Interconnects - How much to spend

[BliarOut]

Just about got my new Cyrus kit all wired in now, but I'm wondering how much to spend on interconnects. It's good, but not ridiculous kit, about £4.5K in total. At the moment, I'm just using cheapy interconnects, about 99p each :yikes:

Without wanting to head down the audiophile law of diminishing returns path, how much would you spend on interconnects? There has to come a point when you are throwing money away on improvements you can't hear. I don't think I have reached that point just yet though at 99p :)

[lunarscope]

BliarOut said:

Just about got my new Cyrus kit all wired in now, but I'm wondering how much to spend on interconnects. It's good, but not ridiculous kit, about £4.5K in total. At the moment, I'm just using cheapy interconnects, about 99p each Without wanting to head down the audiophile law of diminishing returns path, how much would you spend on interconnects? There has to come a point when you are throwing money away on improvements you can't hear. I don't think I have reached that point just yet though at 99p

AFAIC you reached the point of diminishing returns about £3500 ago.

[B17NNS]

Cyrus own range of interconnects are very good and perfectly suited to that kit.

what are you getting by the way?

saving up myself for a CD8x and 8vs combo.

Would look at spending anything upto about £100 on an interconnect for the above.

[Wildfire]

When I had my Cyrus system hooked up (now packed away due to lack of use) I just went for some good quality, oxygen free cables and just above average priced interconnects. It does make a difference. When I did the same for my car stereo the difference was even more ( thin copper wire to Rockford Fosgate cable). The really expensive stuff, I wouldn't bother with IMHO.

[Wildfire]

When I had my Cyrus system hooked up (now packed away due to lack of use) I just went for some good quality, oxygen free cables and just above average priced interconnects. It does make a difference. When I did the same for my car stereo the difference was even more ( thin copper wire to Rockford Fosgate cable). The really expensive stuff, I wouldn't bother with IMHO.

[Zod]

lunarscope said:

BliarOut said: Just about got my new Cyrus kit all wired in now, but I'm wondering how much to spend on interconnects. It's good, but not ridiculous kit, about £4.5K in total. At the moment, I'm just using cheapy interconnects, about 99p each Without wanting to head down the audiophile law of diminishing returns path, how much would you spend on interconnects? There has to come a point when you are throwing money away on improvements you can't hear. I don't think I have reached that point just yet though at 99p AFAIC you reached the point of diminishing returns about £3500 ago.

Not at all!. I upgraded a £1500 Marantz/Eltax system to a Cyrus/Audiovector system of similar price to BliarOut's new one last year and the leap in quality was massive. Even my wife agrees and she is alwasy highly sceptical of my investments in new "kit". I have since upgraded it further (started with CD8+PSX/R, Cyrus 8 + SMartPower and now have CD8 + PSX/R, Pre-X + PSX/R and four SmartPowers in mono) with commensurate very obvious improvements in sound quality.

BliarOut, I use Chord interconnects. They seem to be the ones best regarded for use with Cyrus equipment (above the Cyrus ones). You don't need to go for anything above the Chameleons.

There is a lot of info and useful discussion at www.cyrusunofficial.co.uk. Hope you enjoy your system as much as I enjoy mine.

[Zod]

PS Chord Chameleon interconnects go for around £100.

[Incorrigible]

Buy a £20 interconnect and instanty notice the difference

Then buy a £50 one and see if you can tell the difference

Then a £100 one etc

I would be amazed if you could tell the difference above £50, but some people can

I've just wired my house and I pondered about speaker cables for ages. Once you get above bi-wired 79strand, I couldn't notice the difference so went for that

And I spend about £20 on an interconnect but my stuff is about half the cost of yours Cambridge audio CD player, cyrus 2b amp, Rogers Audio LS4a speakers

[trevorw]

Maybe wrong, but isn't it a rule of thumb that you spend 10% of the system price on all cabling??

[theexcession]

pah, in my day we used wet string and two plastic cups...

[BliarOut]

trevorw said:

Maybe wrong, but isn't it a rule of thumb that you spend 10% of the system price on all cabling??

I'm not spending £400 on cables

Ex, I think I'm using that wet string as an interconnect at the moment

I was thinking about something around the Chord budget, so I'm not too far off the mark. It'll be a shame to let the 99p cables go though, they've been good to me

It's been a long haul getting it all wired up, but I get to hear the amps for the first time tonight so I'm all excited. Hopefully the DVD8 will be installed by the weekend along with new cables. Good job the neighbours go on holiday on Sunday

Zod, how much difference do the PSX's actually make?

I probably shouldn't ask. I think I've spent enough for now

[thebluemonkey]

Have you thought about rolling your own ?

www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html

Those are what I use and I'm sure it's the room that is the weak part of my system now.

[bertie]

Incorrigible said:

Buy a £20 interconnect and instanty notice the difference Then buy a £50 one and see if you can tell the difference Then a £100 one etc I would be amazed if you could tell the difference above £50, but some people can

I was very suprised when I did a back to back test on Nordost Red Dawn interconnects and Solar Wind speaker cables and the differance was startling.

Put it this way, even the wife could tell.

[Zod]

BliarOut said:

Zod, how much difference do the PSX's actually make? I probably shouldn't ask. I think I've spent enough for now

To the CD8(X), the PSX/R makes a significant difference. On the Pre-X, the difference is less obvious. On a Cyrus 8vs, the PSX/R will actually increase the power output by (I think) 10W per channel and improve the sound. You ahve to judge for yourself though. It is all subjective!

As for spending too much: I went in intending to buy a CD6 and a Cyrus 6 amp!

[Incorrigible]

bertie said:

I was very suprised when I did a back to back test on Nordost Red Dawn interconnects and Solar Wind speaker cables and the differance was startling. Put it this way, even the wife could tell.

I'll have to try again when I get my new kit

[Zod]

bertie said:

I was very suprised when I did a back to back test on Nordost Red Dawn interconnects and Solar Wind speaker cables and the differance was startling. Put it this way, even the wife could tell.

Precisely the test I used to confirm that I should spend more: if the wife could tell the difference, then it wasn't just my imagination.

[BliarOut]

thebluemonkey said:

Have you thought about rolling your own ? www.venhaus1.com/diysilverinterconnects.html Those are what I use and I'm sure it's the room that is the weak part of my system now.

I'm using the Cat5 speaker cables, but then again I would. I work for a networking company and we have the stuff lying around in boxes

I didn't bother with the braiding though for two reasons. One, I'm not convinced about the benefit as Cat5 inherently doesn't transmit noise thanks to the twisted pairs, and two, I'm lazy!

[Incorrigible]

BTW can people give a vague idea of the systems they're running

[BliarOut]

Main source is a Cyrus DVD8, feeding an AV8.
Cyrus Smart power in stereo for the front Mission m35i's.
Cyrus Smart power in mono for the center m3c2i.
Cyrus Q Power for the rear m3dsi's.

It'll be another week or two before I can actually hear it all hooked up correctly and linked to a new plasma, so I can't form a real opinion if I got the balance right as yet.

It looks absolutely though

[bertie]

BliarOut said:

I didn't bother with the braiding though for two reasons. One, I'm not convinced about the benefit as Cat5 inherently doesn't transmit noise thanks to the twisted pairs, and two, I'm lazy!

Cat 5 only doesn't transmit common mode noise due to the configuration of the twisted pair.

They're still susceptable to pickup as any normal cable.