Well, for what it's worth, I'm currently just getting underway with a complete system overhaul/upgrade from equipment that is decidedly more mid-fi than what you had listed, the important bits for the purpose of this discussion being:
Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS
JBL Northridge E-80 L/R Speakers
As part of this process I've been working with a great local dealer who was kind enough to loan me a Cary DVD-8 universal player along with a pair of 1m Harmonic Technology Truth-Link ICs (Retail ~$400 IIRC) so that I could audition them in the context of my already familiar and well-known setup.
I decided to do some A/B comparisons with a pair of ~$45 Blue Jeans LC-1 cables and another pair of generic radio shack/wal-mart cheapo cables that had been sitting on the bottom of a drawer for god knows how long.
To say the least, I was extremely skeptical that I'd notice any kind of significant improvement at all, especially using the rest of my current gear.
Well, I'm not done auditioning things yet, but on the first round of comparisons using a handful of SACD and DVD-A discs, I have to admit I was wrong.
The difference between the Harmonic Technology cables and the bargain basement ones was very noticeable, with a very pronounced improvement in high and middle frequency reproduction, much lower noise floor, and just a bunch of other qualities that my limited grasp of kitschy audiophile terms won't allow me to effectively convey in writing.
Comparing the Harmonic Technology to the Blue Jeans cables resulted in differences that were certainly far more subtle than those I found in comparing to the cheapo cable, but they were certainly there and noticeable, just far less pronounced.
If I had to put things on a relative scale from 1-10 right now, with the Harmonic Technology Truth-Links being a 10, I'd have to say the Blue Jeans LC-1 ranked a solid 8, and the cheapo cables a 2 or 3.
Long story short, my revised opinion after this evening's listening session thus far is that if you're using bargain basement cable, investing the money in some higher quality, solidly built ICs is worth it, but whether or not it's worth it to make the jump from a $50-100 set of ICs to a $400+ one really boils down to how important it is to you and your budget to get that much further.
I'd have to agree with several of the other posters in this thread, though, putting that money towards an amp or other hardware will probably get you more bang for your upgrade buck.
Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS
JBL Northridge E-80 L/R Speakers
As part of this process I've been working with a great local dealer who was kind enough to loan me a Cary DVD-8 universal player along with a pair of 1m Harmonic Technology Truth-Link ICs (Retail ~$400 IIRC) so that I could audition them in the context of my already familiar and well-known setup.
I decided to do some A/B comparisons with a pair of ~$45 Blue Jeans LC-1 cables and another pair of generic radio shack/wal-mart cheapo cables that had been sitting on the bottom of a drawer for god knows how long.
To say the least, I was extremely skeptical that I'd notice any kind of significant improvement at all, especially using the rest of my current gear.
Well, I'm not done auditioning things yet, but on the first round of comparisons using a handful of SACD and DVD-A discs, I have to admit I was wrong.
The difference between the Harmonic Technology cables and the bargain basement ones was very noticeable, with a very pronounced improvement in high and middle frequency reproduction, much lower noise floor, and just a bunch of other qualities that my limited grasp of kitschy audiophile terms won't allow me to effectively convey in writing.
Comparing the Harmonic Technology to the Blue Jeans cables resulted in differences that were certainly far more subtle than those I found in comparing to the cheapo cable, but they were certainly there and noticeable, just far less pronounced.
If I had to put things on a relative scale from 1-10 right now, with the Harmonic Technology Truth-Links being a 10, I'd have to say the Blue Jeans LC-1 ranked a solid 8, and the cheapo cables a 2 or 3.
Long story short, my revised opinion after this evening's listening session thus far is that if you're using bargain basement cable, investing the money in some higher quality, solidly built ICs is worth it, but whether or not it's worth it to make the jump from a $50-100 set of ICs to a $400+ one really boils down to how important it is to you and your budget to get that much further.
I'd have to agree with several of the other posters in this thread, though, putting that money towards an amp or other hardware will probably get you more bang for your upgrade buck.