Weirdness, solved.

[Pete The Cat]

So the thing to take away from this post is... anything can be the cause of the problem, and don't discount something because you imagine it should make no difference.

So true. When dealing with a problem I've found that my impatience or thinking that I know best has sent me down blind alleys in the past and I've had carpet burn from crawling round on all fours repeatedly moving/plugging/unplugging stuff. It's always worth starting with 'what did I change and when'.

[Filterlab]

I'm becoming confused: the faulty cables (those with the clear plastic sheathing) are only four weeks old, and you assembled them with the Nakamichi plugs yourself. When did you notice the problem, as soon as you used them, or later?

The 'weirdness' may have been solved, but not explained.

I noticed it a couple of days after I put them in when watching a series. I hadn't done any listening up to that point as I was up to my neck in DIY. Obviously I'd checked that the system played ok, but then not used it.

It slipped my mind completely that I'd changed the cables.

Upon putting the tour grade cables back in (using the same fanlock plugs I might add) the problems were instantly resolved. As they're a bit short, I have new cable coming in so I'll swap the shorts for the longs.

It is odd, but all I can surmise is that my system doesn't like the domestic variant of that cable. It works exceptionally well now so I'll stick with the tour grade.

And who, really, can ever fully explain hifi? What 'should work' or 'shouldn't make a difference' sometimes doesn't and does.

[Filterlab]

So true. When dealing with a problem I've found that my impatience or thinking that I know best has sent me down blind alleys in the past and I've had carpet burn from crawling round on all fours repeatedly moving/plugging/unplugging stuff. It's always worth starting with 'what did I change and when'.

Indeed, and that's exactly what I didn't do!

[Macca]

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In the loft I went, found the tour grade cables, and swapped them over. Before doing any listening, I went into the DAC's ferociously deep and complex menu, and zeroed absolutely everything - flat as a pancake, as it should be.
.

Maybe if you left the DAC as it was configured previously it would have sounded the same (i.e bad) when you swapped to the new cables? I think it more likely that some setting you changed in the DAC was responsible, rather than the cables. You could check that by leaving the DAC settings as it is now and just swapping back to the other cables - if you can be arsed!

[Filterlab]

Maybe if you left the DAC as it was configured previously it would have sounded the same (i.e bad) when you swapped to the new cables? I think it more likely that some setting you changed in the DAC was responsible, rather than the cables. You could check that by leaving the DAC settings as it is now and just swapping back to the other cables - if you can be arsed!

Given the amount of adjustment I'd tried to make, it would have been terrible. But I was trying to offset the mess with the parametric EQ, and that had been applied over several rectification sessions.

The DAC was originally flat when the new cables went in. I've rarely used the parametric EQ for my main system, aside from a tweak or two with various set ups. I ensured it was set to flat with the newer cables in, but it sounded atrocious. The parametric adjustments were made subsequently.

It's now flat again with the tour grade cables and all is well - no adjustment needed.

It is an odd one, but I won't use the newer cables again in this system, there's no point in messing around with them now as the moment they came out all was rectified.