test signals. That high performance gear should be objectively designed well, measure well, and that you are buying quality that will work with anything. Of course there is no definitive answer, as this is an age old question we struggle with in this hobby.

Which leads to the point of where does one stop? What I have found so far is that the low power combo with my new pre amp sounds perhaps the most natural. However the big amp with my old pre amp is only a tick behind, and very nice in its own right, and is a ton of fun when it comes time to twist the knob.

What to do? I got no idea. With any luck I can find a way to get the big amp to work with the new pre, that its just a cable pairing to finish things off. But I have my doubts.

Cheers
Mister Pig