Is this a joke? The best $40 I ever spent on audio was on three remastered Van Halen CDs. Who would've thought that the quality of the recording mattered more than the equipment?
Hehe...I'm just playing with you.
Hehe...I'm just playing with you.
Absolute Power Cord does the trick
OK, time for some details about this cable. It is 8ft length only, 14awg and looks like a cheap heavy duty extension cord you get at the hardware store, even comes tied in the center like an extension cord, looks like a $39 cable. Looks can be deceiving however. You discover right away the molded female IEC is high quality as it grips much tighter than cords that come stock. Like all cables burn-in is required, at first sounding slightly bright and grainy. After 3-4 days sound blossoms, providing smooth, detailed sound, quite natural sounding which is amazing for a cable at this price level. How good is it? I feel it is an exaggeration to say it equals the $1-2,000 cables, but it is very good. I would say it sounds as good as the best cables in the $250-500 range, quite an acheivement. To me clearly better than say a HT ProAC11, and close to equaling the excellent Shunyata Sidewinder at fraction of the cost. As with any cable some will like it and some won't depending on your system and musical taste. My system can be viewed in virtual systems under "musical fidelity nirvana" In summary we should thank member KrJr for bringing this excellent bargain to our attention, I can second his recommendation, and urge other members to give them a try for $39 each, add currently listed under cables/power in the dealer section, GTT Audio. It is refreshing to get good performance at a very reasonable price in this often overpriced area of product. |
The only other good deal in power cords I know of are on eBay. The MAS Power Master (+/- $50) and the Audio One Reference Power Cord (+/- $75) made by Stu Wein at [email protected] --- They can also be purchase directly from Stu. |
Mike Vansevers admits on his web site he does not use the best materials (ie, most expensive) available for his power cords. He uses the materials that sound the best after extensive listening. Maybe the reason these Absolute cords are so good and so cheap is one of those accidents of history. Giant killers and near giant killers are not made, they are born. |
Thanks megasam for being more articulate than me. I have only one other after market power cord to compare this one to. After experimenting, I've kept the other cord on the CD player as its a bit... sweeter (is it the wattgate plugs)? I ended up using this absolute cord on the pre-amp for best use in my system. Going from stock cords to this was a big jump, cleaned up the hash, darkened the background -- what the heck else is a pc supposed to do? To the trigger happy posters, go listen to your van halen. |
This was easily the best $40 I have ever spent on an audio product. It has been implied on another thread that hospital grade power cords are all the same. Does anyone have any personal experience that can comment on this assertion? I would assume if this were true there would not be a very big market for more expensive cords. I am really looking forward to my next listening session. God bless. |
Sam describes the cords as being 8 ft. in length while Estrnad's ad for them says 6 ft. long. Then someone else states that the current "production" cord no longer has the "green dot" hospital grade wall plug on it ? On top of this, the price has now gone up $10. I would LOVE to hear from someone that gets their cord early next week or has just gotten one to confirm what the "straight dope" is. Sean > |