Upgrading from LAT International to what?

[hassel]

I had happily cabled my whole system with cables from LAT International. Last night, however, I put a Straight Wire Virtuoso between my Chord DAC 64 and my McIntosh C200 preamp. No difference to my LAT IC 200 MkII. When I put the Straight Wire between the C200 and my MC402 power amp, however, it clearly was the better cable, with Sonny Rollins as well as with the Goldberg-variations: more slam, more air around instruments, better soundstage. Now the bug has bitten me again. Certainly, the Straight Wire is much more expensive than the LAT. Still, the questions torments me: What do audiogoners upgrade to from LAT-cables - and what does or did it cost them? I thought about Straight Wire Crescendo, but one audiogoner wrote the little-known Virtual Image-cables were even better...Advice from LAT veterans appreciated.

[msjanket]

Whoa, I'd be some careful before decreeing that one interconnect was "better" than another. When evaluating speakers, for instance, people have to distinguish what they like to what might be better...that is, trying to say something is better is pretty dicey going. If you are used to mushy sounding speakers, for instance, when you put in some firmer ones, you might tend to call the new ones "bright". However, some so-called experts in the audio field are often blessed with supernatural hearing that only they can hear! Accepting one person's opinions occurs at obvious risk. I changed my Paradigm Atom speakers and put in some used Triangle Titus 202's and noticed a clarity not seen with the Atoms. WE all have to be pretty careful with our declarations because we might also get fooled by somebody else's...most people who are around the audio field for a time usually realize that one needs to do ample research before making any sort of judgments.
Some people equate new with better. And, some people probably have lost certain portions of their hearing spectrum due to occupational exposure. This makes their judgments a bit more questionable, eh?