Exotic Interconnects

For that kind of money you should obtain a loan set of Tellerium Q Black RCA cables and Tellerium Q Black speaker cables and try them out.  3m pair of speaker cables and 1m pair of interconnects would be circa £560 new.  These are very neutral/clear sounding and I think they're brilliant cables, for my system and taste at least.

^^

Tbh, you should here a difference as soon as you swap them if they are good enough, if you don't then no point in carrying on.

I agree with the fine tuning aspect of cables and it took me a few interconnects to get what i liked. Not sure on your Chord's but its worth trying others if the balance is not quite right but you are happy overall. If the harsher sound persists after trying different cable then i'd look at the balance of the system.

Unfortunately I do hear the difference / improvement 

In few days, I am going to switch back to my original cables and see if the improvement has gone away and some more experimentation to be sure if this is making the actual difference.

BTW, what do you mean by the balance of the system? You mean a particular component in my system?

Thank You. Damn.. With Chord, I thought I can put an end to the i/c but I guess there is some more distance to go on i/c

I'm pretty much agree with this. Good I/Cs should bring out the best of a system, not cover up deficiencies. That said, if the Chord is introducing brightness, then it should help.

As Shooter has said, if you don't notice an immediate improvement, your £750 could be better spent elsewhere. 

My gut tells me the problem lies with the speakers, so before committing to expensive I/Cs, you should try different ones. The synergy of a system can be upset with the introduction of a new component.

I have always liked Cardas for their musicality, but they are expensive, especially outside the States.

I will be very intrigued with your findings, but advise caution. I prefer a system to be nicely balanced before the introduction of better cables.

I am also a fan of power cords, so they may be worth trying as well.

I'm sure others here can give you a possibly more cost-effective solution than either of the ones you or I referred to. 

I do sympathise though as having tried the Tellerium cables and hearing the difference in my system I'm definitely going to buy some when my loan (second week now) period ends.  

I think we both need to remember to just enjoy the music though, and if we then choose to upgrade our cables then that's up to us and we'll enjoy it that bit more! 

Thank You! BTW.. there was a check list to test the Speakers + Amp and I remembered then that I have ripped lot of CDs but never got them on to the main system where my music is. I did the transfers the other day and I have found some nice forgotten numbers.. especially 'The Race', 'Piece by Piece', 'Change the World' etc.. It is pretty exciting to rediscover the music that was not heard in the recent times

Yes as Cno say's, componant compatability has a greater effect on sound than cable swapping. By having a sytem that sounds right then tweak witha  cable to how you like your particular sound is easier than the other way round.

I'm intrigued on these home brew cables, can you tell us more, what are they and what do they bring to the table.

Hard to beat that feeling sometimes isn't it! 

Just another thought, is it possible that the distortion you hear at high(er) volumes could be down to the quality of the audio file - what resolution do you rip them in? - if all lossless/FLAC etc shouldn't be that which is causing the issue but might be a cause when listening to lower res (128 and 192kbps).

Enjoy the tunes whatever you do. 

Shooter will be well able to answer for himself, but as I also used the term, I will do my best.

Basically it is not mixing  bright forward components (or warm smooth ones) together, as it will exacerbate the trait. So balancing a system, is offsetting a bright lean component with a smoother warmer one (and vica versa).

This is highly subjective, as in reality, you are matching components to to produce the sound that you like....which is not always easy, as you need to know the sound characteristics of what you intend using.

I agree with Cno that mains cable (good one) can improve noise and perceived hardness and worth trying out if you can.

Firstly, get someone else to do the swapping without your knowledge of which cable is fitted. If you can then reliably determine a difference/improvement after several swaps (or pretend swaps), you could consider that an improvement is possible.

At this point, only you can decide if you can justify £750 on cabling. Why not if you can afford it and you are happy?

It's not something I would do personally, but each to their own, it's not my system or money.

So, let me get this straight: your thinking of connecting your £600 Audiolab DAC to your £3950 Classe amp and your £800 Tannoy speakers with £750 worth of cables?

WishTree wrote:

Unfortunately I do hear the difference / improvement 

In few days, I am going to switch back to my original cables and see if the improvement has gone away and some more experimentation to be sure if this is making the actual difference.

Have you considered blind testing them?  Try wearing a blindfold and getting someone to swap between the old and new cables without you knowing which one you're listening to.

You may find that you really do prefer the new one which is great. But on the other hand you may find that there's less difference than you expected which would save you a lot of money. Either way you can't lose but you won't know for sure unless you do a blind test.