You do want to upgrade your audio system, but you don’t know where to start from. Will it be the cables or the preamp ? Which is the component which is really going to give your system a spectacular boost ?
1) Nowadays preamps do not differ much, if at all ; sometimes a passive “preamp” is the best choice if you don’t intend to buy a turntable. Passive preamplifiers may sound (sometimes) harsh or “dry” because they form a high-pass filter in combination with the system.
2) Multistrand cables (with silver-plated copper strands) less than 2,5 meters long (gauge 14 or 12) or equivalent flatwire, with the simplest possible structure of non PVC insulation, will do perfectly well. You may already own them, so leave them in peace.
3) Amplifiers are very important and they do make a difference concerning speed, bass power, dynamic headroom, upper mid band, THD (total harmonic distortion), TIM (intermodulation distortion) and soundstage. But before you make a new buy, try power conditioning or cascaded earthing or both ; the result is audible. Even a block of granite under your lightweight amp will give you a pleasant surprise. Although some top amplifiers may give you a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise, amps are not the issue here : sometimes good amplifiers don’t combine well with loudspeakers.
4) Loudspeakers. It is possible that comparison of some amps’ circuitry design or component quality by audition will not give you any audible clue. This is never true about loudspeakers. Loudspeakers are -by far- the main responsibles for your system’s sound : they create it. They receive electric signals, they split them and they transform their energy in to acoustic (pressure waves) energy. They should match electrically your amplifier and they should behave linearly or at least predictably ; unfortunately, they do not. Loudspeakers are highly non-linear (even chaotic) systems for signals powerful enough. Transducers’ type, construction and quality, electroacoustic design and combination of materials in a loudspeaker, will make a huge difference. In fact, you will never find a loudspeaker sounding the same as any other model of the same or other brand !
CONCLUSION : The main responsible for your high-end system’s sound on a scale from 1 to 100 is :
loudspeakers 50% –> amplifiers 20% –> sources 15% –> power conditioners / massive bases 10% –> preamplifiers 3% –> cables 2%.
Of course this is a subjective scaling ! Some people would pay a fortune for a tiny extra 1% that upgrades their system to a champion… One more thing : 1% is audible !!
