Cable placement

[Mickeydamouse]

Hi all,Is it better to use a better interconnect from Pre to Power or from phono stage and dac to preamp?

 

 

[POV]

I guess it depends what you mean by better?

[woogie59]

Source to preamp from my experience.

[Mickeydamouse]

What I mean is in sound quality

I have Kimber Select ks1021

Kimber KS 1016

Kimber Hero and Kimber silver streak

Also have Aurealis R1 dragon

[Guest]

All good cables. Take an afternoon and a note pad and try the different combinations. Write down your impressions and then look at which combo' you liked the best.

 

 

Mark

[Mickeydamouse]

Thanks for your input I guess what I need to do is exactly that

Somewhere I remember reading that pre to power is where the better cable should go

[POV]

I think it's a fairly common belief amongst cable enthusiasts that cables are most impactful on the front end.  I would most seriously doubt that there would be any audible difference at all between any of those cables anywhere in your signal chain unless one of them is damaged or otherwise unserviceable.  My tip is put some tunes on and forget about it.

[Mickeydamouse]

Yes I think your right

thanks

[blakey72]

Everyone is right but maybe @Deepthought Mark FTW. I find expense doesn't mean better generally. Build quality maybe but not always sound. If you have the time just swap them around and see what you think as Mark said. Otherwise just put some BL%$DY music on as @POV said 

[Keith_W]

I would go with what @POV said, but I would add: the phono cable carries the lowest level signal of all in terms of voltage. It is more susceptible to noise and RF interference. When I still had my turntable, I used an ultra-cheap cable as my ground wire. If I listened closely, I could hear radio signal coming through my speakers. I wouldn't say you need anything exotic, just something well shielded. 

[audiofeline]

Improving the source end of the audio chain means you are delivering better quality signals for the later components to do the best they can with.  Improving the latter end of the audio chain will mean they are getting less quality to reproduce well.  So I would focus on phono stage and dac to preamp.

 

However, if you have other sources, upgrading the pre- to power will bring a (compromised) improvement to all audio sources.

 

Ultimately, plan to put quality cables throughout your system.  If this is done over time, enjoy each stage of the upgrades. 

 

[Addicted to music]

7 hours ago, Keith_W said:

I would go with what @POV said, but I would add: the phono cable carries the lowest level signal of all in terms of voltage. It is more susceptible to noise and RF interference. When I still had my turntable, I used an ultra-cheap cable as my ground wire. If I listened closely, I could hear radio signal coming through my speakers. I wouldn't say you need anything exotic, just something well shielded. 

if you’re cables are standard RCA working correctly,  the radio signal that’s heard through the speakers isn’t coming from the cable,  more likely from other places and most likely that something else down then chain isn’t correctly shielded, or there isn’t enough filters implemented to attenuated that noise.   Some head amp circuit are sensitive to RF.

Edited February 18, 2024 by Addicted to music

[PKay]

4 hours ago, Addicted to music said:

if you’re cables are standard RCA working correctly,  the radio signal that’s heard through the speakers isn’t coming from the cable,  more likely from other places and most likely that something else down then chain isn’t correctly shielded, or there isn’t enough filters implemented to attenuated that noise.   Some head amp circuit are sensitive to RF.

I agree.  Living very close to a transmitter I am sensitive to RF.

 

I recently had a MM cartridge which picked up the radio very loudly and changing to a MC eliminated all of the noise.

 

I can't use a lot of Naim gear as they generally have a less filters approach and the last Supernait was unlistenable in my room.  Sugden A21 SE is perfectly fine.

[MattyW]

My experience has been that a very high quality source is best paired with a high quality transformer based passive pre….. That said understandably there are a few different approaches and what is best for myself may not be for others. Generally though I find soundstage suffers if using digital attenuation though technically speaking it should not.

[audiofeline]

21 hours ago, Keith_W said:

I would go with what @POV said, but I would add: the phono cable carries the lowest level signal of all in terms of voltage. It is more susceptible to noise and RF interference. When I still had my turntable, I used an ultra-cheap cable as my ground wire. If I listened closely, I could hear radio signal coming through my speakers. I wouldn't say you need anything exotic, just something well shielded. 

I agree that phono cables (from the turntable) need to be well shielded.  However, the OP asked about a cable from the phono stage, which is standard line level, which are not as susceptible to noise and RF (but that's not to say that shielding is not a consideration). 

[PKay]

On 18/2/2024 at 11:33 AM, Mickeydamouse said:

What I mean is in sound quality

I have Kimber Select ks1021

Kimber KS 1016

Kimber Hero and Kimber silver streak

Also have Aurealis R1 dragon

Kimber make really good cables (I have the 8TC speaker cable) but if you really want to try other inter connects I would suggest using the Mogami 

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/203558125911?

 

It is seriously good and a fraction of the price of some exotic cables.  I sold an interconnect recently that was a high end cable but the replacement is every bit as good. 

Edited February 19, 2024 by PKay

[stereo coffee]

@PKay re the link, you can if you would like just copy up to and including the question mark, it works the same 

[PKay]

6 minutes ago, stereo coffee said:

@PKay re the link, you can if you would like just copy up to and including the question mark, it works the same 

Thanks. Much tidier

[muon*]

36 minutes ago, stereo coffee said:

@PKay re the link, you can if you would like just copy up to and including the question mark, it works the same 

The question mark is also not needed, just what precedes it.

[PKay]

7 hours ago, muon* said:

The question mark is also not needed, just what precedes it.

I like the question mark- do I or don’t I?