[Zero]

How do you know its the Conductors?  What else have you swapped to confirm this?  You dont even have your BAT gear, how do you know what type of cable your going to need...  ?    Patience my spoiled grasshopper.

[Mad DOg]

Jeez, thank you Sean. Anyway, the BAT gear is on its way, and yeah im using Audience Conductors right now. I feel they are a bit too laid back.

   

have you tried ur current ICs with the BAT gear yet?

[Mad DOg]

How do you know its the Conductors?  What else have you swapped to confirm this?  You dont even have your BAT gear, how do you know what type of cable your going to need...  ?    Patience my spoiled grasshopper.

exactly...

[djbnh]

i'd recommend trying some walker sst or mapleshade siltech on ur existing cables first...not much money to try and it works extremely well in extracting the most performance out of every cable i've tried it on.

I second Mad DOg's opinion here re: Walker SST. It's $70/jar, and will definately let you hear more of your system. I haven't found a tweak that approaches what SST will give you at this price. FYI - there's plenty of information in AudioCircle (try Critic's Circle), 6Moons, and elsewhere about how well SST works.

Regarding ICs, I recommend you chat with Chris VenHaus about his premade and DIY ICs. You'll find comments aplenty about the results some persons feel the VenHaus ICs supplied their respective systems. Best of luck to you in your quest.

[doug s.]

i'd stay away from kimber cable.  not that it's not good - i think it *is* good.  but there are a plethora of kimber type designs which are wirtually indistinguishable, imo, at ~1/3-1/4 the cost.  

personally, i like alphacore tq-2 - *extremely* transparent & neutral, imo, & it won't break the bamnk, especially when bought used.  but, it's not common to find it used.  hmmm - wonder why?     also, i like alphacore micropurl-ag, even less $$$, & still a wery nice neutral transparent cable.  i like neutrality for my cables, so i can decipher the equipment differences - i'm not into cables as tone controls.

ymmv,

doug s.

[Passive Chappy]

Consider entry level Siltech.  Really great sounding and in your price range.  Two other brands to consider are Acoustic Zen and Analysis Plus.

[elnero]

I suggest Audiogeek Nitrogen's http://www.audiogeek.net/

[Tonto Yoder]

Isn't BAT short for Balanced Audio Technology??  So you'll want at least one pair of XLR interconnects or you'll be forced to use some kind of RCA-XLR adaptors (the BAT version of these costs $80/pair--shooting half your IC budget).

[Tonto Yoder]

shortest possible, .5 meters.

BAT gear politely requests 6" or more air space above the VK-200 and the tube preamp (VK-3i);  I bet even the SS preamp "likes" physical space above it, so I don't think .5 meter will do it.

[Q_surf]

i found excellent price/performance with Homegrown Audio's Silver Lace ic's.  And you can save some xtra $ by buying the DIY kits.

[lonewolfny42]

shortest possible, .5 meters.

BAT gear politely requests 6" or more air space above the VK-200 and the tube preamp (VK-3i);  I bet even the SS preamp "likes" physical space above it, so I don't think .5 meter will do it.

edit: Gentlemen, it may best suit your interest to know your dealing with a 13 (soon to be 14) year old boy who for now, enjoys old rock (Led Zepp, AC/DC, et all) and more modern rock bands (Weezer). Like most kids, he wants to jam out, so power is a big thing here.

Quote from a past questioning thread posted by A6M-ZERO....

[Tonto Yoder]

edit: Gentlemen, it may best suit your interest to know your dealing with a 13 (soon to be 14) year old boy who for now, enjoys old rock (Led Zepp, AC/DC, et all) and more modern rock bands (Weezer). Like most kids, he wants t ...

Thanks for the reminder. Now I remember an earlier thread
that seems similar to this one.

[vr3mxstyler2k3]

How can you buy cables based on something that you are about to replace?

And didnt you owe your parents a butt load of cash a while back??  

 

(A buddy of the kid, dont worry   )

[Danberg]

Two years ago I took advantage of "The Cable Company's" offer to audition interconnect and speaker cables.  It was very helpful to me as I didn't like the idea of purchasing a cable, gettinging it home and not liking the sonic results.  Their program at the time required that you put a "deposit" on the cable you wanted to audition which would be applied towards an eventual purchase.  I had no objections, as this was less expensive in the long run than making a purchase for a specific length cable (non returnable) without hearing it's synergy within my system.

I auditioned 12 different manufacturer's cables, in addition to various price point cables by each manufacturer.  I saved my notes regarding each ones sonic characteristics.  If you want to e-mail me with your address, I will make copies of my notes (and subjective rating scale) and send along to you.

[orthobiz]

Homegrown cables look interesting.
If you're going to the website, make
sure you type in "homegrownAUDIO.com"

You are probably NOT looking for the
"homegrown.com" website, at least if you are
looking for audio cables.

I made the mistake of showing a colleague the wrong
website during work hours (and yes, I was trying to show
him the audio cables!)

biz