I have driven myself quite mad over the last week trying out some upgrade possibilities - a friend who has a decent range of cables kindly lent me a few to try - eventually it has been a success but what is clear is that it isnt easy to work out if a new cable is actually better. I know many people post about cables and tweaks and as i like reading and learning i thought id post.
Taking my amp/cd/speaker as unchangeable now i decided to see how i could best improve things with a £150 budget.
Speaker Cable - only had a couple to try here from my chord silverscreen (£6pm), some Chord rumour (£15pm) and Chord epic twin (£35pm). There was a definate improvement here for me, particularly the Epic which really tightened the bassline and improved the layers of different rhythms such that they were easier to follow. So the more expensive speaker cable was a real hit as a good upgrade.
Interconnects - i had quite a few to try alongside VDH Name and Chord Cobra 3 including VDH D102, Chord Chameleon Silver Plus, VDH Thunderline, VDH First Ultimate and Audio Emerald. Despite using multiple inputs on the cd player to make it easier to compare i have to say that there really wasnt very much improvement from any of these over the Name and Cobra 3. The best of them all was VDH First Ultimate which is c£170 and this was the clearest. But compared to the speaker cable improvement this was very marginal indeed and the best overall value seemed to remain in the £50 interconnects.
Bi-wiring - this actually surprised me the most as it really did make a difference. i bi-wired using 2 chord cables from separate outputs and it added nicely to the overall sound presented particularly in the treble and midrange - things like acoustic guitar strummed a little more openly for instance and electronic synths were more vibrant. in fact the more i listen to bi-wired the more i like it - i switched back after an extended listen and to be honest i now miss the extra vibrancy and soundstage.
In the end i am spending my money on a 2m run of chord epic twin which gives me a better run of cable and the option to bi-wire in one outlay. i am currently bi-wiring the epic for the low frequency with my older chord silverscreen as the run for the high frequency. Maybe ill get 2 runs of Epic eventually but i havent tried it to see if thats any better. For me single speaker cable upgrade was the best option, then adding the bi-wire option and last would be interconnect.
Taking my amp/cd/speaker as unchangeable now i decided to see how i could best improve things with a £150 budget.
Speaker Cable - only had a couple to try here from my chord silverscreen (£6pm), some Chord rumour (£15pm) and Chord epic twin (£35pm). There was a definate improvement here for me, particularly the Epic which really tightened the bassline and improved the layers of different rhythms such that they were easier to follow. So the more expensive speaker cable was a real hit as a good upgrade.
Interconnects - i had quite a few to try alongside VDH Name and Chord Cobra 3 including VDH D102, Chord Chameleon Silver Plus, VDH Thunderline, VDH First Ultimate and Audio Emerald. Despite using multiple inputs on the cd player to make it easier to compare i have to say that there really wasnt very much improvement from any of these over the Name and Cobra 3. The best of them all was VDH First Ultimate which is c£170 and this was the clearest. But compared to the speaker cable improvement this was very marginal indeed and the best overall value seemed to remain in the £50 interconnects.
Bi-wiring - this actually surprised me the most as it really did make a difference. i bi-wired using 2 chord cables from separate outputs and it added nicely to the overall sound presented particularly in the treble and midrange - things like acoustic guitar strummed a little more openly for instance and electronic synths were more vibrant. in fact the more i listen to bi-wired the more i like it - i switched back after an extended listen and to be honest i now miss the extra vibrancy and soundstage.
In the end i am spending my money on a 2m run of chord epic twin which gives me a better run of cable and the option to bi-wire in one outlay. i am currently bi-wiring the epic for the low frequency with my older chord silverscreen as the run for the high frequency. Maybe ill get 2 runs of Epic eventually but i havent tried it to see if thats any better. For me single speaker cable upgrade was the best option, then adding the bi-wire option and last would be interconnect.
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