IC's: which cable has the most impact on sound?

Big Red Machine · « **on:** 12 Jul 2007, 01:27 am »

Would you say the source to preamp or the preamp to amp IC has the most impact on the sytem sound?

MAC - SteveH · « **Reply #1 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 01:43 am »

Source to preamp.

SET Man · « **Reply #2 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 01:56 am »

Quote from: MAC - SteveH on 12 Jul 2007, 01:43 am

Source to preamp.

Hey!

I think have to agreed with this. I remembered that it was easier for me to hear changes when I changed the IC between my CDP and Pre than from Pre to amps.

And both set of IC were of the same kind and design but the one from pre to amps are 2x longer. But that this is with my system.

Take care,
Buddy

hdspeakerman · « **Reply #3 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 02:06 am »

cd to pre amp

rabpaul · « **Reply #4 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 08:36 am »

I actually asked my vendor this very same question and his advice to me was to try both combinations and decide for myself. He reasoning was that its very system dependent as some people did find that using the "better" cable used in Pre/Power had more impact than CDP/Pre while others found the reverse to be true.
So I am using a Silver cable from CDP/Pre and Silver Coated Copper from Pre/Power. The latter is actually more expensive and in theory the "better" cable.

denjo · « **Reply #5 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 10:16 am »

On a related point, I have heard it said that the IC between pre and amp will make much less difference if the cables are XLR rather than RCA. On balance, I tend to agree with the view that more difference will be heard between digital source and pre.

Dennis

BobM · « **Reply #6 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 12:46 pm »

If you believe in garbage in - garbage out, then the IC closest to the front of the chain (e.g. the source component) will need to be the cleanest, since the signal goes through it first. If it is colored then everything downstream of it will also be colored.

But, if you have more than one source then the IC from the pre to the amp will have the largest effect on the overall system's sound regardless of source.

Good luck,
Bob

smargo · « **Reply #7 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 01:38 pm »

anything that involves a cd player as a source - I hear the most difference in terms of of sound quality -

smargo

KCI-JohnP · « **Reply #8 on:** 12 Jul 2007, 02:03 pm »

I agree with SteveH, most of the time I've found that source to pre is the most noticable.

John

NagysAudio · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 01:15 am »

From CD player to preamp and I know why too!! It's because the signal from CD player to preamp is the smallest (weakest). Therefore it is much more important to have a high quality cable. It must be very well shielded and preferably of coax design. Ultra small signal instrumentation type cable is best.

Norbert

TONEPUB · « **Reply #10 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 01:25 am »

My experience has always been phono preamp to linestage.

Id like to experiment more with tonearm to phono preamp....

KCI-JohnP · « **Reply #11 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 11:47 am »

Quote

It must be very well shielded and preferably of coax design.

I would have to disagree with that......

MAC - SteveH · « **Reply #12 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 11:54 am »

IMHO - Shielded cables, overall, do not produce the soundstage, focus & imaging.

rollo · « **Reply #13 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 04:52 pm »

Quote from: TONEPUB on 18 Jul 2007, 01:25 am

My experience has always been phono preamp to linestage.

Id like to experiment more with tonearm to phono preamp....

I would have to agree with that and add from CDP to linestage. The Source, The Source and finally the Source of course.

rollo

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #14 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 04:57 pm »

Quote from: rollo on 18 Jul 2007, 04:52 pm

Quote from: TONEPUB on 18 Jul 2007, 01:25 am
My experience has always been phono preamp to linestage.

Id like to experiment more with tonearm to phono preamp....

I would have to agree with that and add from CDP to linestage. The Source, The Source and finally the Source of course.

rollo

So what you are saying then, is source?

rollo · « **Reply #15 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 05:27 pm »

tomato source, peanut source. Of corrse the source. May the source be with you.
So either CDP or TT to Preamp silly.

rollo

Vtech2000 · « **Reply #16 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 06:21 pm »

I wholly concur with the "source first" philosophy - any "evil" done there can hardly be "corrected" down the line - at best just "band-aided" by using a cable as a tone control. Given a variety of interconnect cables, our recommendation is one should use their best IC cables "first" from the source, sequentially the 2ND-best cables second from the source, etc.

tanchiro58 · « **Reply #17 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 06:41 pm »

If you happen to have a combination of transport and an external DAC the digital cable (BNC or RCA) has also the most impact on sound. Would digital cable consider as IC too?

boead · « **Reply #18 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 06:50 pm »

I think power cables have bigger impact then IC’s. And not necessarily on the source.

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Jul 2007, 06:58 pm »

Quote from: tanchiro58 on 18 Jul 2007, 06:41 pm

If you happen to have a combination of transport and an external DAC the digital cable (BNC or RCA) has also the most impact on sound. Would digital cable consider as IC too?

Yup, digital is something of a subset of 'Interconnects'

Really, I've personally found the impact of digital cables (whether coax or toslink...or ever toggling between them) to be rather smaller in effect than 'analog' interconnects. But, it's (generally) sometimes more cost effective to toy with your digi cable as there is only one of them

I've actually found IC's to be the most impactful of the lot...I just haven't found one that is 100% agreeable (as I have with the Alpha-Core MI-2). Perhaps one does not exist and I will wander in the audio wasteland of cables for all eternity

For what it's worth, Brad's Revelation Audio Lab 'Paradise' IC's are about as close as I have found to (my idea of) 'perfection'. They're just good - I just try to close my eyes at their cost (very labor intensive process to make these)