Which cable is most important to spend money on...

As for system ancillary, most definitely a good AC power cord. A well designed AC power cord will let a given piece of gear operate most efficiently as to what the power supply needs or what you want the power supply to do. This is important because when all is said and done, the music you hear out of your loudspeakers is basically the power supplies of your gear being modulated.

As with any piece of gear or cabling, there is one of two approaches you can take with AC power cords:

1.) An AC cord that pleasantly (to your ears and biases) editorializes the basic sonic signature of the piece of gear it's partnered to. From there you can further "tune" with the partnering I/Cs or S/Cs to dial in the "flavor" you're looking for. The power cord serves as the foundation to what you're trying to accomplish.

2.) An AC cord that is fundamentally neutral that offers the least amount of editorial to the gear the cord is partnered to. This approach allows one to more fully appreciate the sonic virtues designed into the gear or, if you will, the electronic designer's intent. Again, the power cord serves as the foundation and further, the I/C and/or S/Cs you choose will finalize what you're trying to accomplish...in this case we'll assume one is not looking to editorialize certain virtues of the gear and thus changing it's signature but rather exploit all the virtues equally.

As the hierarchy continues down the latter, our experience has lead to then address source I/Cs, then pre-amp I/Cs and finally S/Cs. I suppose this isn't "etched in stone" but, based on our "system approach", this has saved the most time and resources to finally get to the music and yielded the most rewarding results.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Robert
RSAD

Don't want to shipwreck this thread but, please indulge me in a "Time Out" for a moment. I think this is relevant.

Bob's (edit: Robert's) one of the best in the business when it comes to customer service and passion for his products. Having said that, I have found other interconnects and power cords that work better in my system than the offerings from Ridge Street Audio....

My experience with RSA wire leads me to agree with the system dependent qualifier...

Thanks for the kind words Grant. As for the rest of the quote, I have some issue with and the following is addressed not just to Grant, but all of us. Hope it's worth the read.

The way this is stated, which is all too common with many products - not ours particularly, it sounds like the RSAD cables compromised Grant's system and would most likely compromise most systems. Wouldn't it be a fairer statement to say a given competently designed product, RSAD cabling in this instance, didn't meet your personal tastes instead of the gist "they didn't work well with the system"? I'm sure we agree there's a world of difference between the former and the latter.

The latter would be like me saying the use of maple for drum shells instead of mahogany makes for an inferior drum. That ain't true. Truth is that for the type of sound I wanted out of the drum for the type of music I was playing, maple didn't give what I was looking for. That doesn't make maple bad. Truth be known, maple and mahogany are both very desirable woods for drums but for different reasons that have to do with preferences and priorities. One wood is not superior at the expense of the other being inferior. End of analogy.

In discussions amongst percussionists, rarely do you hear "This wood or that drum head sucks" but rather you hear "my preferences lean toward this wood or that drum head". Wished it were so in audio. In my view, what happens way too often in audio discussions and suggestions is fairly sloppy thinking or communication and instead of accounting for our personal preferences not being met, we communicate in such a manner that implies a given product is bad (or it's the "bestest in the universe(!)" for that matter.). If you think this through, this does a disservice to the enthusiast community and the sincere efforts of those manufactures who are endeavoring and are making a positive difference.

There are many types of playback presentation that requires gear with different and certain design premise and they're all available to discover, enjoy and come to prefer. Some will like 1/32 watt Tubed SETs with 178db efficient Horns and some will like 13 gigabyte watt S.S. amps with 40ft line arrays. Some will prefer Anna Log and others Di Gital. Some like Silver, some will like Copper (this assumes competency in design and performance). They're preferences and should be discussed that way I think. Not only would this facilitate more options for enthusiasts to consider and discover thus broadening the "music in the home" experience, but it would also alleviate a lot of the needless and dumb flaming that happens in many discussions.

So many thoughts here and I could go on but now I'm starting to ramble. How 'bout this:

Instead of "OMG, ****** sounded (Bad Audio Descriptive) and (Another Bad Audio Descriptive). "It" didn't "work" in my system. You'll do better with ****** because it's the bestest in the world.", why not "You know, I tend to prefer a (Good Audio Descriptive), (Another Good Audio Descriptive) sound instead of (Another Audio Descriptive) and (Another Audio Descriptive). ****** does that and fits well with what I want to accomplish but I can see where ****** would work with what you're wanting to accomplish. Let's listen and appreciate each other's efforts and be bestest friends forever."

One last thing I gotta through in. As has been pointed out, there's no broad brush stroke "Best" at the expense of another being broad stroked as "worst". There's at least two camps that audio enthusiasts and manufacturers will fall under: One says "iTune", the other says "iDon't". Both are valid system approaches because, again, they are personal preferences for one reason or another. Not one is right at the expense of another being wrong. As for RSAD, we ascribe to "iDon't". Where do you land? It's important to know not only for yourself but for others also if you want to genuinely help others who are embarking on a journey you've been on and experienced for a while.

Finally, if you were able to make it through this jungle read of a post, let me know and deservedly, I'll leave positive feedback in your profile here!

Cheers!

Robert
RSAD

Sorry if my post came off as unkind...

Na...I didn't take it as "unkind". Just a bit careless.

...It was not my intention.

I know.

...I never said RSAD cabling sucks. In fact, I believe just the opposite.

I know. Hmmm...so you believe RSAD cabling skcus? I don't even know what the hell that means!

Onward to the thread topic....

Cheers!

Robert
RSAD