Cables -- All the Same Brand?

[weird]

I haven't had an all wireworld loom in my system but i have had other brands in my system that have made up a majority of my cables. My experience has been that too often the cable brand signature drowns out the source to pre amp cable. Not really interested in cable debate but i want to hear source to pre cabling and even more important the source to dac. In my case its digital.

My latest experience has been with an all wywires cable loom. As much i liked those cables individually i didn't like using an entire wywire cable loom. One of the best cables out their between your source and pre were the Empirical audio Holophonic cables. They do absolutely nothing but they really let you hear the source to dac cabling and in my case it was a wywires xlr or an atlas opus in 75ohm. I really don't know any better digital cabling than either of those two cables at any cost. And they are both cheap but its important that those cables didn't get drowned out by a cable signature further down stream.

I guess what it boils down to for me is the cabling into the dac is the most important and i have found that an entire loom of the same cable really drags down the source. I have heard tons too from Kimber to gutwire, shunyata.... yada yada yada, etc.

Thats my take on it.

[psjl]

Originally Posted by Still-One

I think you should stay with one brand. Most companies have a vision of what their cables should sound like and design accordingly. Mixing may not hurt, but it probably won't help as much either.

Jim

I agree with Jim on this one.

Though there's nothing wrong with mixing different types of cable brands resulting in a certain desired sonic experience being eventually attained, I feel that the matching process could be quite an elongated and (at times) frustrating one.

I usually look for a cable manufacturer that offers a particular set of sound characteristics, and then demo it with my current system setup to observe if the final output is in line with my overall sonic expectations.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents worth.

Philip

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by jprice

PM sent - OCOS speaker cables are very neutral and will work with almost anything.

Julian

This is the correct answer.

However, there are good reasons for avoiding the mixing of cables.

imo, Synergy has become synonymous with "what I like". What it usually means is that one has found this highly colored product of which they are enamored and to upgrade their system, they looked for another equally highly and oppositely colored product. Voila: Synergy. Synergy as the term is bandied about theses day, should not be confused with proper matching of components. Not the same thing.

(I am in Puerto Rico setting up a dealer event - Futuras on KXR/MXR . Will try to come back to this tomorrow. The "Synergy" movement on AA has been driving me nuts for some time and I think it would make an interesting topic for further discussion. Also need to come back on mix/match of cables tomorrow.)

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by VT Skier

Pardon my ignorance, but is it considered advisable to have all one's cables come from the same manufacturer? For example, I'm leaning toward OCOS because of a lengthy run to my speakers (30'ish), but I will need interconnects from another manufacturer.

And I know people recommend Shunyata power cables (cords?), but I haven't found too many rave reviews of their other cables, so I was thinking of mixing and matching, maybe using the "Cable Library" at the Cable Company to evaluate things.

Thank you for your advice.

Jon

Jon I owe you a lengthy reply on your email. Will do it this weekend when I am back from Puerto Rico event at Audio Works.

[VT Skier]

Hi Bill, no need for a lengthy reply. Any reply will suffice. Or no reply for now, whenever you have time. (N.B. I've been bothering Bill about speakers, of course.)

And thanks everyone for all the help. I don't know enough to agree or disagree on Bill's synergy point, or whether one manufacturer for all cables is best, but I'm a big fan of neutrality, hence my solid state and Dynaudio speakers. And I guess that's what I'll be looking for in cables -- a product that doesn't really add its own flavor to the mix.

Hopefully I'll know it when I hear it. Or don't hear it, as the case may be. So probably OCOS for the speaker cables.

Jon

[Audio 1]

Originally Posted by VT Skier

Hi Bill, no need for a lengthy reply. Any reply will suffice. Or no reply for now, whenever you have time. (N.B. I've been bothering Bill about speakers, of course.)

And thanks everyone for all the help. I don't know enough to agree or disagree on Bill's synergy point, or whether one manufacturer for all cables is best, but I'm a big fan of neutrality, hence my solid state and Dynaudio speakers. And I guess that's what I'll be looking for in cables -- a product that doesn't really add its own flavor to the mix.

Hopefully I'll know it when I hear it. Or don't hear it, as the case may be. So probably OCOS for the speaker cables.

Jon

Jon,

What electronics are you using with your Dynaudio's?

[weird]

Dealers love the cable loom selling pitch since it makes em more money. Just like the way they sell all Mac gear or Bryston gear in one package. Its easy for them and it makes em more money. But really if you want to find your own sonic signature, mix and matching is really the only way at home. Unless you want to go through the hassle of borrowing/buying entire cable looms in your cable adventures.

The idea is to hear the souce cabling. If you can't hear the source cabling then you have drowned out that vital part of system building (assuming you have your speakers properly situated).

So what it boils down to is if the cable manufacture doesn't have a decent source cabling then its useless right from the get go. Believe me a lot of cabling companies do not have good source cabling.

I will give you one. Cardas source xlr/rca is mediocore. Their downstream cabling is much better especially in the Neutral line. But its a good example why an entire loom can be a bad strategy.

[VT Skier]

My system is Dynaudio Sapphires with a Simaudio W-7 and P-8, Oppo BDP-95 (soon) and Magnum Dynalab MD-106T. I have some Harmonic Tech ICs, maybe an Audioquest too, and Monoprice 12-gauge copper speaker wire. Nothing fancy.

I went to a few Nordost demonstrations in the past and couldn't hear a difference between cable "A" and cable "B". Same with a Synergistic Research demo, so I've never spent heavily on cables. I don't think I've ever heard a power cord demonstration so I can't comment on that.

But because I've been upgrading recently, I thought I'd revist the topic. Dynaudio has recommended using copper cables, and since they sold OCOS, and Bill also recommended it, I thought I'd start with speaker wire, see if I can hear a difference.

If I can, I thought I'd move on to interconnects, see if I can hear differences there, probably staying with copper per Dyn's recommendation. Maybe get to power cords at some point.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by werd

Dealers love the cable loom selling pitch since it makes em more money. Just like the way they sell all Mac gear or Bryston gear in one package. Its easy for them and it makes em more money. But really if you want to find your own sonic signature, mix and matching is really the only way at home. Unless you want to go through the hassle of borrowing/buying entire cable looms in your cable adventures.

The idea is to hear the souce cabling. If you can't hear the source cabling then you have drowned out that vital part of system building (assuming you have your speakers properly situated).

So what it boils down to is if the cable manufacture doesn't have a decent source cabling then its useless right from the get go. Believe me a lot of cabling companies do not have good source cabling.

I will give you one. Cardas source xlr/rca is mediocore. Their downstream cabling is much better especially in the Neutral line. But its a good example why an entire loom can be a bad strategy.

Sorry I have to disagree. Mac gear doesn't sound like Krell, which doesn't sound like VTL, which doesn't sound like Boulder, which doesn't sound like Shindo. etc, etc. Every one of those produces fine sound and everyone will have their own preference. Mixing Shindo and Boulder makes no sense, no more than mixing Nordost and Transparent as each highlights a different.

As far as your point regarding source cabling being most critical to get right, I guess you can make a case for that, but every time we ask members to list cables in the order they most impact their systems, the majority of responses go 1) power 2) speaker 3) sources.

Jim

[Haurock]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Would you mix the spark plug cables on your car?

.. now see, simply clear answers like that.... really float my boat....