When building a coherent cable loom, there are a couple of stages which constitute natural breaks or sub-sets within the whole: Power cables are one, analogue interconnects and speaker cables are another, with digital leads being a third. Follow these demarcations and it’s possible to mix cables within a system, as long as you maintain coherence within each group. Such a set-up will never approach the performance of a completely coherent loom, but it will at least minimise the musical damage in the meantime.
One step at a time…
Of course, writing rules or a road-map is relatively easy. But the proof of the pudding is in completing the process and the musical and sonic results. So, I assembled a mix-n-match cable set and re-wired the TEAD/OBX system so that I could replace and report on the changes as I instituted each step.
Out went (most of) the Blue Heaven 3, to be replaced by:
Isotek power cords on the QB8 and Linear B mono-blocs.
An Audioquest power cord on the VPI Avenger.
A stock power cord on the D1.5 CD/SACD Transport.
CFM power cords on the X1 and the Vibe’s external PSU.
A SternKlang power cord on the Groove SRX.
Tonearm lead reverted to the stock cable supplied with the Origin Live Enterprise arm.
Interconnect between the Groove and Vibe – Chord Music.
Interconnect between the D1.5 and Vibe – SternKlang.
Interconnects from the Vibe to the Linear B power amps – Crystal Cable Future Dream
Speaker Cables from the Linear Bs to the OBX crossovers – CFM
Speaker Cables from the OBX crossovers to the speakers – Blue Heaven 3
That’s a pretty mixed-up collection but there are a number of things worth noting. First and foremost, is the absence of ringers: in the past few years we have reported positively on every cable here (albeit as part of a complete cable system). If they weren’t useful, they wouldn’t be taking up house space! Secondly, total cost of this collection of cables far exceeds the cost of the Blue Heaven leads – but the cost bias leans heavily towards the signal leads and away from the AC power cords, with major investment in the pre-power interconnects and speaker cables. Thirdly, the range of different conductor materials, constructions and cable styles here is extreme, from the chunky, copper conductor CFMs to the ultra-minimalist, mono-crystal silver Future Dreams, the unshielded SternKlangs to the multi-shielded Chord Musics – stopping at most of the way-points in between. In that sense, this could be described as a worst-case scenario – but believe me when I say, it’s not that far from some of the horror shows I’ve encountered on my travels. Besides which, it’s the variation that does the damage, as much as the degree of variation.
Look at the list and you’ll see that I left the Blue Heaven 3 speaker cables running from the crossovers to the speakers. That’s actually in keeping with the overall proposition – building a loom based on selecting a cable that is already in use. But it also saved having to find (another) two sets of identical speaker cables, while mixing and matching cables at this point in the system really would have been a step too far. When hooking up the collection of mix-n-match leads, I took considerable care to maintain plugging order and mains polarity, grounding arrangements and to let the system settle down and warm back up before listening. How did the re-cabled system sound? Not great!
