Another cable question


Please don’t respond to this if you are a non believer. Just wanted to know if anyone has had a good experience with silver or silver/ copper blend out from they’ve Dac. Currently using older Acustic Zen absolute copper. There has been a number of members saying good things about silver for digital front ends and I think I,d like to give it a try. Streamer is Aurender N200 using DH labs mirage two feeding Pontus two. Budget is $700 max and it’s seems there are a number of cables in that range, thx in advance and happy New Year!

bikeboy52

@marco1 Thanks for the response. Just looked all the pricing up, yes healthy investment. I always do everything in steps to help with sticker shock, did you do everything at once? Or was it done incrementally? Ive got a few ac cables I can switch around but I need to start with one move at a time.figured I do the rca,s first What your describing sound wise is correct btw. Im pretty sure the sound signature of the 150 and the 200 are the same also , thx again!

OP, Thank you for your response. This is really helpful. 
 

Wire changes are a very important part of tuning a system. But it is the last nuance. It is critical that the components get you 95% there. So, I recommend looking carefully at your vinyl signal chain: cartridge, arm, turntable, and phonostage. Let me take a bit of a side trip.

 

Vinyl and digital can sound the same. In my system, I achieved parody two or three years ago (finally!). If you had infinite budget, vinyl wins… in detail, natural sound and musicality. In general, in systems less than $50K it is easier to have vinyl exceed sound quality than digital. Above this, parody for about the same money, above $200K vinyl pulls ahead again.

So, your analog side has a problem. This is where I would look. I’ll have to go back and look at your system. It is most likely your cartridge or phono stage. Likely the second. Phono stages are critical and need to be of the highest caliber to get the most out of your analog rig. I would not do major investments in interconnects until your signal chain is perfect… then look at wires.

Yes sound sigs of both are the same.  I have the N200 in another system:-).

I'd start with the Cardas Clear HS USB, or digital spdif depending on how you've connected the N200 to the Pontus.  Also, if you do, give it a solid week or so to settle in.  We're not talking smack you in the face changes.  The changes will be subtle but as you continue listening, you'll begin to experience that warmth and smoothness I mentioned before and how your digital is becoming a little more similar to vinyl.  At least I did.

So I saw in a thread here someone commenting about silver and digital. I had a silver power cord and silver IC’s I bought from Bogdan Audio 20 years ago, I tried them on my Sony Signature TZ-HA1ES DAC today. Jet black background, I was stunned because I know these cables, know this DAC and never tried them together, good synergy. Now I’ll get a silver USB cable and add that to the mix.

First, I have a Musician Pegasus that is a very close relative of your Pontus ll, and when I bought a DDC that allowed me to feed it with its God-given i2S input — game changer. Even using a bargain-basement 6” HDMI cable like this (and yeah, you wanna use a short an HDMI cable as possible for audio) the improvement was immediate and significant.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13578

I’d buy this DDC cause it’s basically a Denafrips Iris (that I own) clone and much cheaper…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275587756830

Once you get this taken care of, you should explore AZ Silver Reference interconnects. They Da Bomb! They don’t sound like silver. They don’t sound like copper. They just SOUND. Here are some used examples, but if you can find some used Silver Ref l or ll you’ll be very well served. Just my experience FWIW.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649934003-acoustic-zen-technologies-silver-reference-absolute/images/4226752/