Inter Connects - What I know and don't know

@Newbee

I am referring to XLR cables, although one could extrapolate these criteria to apply to a number of cables, AC, RCA, speaker, etc. 

@atmasphere Thank you sir. Nice to know I can put my money towards a preamp rather than cables (at this point in the journey). 

I've heard you say previously (on a different post) that one quick and dirty way to tell if your preamp supports the AES48 standard is to see if there's a toggle switch between RCA and XLR. 

The Pontus claims it's a "true balanced DAC" but does not provide such a switch. And the "RCA and XLR outputs are shared". Does this mean the Pontus is *not* AES48 compliant? There's no mention of this standard on their output section in their product literature.  

"The Balanced output via XLR (pin2 hot), singled ended output via RCA. The PONTUS is a true balanced DAC, we recommend using balanced output whenever possible. The RCA and XLR output are shared, please use either of the output at a time. It is not recommended to use both RCA and XLR output simultaneously."

@atmasphere Thank you Mr. Karsten. 

As a stop gap measure I'll be running direct from my DAC (Denafrips Ponuts II), until I save up for a well mated preamp. 

@jerryg123

I already reached out to the dealer. He recommended Mogami Gold. He assured me the manufacturer would agree.

That said there are thousands upon thousands of people who swear their more exotic/expensive cables are significantly more resolute than something as affordable and pedestrian as Mogami.

Thus began the deep dive into cable construction.

Rules of Thumb are great... And there’s no no substitute for demoing gear. But if there are some objective shortcuts based on science (psychoacoustics) that we might all benefit from, well that’s what I’m leaning into here.

The criteria in the initial post, I had hoped would help highlight some areas where differences are beyond subjective. Perhaps they’re a little too broad. While absolutes are hard to come by, certain other criteria should be fairly easy to measure/experience.

For example (2) cables with the exact connectors, the same, length, with the same shielding, braiding, etc. but different gauges. Shouldn’t the thicker gauge produce a better sound in the majority of systems? Many manufacturer’s have this exact set up, and we’re simply selecting one gauge/price over another based on our budget. I would think at some point the differences become negligible, say between 12 gauge and 10 gauge (again on the majority of systems). At what point can most humans differentiate between the two (say 18 to 16, 18 to 12...)? Knowing this we might all be able to save a little money and spend it elsewhere in our rig.

@knotscott  Thank you, that was so very very helpful of you. it's nice to know there are people here who you can depend on when seeking advice. 

Getting back to the main topic... 

I'm curious what (if any) objective truths their are regarding cables, conductors, connectors, shielding, etc.?

My hope is that we learn a thing or two about cables that might help give folks a head start when considering purchasing new/used cables. 

For instance, I would think OCC is indisputably better than whatever they put in old aunt Bessie's 52 year old table lamp.  

@jumia Thanks but those photos are out of date. The presentation was slightly bass heavy, so I pulled them out so the front baffle is now about 40 inches from the rear wall. The frequency response is much more balanced now. I've never heard the DAC on the Node 2i, it's bypassed into my Pontus DAC.  

I also went from an equilateral triangle to the much improved Jim Smith rule. (X/Y = 83%: Where the listener to left/right tweeter = X and the distance between tweeters = Y) But that's a whole other thread/topic. 

After hearing all the great feedback here I've decided to get the hardware sorted out first before cable matching. There's just no way of knowing what's going to sound best (to me) unless I make the effort to listen to several typologies. 

So step one is to hold a shootout between my Atma Sphere Class D mono blocks and the Decware Zen amp (25th anniversary) on order. I'm also adding a Burson 3X preamp to the mix, taking the pressure off the DAC to drive the load to the amps. I'm really hoping the Atma Sphere's win out since I'm less enamored with tubes these days, just too many variables and fuss. And the Atma Sphere mono-blocks would allow me to keep all the interconnects balanced. The Decware is single ended only. 

@williewonka Thank you for taking the time to post. There's a lot of great information in your share. I'm hoping others benefit from the experience of those like yourself that have taken the time to actually test various cable typologies. 

I've decided to start off with Zafino Arcadia OCC (XLR) cables:

DAC to PRE and PRE to Mono Blocks.

I've enjoyed their RCA version and have heard there are benefits to building out your loom with the same make/model if possible. Again that may just be marketing speak, I'm not knowledgeable enough to refute that claim. 

I also came across these guys from the Netherlands for AC cables. Their pricing to build quality seem almost too good to be true. I wish there were more reviews to go by, but will probably give them a try.