Hello all forum brothers and sisters. I’m a newbie. I’ve seen a lot a topics out there so I apologies for beating a dead horse, but hey thats what the forum is for right?
I recently purchased a pair of M700’s thru The Music Room and I’m patiently awaiting them. I saw that PSA has a link for connections in the products section. I already have upgraded cables on my components and was wondering if anyone has tried the audio quest cables with their own M700’s or M1200’s? Particularly the AQ Monsoon that PS Audio recommends.
I have the NRGZ3 which is one down on the AQ food chain so I’m curious if $225 (the cost increase over NRG3Z to Monsoon x2) upgrade investment in audio cable would see a noticeable improvement in performance?
I’m also using AQ Red River XLR’s which happens to be one down on the chain from the Mackenzies which PS audio recommends. So if anyone has any input to these upgraded cable suggestions I’d love to here from you!
Oh no. Another Paul. lol.
I have the BHK Pre and M700 and use the red river xlr between them and am extremely happy with them. I also have older (20 years old), but very good Cardas Quadlink 5-C rca’s running from music source to the BHK Pre, and like the sound of those better than AQ Mackenzie rca from source to pre. The Cardas sound fuller, smoother, more open, with more bloom than AQ Mackenzie (in my system). If I was going to upgrade cables from pre to power amps, I would go with either AQ water or the crazy expensive Cardas Clear Reflection, but am definitely staying with red river for now.
Sounds like the upgrade I should be saving for is the BHK Pre! I see a lot of M700 owners that must be using it. I’m using the Stellar right now and I’m pleased with the results but the BHK has me thinking!
I’m powering my M700’s with AQ Thunder power cables fed by an AQ Niagara 5000. I haven’t tried any other power cables on the M700’s, but this combo blows away the 600 watt multi-thousand dollar class AB mono blocks I used previously. Moving up to the M1200’s in the near future.
I have several other AQ cables in the chain both currently and over the years and have never been disappointed.
Like adifferentpaul, I too use XLR Red River to my 3x M700’s from 3 Balanced MIniDSP Boards. From my DirectStream Sr. into of my my MiniDSP’s, I use XLR Mackenzie’s purchased from a PS Audio Forum member. For all my I2S connectivity, it’s Cinnamon HDMI. No plans to upgrade any of the stock AC Cords or Power Regeneration at this time.
I appreciate your input I’m pretty happy with Red River also! You might want to try swapping the stock power cords. I have both AQ and Pangea and the difference between a stock cable and the cables I have from AQ and Pangea is an eye opener or ear opener!
You can imagine my shock when I went from a Denon receiver and separate amp to the stellar! Thats has me constantly thinking I have to go the BHK to get a higher level of realism! Upgrading from the Denon to the Stellar was like going from a black and white tv to a 1080p TV. I’m sure going from the Stellar to the BHK would be equivalent to 1080P to 8K!
As I consider possible upgrades for my current SGCD to M700s combo, I can’t decide which option would provide the most satisfying results: (1) M1200, (2) BHK Pre, or (3) DirectStream DAC. The new M1200 is getting great reviews from the beta testers, nearly everyone seems to love the DirectStream DAC, and I’ve been told that my Thiel CS 2.2 speakers would sound fantastic with a tube preamp. I’m pretty happy with the Cardas XLRs connecting the SGCD and M700s, and I’ve already replaced all the stock power cords with the Audience Forte F3. Any upgrade advice would be greatly appreciated.
I should have added that the Cardas interconnect I’m using is the Parsec. Cardas considers it one of the best values in their line-up based on the level of performance for the price.
Eventually, all 3 upgrades, LOL
Option 2, the BHK Preamp, will make a huge difference. I too am tempted by the reviews of the M1200, especially the reviews from those that notice an improvement from the BHK Pre to M700 combo, being fully aware of how dynamic and musical and wonderful they sound together.
Thanks for mentioning Cardas Parsec, which replaced the warm and open sounding Cardas Quadlink interconnect line (which I still use). I now see some new cables in my future…
No more upgrades for me. Saving up to buy a Home this year. Having so much fun with the DSD Sr. though. Thanks to Self-Isolation, I’ve bought a pair of Drop Koss Electrostatics. This was not an impulse buy. I love my 901’s but am thinking after the purchase of a new home order 5 LRS’s to replace the 901’s ?
