Hi, regarding the cables, as I have posted in this thread earlier, I was unlucky with my Cordial cable. Second attempt with a Sssnake cable just fixed it but I could have gone wrong with that one too. If boXem had a TRS-XLR cable in their offer I would have bought that from day one.
I have also taken the RCA-XLR cable from boXem along with the amp purchase for a couple of reasons: to keep it compatible with RCA only sources and because the RCA cables tend to be more susceptible to external factors and not everyone builds such a good RCA-XLR cable.
And, just for fun, I have tested the RCA-XLR boXem cable. If I use the MID gain setting it's on par with the TRS-XLR cable on LOW. No noise, no BS, just good quality cable that should outlast the others (Cordial, Sssnake, cheap ones from Amazon etc).
This whole debate on cables is indeed a bit strange, nobody puts his hand in anyone's pocket - you get what you pay for. Looking at boXem cable, it is miles away better than the other cables, and specs should be inline and the build well engineered. Price? Well, consider you are paying a dinner for it, after all there are people assembling it and it's a company that needs some profit as well. Actually I thought that by buying this cable, would also be a small gesture in supporting their business.
In my country we have a saying: "I am too poor to buy something cheap". So whenever I have an option to buy something more expensive but for a good reason, I do it.
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Now onto another thing. I have been listening carefully every day, several hours and there is still something I don't like in my system. When I am listening at low volumes (-25db and lower) from my Topping E50 dac used as preamp, the sound is too thin. Actually below -32db it becomes quite obvoius that the highs are more elevated and the mids and lows are not inline with the rest. Once I crank the volume on -20db and higher the whole thing comes alive. Better sound, better dynamics and everything snaps in place in terms of music delivery. Just wonderful.
I have been contemplating in getting a Preamp. Was thinking of a Topping L70? Would it make any difference if I used the Topping E50 on dac-mode max volume into the Topping L70 as preamp for lower volumes?
Now I found out that my Arcam SA20 amp which has been in for repairs should be arriving in the next few days. I am tempted to test with it used as a preamp and no load as in no speakers attached?
Does anyone have any thoughts or input on the above?