To answer your question, based on my personal experience, Yes cables make a difference. For the sake of comparison, I run Tidal on a crappy old Windows based laptop. This feeds a Schiit Yiggy ( Gen 1 ), to a Rogue pre and a Had Inspire. My speakers are first generation Zu Omens. So our front ends are very close. I run a USB cable to the Yiggy. First I used a cheap cable from my old camera. Then an Audioquest Cinnamon. I had a noticeable improvement. After a couple months I tried a Cardas Clear usb, and again a noticeable improvement. So comparing the Cardas to the cheap camera cable there’s a significant improvement. As far as speaker cables I’ve always used banana connectors. First I used 12 ga bulk speaker cable in copper then silver. Next I used Anti Cables level 3, and now I use Morrow level 4. There was an annoying brightness with the silver 12 ga. From the 12 ga copper to Anti Cables to Morrow 4 I experienced an improvement each time. My opinion is that in my system silver cables are too bright. The Morrows bettered the Anti Cables with better sound stage, but tonality was about the same. In regards to power, I run Morrow Level 4 and use a Richard Gray 1200 power filter. I never used the stock power cords. I started with a mixture of Pangea, Silnote and a digital specific cord. All of these cords had a price point of $100 Ea. So with the Richard Gray already in place, I really didn’t notice an improvement adding the Richard Gray or my Current Morrow cords. However at this point I swapped the heavy power cord that came with the Gray for a Shunyata Venom HC 20 amp cord. That made a very noticeable improvement in the whole system. I also have Hubble medical outlets. For a sound quality comparison please consider this. I have a modded Thorens TT with a Grado Prestige cartridge. When I spin my best vinyl and do an A-B with Tidal, the sound from my crappy laptop is very close to the turntable. Now keep in mind this is limited to specific recordings like Pink Floyd/ DSOTM, Supertramp/ Crime Of the Century, Alice In Chains/ MTV Unplugged, to name a few. This does not apply to all my vinyl Vs streaming Tidal. I’ve also done considerable tube rolling and have a 15x18 room with a vaulted ceiling and heavy shag carpet, heavy drapes and large fabric covered furniture. So my room is fairly forgiving with my system. You have nice gear and obviously know what your doing, so I assume you have equal quality speakers that are properly placed. So I’m of the opinion that all cables matter, but some make only a slight difference. I’m cost driven, so I’ve never tried the expensive stuff, but I’ve tried to match the level of my gear. People that have helped me with my system are of the opinion that any big improvement would come at a significant cost. One of the other things that I noticed is the very long break-in time Morrow cables take, especially the interconnects . So this was my experience and my suggestion is that you take advantage of the free trial many manufacturers offer and remember to allow for break-in time. My Morrow IC’s took 400 hours. Happy Listening and please feel free to PM if you want to chat. Happy Listening, Mike B.
How Big of a Difference?
Hello all,
I have near completed upgrading my system, but have left my speaker wire the same. My system is as follows- Laptop (Tidal) > Schiit Gumby Multibit > Freya S > Vidar monoblocks > speakers. My usb cable is Supra usb, and I am using xlr connections with amazon basics cables. If I am not mistaken, xlr is already super good at being noise resistance so I shouldn't need to spend more $ on fancy cables at my current level of audio equipment. My speaker wire is traditional 12 gauge wire I spliced from the spool. Nothing fancy. The reason I feel I shouldn't spend money on better speaker wire is because I traded the Supra usb for a super cheap usb and could not hear a difference. On top of that, I used to use single-ended connections using Chord C-line cables, and I could not tell the difference between those and cheap ones. What is everyone else's consensus? Can you guys hear a difference in your system? Thanks for the help.