Congratulations on the Vitus SIA-025! It’s an exceptional integrated amp and delivers truly sublime sound – you’re going to love it. I usually stay out of recommending where or what to buy when it comes to cables, but as an alternative option you might take a look at the listings at Contrado Audio in the Netherlands (https://www.contrado-audio.nl/product-category/cables/interconnects/xlr/page/2/?orderby=price-desc). They offer a wide range of used quality XLR cables that could pair beautifully with your new Vitus and the Bartók, brands like Stealth, Siltech, Albedo, Jorma, and Audience FrontRow.
After doing an extensive round of demo’ing I’m currently in the process of reworking much of my own cabling and moving to Snake River Audio’s Takshaka line (USA). I’ve found these to come remarkably close to Siltech’s Single Crown series at roughly half the cost.
As always however, personal preference rules the day in audio – explore what’s out there and choose what sounds best in your system, in your room. Good luck!
That may have been good advice when the UK was a member of the EU (Merlot52 is in the UK). The difficulty is that most likely he would now have to pay both Dutch VAT and UK VAT (a total of circa. +40%). That is if the Dutch vendor is even willing to ship to the UK. I have had a French company refuse supply to me in the UK because the tax situation is t"oo complex".
Appreciate the clarity – so, a nice posted discounted used price could easily be equalized up to nearly the cost of new, I wasn’t aware of that. Okay then, nevermind. . . !
If you are looking for something cheap and cheerful to get your started I can post you a set of mark grant XLR cables. Star quad Canare. Nicely made and decent enough quality to establish a baseline.
I use Wireworld XLR ic’s which are reasonably priced and I find them quite neutral.
I have the OCC also. The 4x4 cables are not at all bendy, so if you do end up getting them, make sure the pins are in the orientation that you’re after and that you allow a bit of extra length just in case. The bend radius gets tight quickly
I have said this before regarding XLR interconnects, but the Van Damme green (digital) that dCS ships with Vivaldi are actually quite good as an analog interconnect as well. In general, pro audio cables work quite well. Gotham also comes to mind. The good thing is you can have one made for very reasonable prices to try. I have yet to try Iconoclast but hear good things. I will be doing that sometime to compare to my Stealth Audio Sakra IC’s, different price range. Cables can get stupidly expensive though, so watch out for this rabbit hole.
I bought them unheard as a well recommended and cheap option for an earlier system that morphed into my current set up.
They did the job and I used them for a few years before upgrading the rest of the system and then getting better cables (Wireworld Eclipse 8).
If I were you I’d be looking at trialing used cables. Lots off bargains on the second-hand market and cables depreciate substantially. Also Futureshop UK do sale or return on some of their cheaper lines, but sadly not for the exotics which they have to order in.
I use designacables Sommer Carbokab xlr cables with gold neutriks. I have trialed then against lots of different pro and hifi cables across a large price range and in my system to my taste they are the best.
