@zlone
Just something to think about.
Long ago I decided to evaluate interconnects. I had a system that I knew inside and out. I started with my current cables... don’t remember, they were good. I acquired cables from a dealer friend of mine. He’d send one at a time and let me keep them for a few months. So, first I had to break them in... 200 hours, sometimes a bit less... but you have to make sure they are broken in.
Then I came up with a rating system. I think I had about six or eight different variables, which I rated on a ten point scale. I used my original (Harmonics I think the silver plated copper) as the standard. So, then I would do quick A/B and rated them. Then let them in my system and listened for a week or two, Then switch back. The switch back was typically the time all the differences were really obvious. Sometimes I would need to do the two weeks for the reference and the new ones twice. Then I would get another pair... break them in and rate them.
So I evaluated about six brands... along the way I found Nirvana... wow. They were $2K per pair and my components were only $5K each... but wow. Worth it. This was about five months of effort and dozens of hours of listening and weeks of breaking in.
Anyway, I think you may see the point. If you are going to do this. Consider what you are going to use as a reference. What standards are you going to apply when evaluating. And for god’s sake get a cable cooker. It always seemed too expensive for me... but it would have paid for itself in a couple years. I have spent soooo much time breaking in interconnects, power cords and speaker wire it would have paid for itself in a year or two. Instead I have gone decades without one, would have saved thousands of hours using my main system.
Good luck.
