There was a time when I spent gobs of money on fancy interconnects. I still have some 3 foot lengths of Kimber KCAG pure silver balanced cables that I think I paid 400 bucks for. They sound very good and I still use them in my main system, but I would never spend that kind of money on cables now.

I just bought a pair of Monster Studio Link 2m balanced XLR cables to hook the output of my 990 to a Threshold S500e power amp. I paid 60 bucks for the pair at a local store for musicians and DJ's. Cables like that at a high end audio store would cost far more.

I tried swapping those Monsters with the far more pricy Kimber KCAG's, and heard not one bit of difference on some very revealing speakers.

You do need to buy decent well made cables and speaker wires, but there is certainly a point beyond which paying any more is a waste of money.

I saw in a review that Gonk did of a piece of gear, that he tried some 5 buck XLR microphone cables as an interconnect in a multi channel setup. He also said he then tried some more expensive Outlaw XLR's in their place. I'd be interested in his experience with that swap. Did you hear a difference?

Sorry to "hi-jack" this thread but if you like "Hell Freezes Over" get the Eagles "Farewell I" DVD (In the Gold colored box). Recorded in 2004 in Australia...this is really my Reference standard for 5.1 music. In addition you get 4 Joe Walsh solo tunes and a whole new version of Hotel California. Listen for the horn section!! (Yes he said horn section)

My other favorites: Peter Gabriel "Play" - all his videos remixed personally by P.G. in 5.1 !!!!!! Billy Joel - "The Essential Video Collection" - remixed in 5.1, ZZTOP Greatest Hits Video Collection - yep 5.1. I also have a DVD Audio of Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album which is exceptionally remixed.

I've found that except for the Eagles who record their live concerts in multi-channels with all music - no arena crowd noise for the back channels, the studio material (i.e. albums and videos) translate better into the format for obvious reasons.

I agree. Spending your wad on esoteric cables is an utter waste of cash. I've been through them all, including MIT Oracles and that ilk. Short of trying to subtly use your interconnects and speaker cabling as tone controls, I personally just don't see the value.

Want "reference" balanced audio cables? Get yourself a roll of Canare star quad L-4E6S microphone cable, some silver solder, Neutrik XLR connectors and roll your own. It only takes a few minutes per cable and you can tailor them to exactly the length you need to cut down on clutter. Not comfortable with a soldering iron? There are plenty of places that will make them for you to the lengths you specify at a tiny fraction of the cost of the "high end" cables. This is EXACTLY what a lot of the recording studios use and they've got a few folks with trained ears and backgrounds in engineering at their disposal.

Best,

I've got Outlaw XLR's on my 7500 right now, but I used 6' microphone cables initially. I heard no difference. The Outlaws were a better length for my system and had better connectors (one of the mic cables tended to hang up a bit, but the Outlaws all fit very smoothly), so I left them in place and passed the mic cables on to a friend (Oy of Mid-World here in the saloon, who has a 990 paired up with five M2200's).

Speaking of reference level concert Blu-ray. Try the Snakes and Arrows concert by Rush. This disc came out in 2008 and uses DTS-HD format. When I read some reviews on Amamzon about how good the video and audio quality was I had to have it. Even if you aren't a Rush fan the quality of this disc will push your system to the limit and reveal limitations as well. The colors are as rich and deep as I have seen. The DTS soundtrack is super clean and places you right in the middle of the concert.

I'll have to go along with the recommendation of Peter Gabriel's "Play" DVD. Someone had given that to me last Xmas and I never got around to opening it. Well, last night I did. Wow. I'm not a big Sinead O'Connor fan, but the duet with PG on the DVD is really well done.

Best,

P.G. "Play" DVD is my second favorite to the Eagles Farwell I DVD. Both EXTREMELY EXCELLENT sound! Highly recommend both.