Updating an old thread here. Irishhound made an assertion that was questioned, but not answered. The assertion was that when mixing Golden Reference and Golden Cross, Ref should not be used on the source component. It Cross on source end, Ref on amp end.
There seems to be a theory that I only recently became aware of that. Most people say to put your best wire on your source components, because what is lost at the source cannot be recovered later. But the alternative is to put your best wire, in this case Golden Ref, on the amp. I think this approach is based on the theory that if you have the best wire on the source, and it goes through worse wire in the middle, the better wire will get muddied and lose its coherency. There's a constriction in the middle. But if you put the better wire at the end, it is like a hose that gets wider as it goes, opening up more. And because it is the better wire, it will preserve what's special about the wire on the source components, while enhancing them (by doing less harm). But if you have the better wire on the source, they cannot be enhanced by the lesser wire going to the amp; they can only be restricted by it.
There seems to be a theory that I only recently became aware of that. Most people say to put your best wire on your source components, because what is lost at the source cannot be recovered later. But the alternative is to put your best wire, in this case Golden Ref, on the amp. I think this approach is based on the theory that if you have the best wire on the source, and it goes through worse wire in the middle, the better wire will get muddied and lose its coherency. There's a constriction in the middle. But if you put the better wire at the end, it is like a hose that gets wider as it goes, opening up more. And because it is the better wire, it will preserve what's special about the wire on the source components, while enhancing them (by doing less harm). But if you have the better wire on the source, they cannot be enhanced by the lesser wire going to the amp; they can only be restricted by it.