Suggestions for interconnect "upgrade?"

Early B.

Yesterday I "upgraded" my speaker cables from Audioquest Type 4's to Bedrocks. Got a great deal from Audio Advisor (off ebay). Hey, the Bedrocks rock!! Not even begun to break in yet and they already sound wonderful. Very musical, lots of bass, and slightly more detail.

OK, so I'm thinking about "upgrading" my beloved Kimber Heros in the next couple of months. Just not sure which ones to get or if I'll realize a significant improvement by going higher up the chain. At what point do diminishing returns kick in for interconnects?

Here are my parameters:

1) Like it laid back
2) I listen primarily to Jazz
3) Max. budget is $200 new or used
4) Only need 0.5M
5) Nothing fancy -- cryo'd, locking plugs, pure silver, etc.
6) ability to demo them (Ex. don't want to make a blind purchase off the 'gon or ebay unless there a full money back guarantee)

Thanks.

madmax

That is an easy one. MIT S-3. Used.
madmax

steveinaz

I've recently switched to Kimber PBJ's. I'll never upgrade again. Love them.

Early B.

Originally posted by steveinaz
I've recently switched to Kimber PBJ's. I'll never upgrade again. Love them.

Steve -- Never say, "never." Have you tried the Heros? I went from PBJ's to Heros about a year ago, and I swore I'd never upgrade again.

dragon1952

It might be hard to beat those in the price range you specified. You may be close to the point of diminishing returns anyway. You might get 'different' but I guess 'better' might be subjective. I'm with Steve, I'm pretty happy with the PBJ's (and DH Labs BL-1's) and don't wish to spend more than that anyway.

Early B.

I'm pretty happy with the PBJ's (and DH Labs BL-1's)

Dragon -- I tried the BL-1's. Awesome interconnects for the money. They rivaled my Heros, IMO.

dragon1952

I'm comparing the BL-1's and the PBJ's right now. The PBJ's seem to have a nice airy sound that I like but on some music I think I like the BL-1 better. Too soon to tell though.

If you want to try something different with a 60 day return policy you could try the Zu Gedes at around $110 shipped on Ebay (it's 1m though).
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5790871349&category=33205&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1
This ones got a bid already but they have them on there at daily intervals. I'm using one of their digital cables and I have 2 of their PC's. Great products and service and you'll get them in 2 days.
You could also try the VH Audio Pulsars at around $145 for .5m. They also have a 60 day trial I believe.
http://venhaus1.com/VH_Audio_Test.html

haimoc

Z-Squared Au-Au or Discovery Plus Four (or Essence).

LuSh

I'd highly recommend you try the Harmonic Technology Prosilway mk II's. Check out audiogon. Most people consider these as the best interconnects > $500. I used Cardas before and quite honestly I couldn't hear a difference between them and my Acoustic Research "master series", to be fair though they were only the Twinklink B's...The prosilways made an impact, it was not sublte. The background is much more quiet, the bass is fuller, and at first you might feel the higher frequencies have been rounded off, in fact they might have but after a week of them in my current setup I found them much more appealing, there is no loss of detail, in fact in jazz you might hear a whole bunch more. I had a chance to hear them against Van Den hull's and PBJ's, these were the clear winners. I've heard quite a few people that used prosilways jumped to the Audience Au 24's which are roughly $500 and alot of those same users switched back to the older Prosilways. Check them out. You can sell them quite quickly for what you paid.

They usually pop up on audiogon for around $200 US, I picked up mine for about $260 CDN.

F1nut

Originally posted by madmax
That is an easy one. MIT S-3. Used.
madmax

+1

mantis

You have to spend more then 200.00 to beat the Hero's.

I love upgrading wires and found myself not needing better IC's then the Hero's. There the best balanced well rounded IC I have ever used.

Keep the Hero's and upgrade other things. Or spend more.
If you dig the sound of the Hero's and really want to Improve on it, you might want to check out the Silver Streaks , Kcag's or making a run for the Kimber Selects. Some say the Selects are a perfect Interconnect. I have no experience with them.

Dan

dorokusai

Early - I was under the impression from a couple other threads, that you didn't "believe" in cables?

cfrizz

Originally posted by dorokusai
Early - I was under the impression from a couple other threads, that you didn't "believe" in cables?

LOL I didn't believe in cables either Mark. That is until I actually changed a pair of mine from what came in the box to a pair of Monster IC's.

Then I knew there was a difference! I have since changed out all of my IC's to Blue Jeans Cables.

I simply draw the line when it comes to price. I can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on cable on the chance that it MIGHT be an improvement, that I MAY be able to hear.

If I spent the kind of money on IC's that some of you do, I would HAVE to hear a remarkable improvement otherwise, I would have to jump off a bridge after wasting all that money on something I couldn't hear a difference on.

RuSsMaN

Originally posted by cfrizz
I simply draw the line when it comes to price. I can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on cable on the chance that it MIGHT be an improvement, that I MAY be able to hear.

Hence the creation of the cable swap program. It won't be around forever, if you haven't taken advantage and would like to, I suggest you do so relatively soon.

Cheers,
Russ

dorokusai

Originally posted by cfrizz
If I spent the kind of money on IC's that some of you do, I would HAVE to hear a remarkable improvement otherwise, I would have to jump off a bridge after wasting all that money on something I couldn't hear a difference on.

You might be suprised what some of us haven't spent on cables....actually I haven't even exceeded $200/pair yet. It's all about connections Cathy

If you didn't know, I picked up a pair of your babies....the RTA8T. I'll digress and say that they do sound pretty decent for their size and design. The SL2000's were ditched pretty quickly and they might actually stay around for awhile. I will at the least stop picking on you

cfrizz

Now your talking Mark! See I told you they are nice speakers!!! What did you replace the SL2000's with? And why did you do so?

Glad to know you have connections so that you don't go broke upgrading IC's Mark!

dorokusai

The RD0194 replacement of course as SL2000's last about 5 minutes in this house. Why? The SL2000 sucks. Email me if you want to chat about anything else Cathy.

Sorry for the derail EarlyB....now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

mantis

I 2nd the cable swap program. It allows you to hear many different wires in your system. There are many good ones out there.

The last pair I demo'd was the Signal Cable silver Interconnects. they are very nice sounding cables. For the money I can see them pleasing many. I would use em myself.

Good luck

Dan

tryrrthg

Early, Let me know when or if you're ready to sell the Kimber Hero's

Early B.

tryrrthg wrote:

Early, Let me know when or if you're ready to sell the Kimber Hero's

Not quite ready to give up my Hero's yet. I A/B'd the Heros vs. the Silver Streaks today on my system, going back and forth with the same musical passages. The differences, IMO, were very subtle. So I think I'll give up on the interconnect upgrade idea for a while and concentrate on getting some more CDs. That's always tough because there's so much garbage out there.

Maybe I'll try www.cdbaby.com again for some nice alternative options.

mantis

2nd the Hero sale. Let me know as well. the silver streaks are a small upgrade. I planned on using them but found my Hero's working for me.

Dan