Interconnect cables, Speaker cables & Power Cords.

[Chizzap30]

As for my experiences go, I have been able to try many different cables. My background starts when I started working for Best Buy and worked up to be inside one of the Magnolia Home Theaters until I was let go (for no other reason besides they did not like paying me what I was worth.... long story, if you want to know about it, ask me). Since I received some of the unique training opportunities that came from being good at my job (going to Sumiko and doing their MASTERS training) and still loving audio and video, I contact one of my current places of employment Overture Audio (website in my profile).

Being with BB/MHT, I was exposed to Monster and Monster's M-series which were not bad, and there were slight improvements when moving between certain cables.

However, when I got to OA I was exposed to a place that carried Nordost, Linn, and Audioquest cabling. The cool thing that I love that we do at OA is let customers take home pieces (electronics and cables) for evaluation. So I started to do this as I started to get the itch to make what I considered upgrades to my set up and to broaden my experience.

I started with my power center since I felt my Monster Power bar was inadequate. The philosophy I have adopted is ultimately that the source components are the most important part of the system. Granted the speakers are going to have a certain sound to themselves, but if they do not get the information/detail from the source to begin with, they can't produce the what is supposed to be there. Since all the components require electricity to function, that's why I started with the power center.

From there I upgraded from a Yamaha receiver to my Arcam Pre/Pro and while doing different set ups at work I came to really like the Nordost cables and got Red Dawn interconnects between my Pre/Pro. I then upgraded my speakers from Athena Technologies Audition Series to the Vienna Acoustics. For speaker cable, I didn't go to a point that I would ultimately like to go to since I did not have the funds and even according to Nordost the power cord is going to make the largest difference to your set up. The next in the line is your interconnects from your sources to your receiver or pre/pro and then finally speaker cables. So I did some listening with different Nordost speaker cables and the Linn K-20 speaker cable. And I opted for the Linn cable really only because of cost restraints.

But then I upgraded my source for discs from the Pioneer Elite DV-45A (which is still going strong on my parents TV) to the Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD. So as this upgrade was coming I contemplated 2 different cables, the Linn Silvers and Nordost Frey. I brought a set of both home and did AABA comparisons. I also brought a friend over and did the same thing with him without telling him which cable was which and did AABA demo with him and he came to the same conclusion that I did and I ended up with the Nordost Frey.

As for HDMI cables, I am convince they they can make a difference. I brought home the Nordost Silver Screen HDMI cable and put the movie Cars in and played it with my Monster 1000 series HDMI and got to the beginning race and when the confetti comes down. I then put on the Nordost cable and started it again and details and a greater 3D effect was visible. Another guy purchased one on my recommendation, came back just to tell me how awesome the cable is. He said it made the blu-rays just even better and his DVD's look like blu-rays.