Wow...really getting a ton of good information but the last two post mentioning output impedence have really tweaked my interest level. Kurt, I don't have a phono but my current system does double for 2-channel & HT. Right wrong or indifferent I have been using the Au-24 as an output from the Ayre K-5x pre-amp to the amp and feed in the CD player,(Ayre CX-7) & surround Sound processor,(Cal Audio 2500) into the pre-amp with the "lesser" cables. The Cal's output impedance is 75 ohms, the pre-amps is 55 and I'm not sure what the CD's player is as its not listed on the manuals spec sheet. I'm close to 50/50 movies & CD playback. In order to come to a definative conclusion, (if there is such a thing) as to which cable to ultimately go with it would seem you'd need to invest in several pairs so you could have the same cable routed through the chain from source to amp. Hypothetically, If I were to get an upper end Cardas interconnect, and ran it from the CD player to the pre-amp and used the AU-24 from the pre-amp to amp & then vice versa...assuming I could detect a listening preference how would I know which cable I actually liked better? Logic tells me that I would not know the answer unless I ran two sets of AU-24 compared to two sets of Cardas compared to one of each, to see which configuration delivers the best performance from my current components. This means there would be four different listening combinations, two audience, two Cardas, Cardas from CD player, Audience from pre-amp, & Audience from CD player Cardas from pre-amp.
Interconnect downstream flow
My question revolves around interconnect prioritization. My bias would be to put the best interconnect from the souce, (CD player) to the pre-amnp and the lesser interconnect from the pre-amp to the amplifier. Obviously I can switch myself and listen but was looking for rationale as to why one placement would be be stonger than the other. I'd love to have the same cables all around but I have to build up one set at a time so in the meantime would be interested in where others place their strongest performing cable. In this case it's the Audience AU 24 and the Audience Maestro.
Thanks
Thanks