One Cord To Rule Them All

Color me jealous. I am on the Left Coast, People's Republic of Washington. But we run a safe house here, you are welcome any time.

koestner-

The candidates I have so far are: Pangea AC-9 SE Mk ll, Audio Envy Ocean 3, or a PS Audio AC10 (used for about $300). Any thoughts? 

I think nobody answered your question. The way to choose between these (or any) power cords (or anything else for that matter) is to read listener impressions and select the one you think is the best match with your personal preferences. 

So if you prioritize air and extension choose the one people say has air and extension. If you prize imaging go for the one with a deep and wide sound stage. Or if you want great bass, etc. 

This is what you do because contrary to conventional wisdom power cords (or anything else for that matter) do not "match" with other components. They work and sound just the same no matter what they are used with.  

I have one right now, a guy sent me to evaluate. It has really outstandingly good image focus, palpable presence and detail, quite good midrange, a lot of top end extension (a little too much, tipped up) and weak bass. When I told him this I was a little surprised to hear him say his focus with building this was really good imaging.  

So he knew it had good imaging. From listening to it with his system. Which is entirely different than mine. So these things do perform the same regardless of where they are used. No amount of repeating the same false contrary opinion will ever change this simple fact. 

This works because the idea that nothing upstream of a power supply matters is bunk. Clearly, obviously, bunk. The power supply in virtually every component out there, virtually every component ever made, consists primarily of some caps and diodes. The diodes convert AC to DC and the caps store the DC. The idea being the caps store so much power they can never be drained and so will provide an absolutely perfectly stable and steady source of power. 

This never happens. Oh, it gets pretty close. It is real easy to measure and say it varies by only some microscopically tiny amount. Problem is, virtually all our sense of exactly what and where something is comes from the most delicate fine details. Such fine detail is easily lost. 

This is why no matter how big or great or fine the power supply caps, the difference in diodes is easy to hear. Super easy. Freaking obvious! First electrical mod I ever did, $8 for diodes, blew me away!  

Power cords are no different. Power supply caps don't result in perfect power, so we can hear diode changes- and also power cord changes, power conditioner changes, AC outlet changes, AC wiring changes, breaker panel changes, on and on. 

This is by now so obvious and well known there really are only two kinds of people who still waste time arguing about it: those who haven't bothered to try and actually hear, and those who have but did so with either crap systems or crap comparisons. 

I have seen examples of both. So I don't even have to resort to the third alternative, that people can't hear. Everyone in my experience can hear. Have yet to find the exception. They sure do in my system, which is so fantastically resolving you have to hear it to believe it. And they do with my comparisons, because I know from experience which are easy for anyone to hear and which are close enough to call for my skill level to discern. The way I do A/B it is simply not a problem.  

Come and listen. You will see. 

lostinseattle

@millercarbonFollowing your logic, perhaps the OP should buy another regenerator to deliver power to his other regenerator.  Heck, maybe shove a third one in there, just to be safe.

Logic is right. Rock solid air tight logic. Which raises the question, where in any of it does it say to spend 3X repetitively like that?  

If you really are in Seattle, and can find your way over to the Eastside, you are welcome to come and experience for yourself just how far a high end audio system can go. Come and hear for yourself. Any time. 

Right. It does help to understand where people are coming from. It also helps to try and understand what the heck they are saying. Lost wrote a long one, that someone thinks is good, in spite of the fact the whole thing has already been answered. The conclusion:

I still don’t see how an expensive power cable is going to make any difference to what comes out of a well-designed, high end power regenerator like the PS Audio.

Was answered back on page one of this thread:

Because nothing ever is perfect. Obviously. So no matter how good a conditioner, regenerator, or power supply, until and unless it is perfect then it will always matter what is done upstream.

The power cord coming into the regenerator will matter for the simple reason the regenerator converts the AC to DC and back to AC in real time. As long as it works this way then there will always be some ripple or artifact from the original power source. The only way to avoid this is to use AC to charge a battery, disconnect the battery from AC, and run the system off battery power.

Anything else, any scheme whatsoever that relies on the unit remaining connected to AC will always inevitably pass some amount of that AC variance on to its output.

I won’t spell it out because it does no good. People either understand plain English or they do not. This happens because no power supply regenerator or otherwise is perfect.

Sad, but true.

Credentialism is bunk.

All a degree means is you know all the same stuff everyone else with the same degree knows. So you can build the same bridge, or the same circuit, everyone else with the same degree can build. Instead of Smurf Level 4 you are Smurf Level 3. Big whoop.

People like Caelin, Ted, Eric, Krissy, Max, are not Smurf Level anything. They are doing stuff no one has ever done before. Since no one has ever done it then of course there’s no one to teach you how to do it. You just have to learn by doing.

There was a saying back in the day, "Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach." So true. What it means, those with credentials learned from those who don’t actually know how to do anything. Something to ponder next time someone flaunts their credentials.

Interesting article. Caelin Gabriel moved out here to Bremerton back in the 90's to be near my great mentor Stewart Marcantoni who played a key role in helping launch Shunyata. Caelin even came over one night and did a demo of some of his new Powersnakes for a bunch of us. His Cobra is still on my Melody. 

His comments about diodes and their switching noise is insightful and mirrors what I have been saying for a very long time now, diodes are really important and contribute (or detract!) a lot to sound quality. The idea of the power cord as an extension of the power transformer and power supply is the kind of thing that happens when you devote whole decades of your life to something.

What does it matter? That is the 64 thousand dollar question.

Let me ask you this, what does it matter which diode is used? The diode comes before the power supply filter caps. All the power used comes from the caps. So what does it matter what diodes are used?

It matters, a lot! But why? Because nothing ever is perfect. Obviously. So no matter how good a conditioner, regenerator, or power supply, until and unless it is perfect then it will always matter what is done upstream.

I have used things all the way out at my utility meter, and heard just as much improvement as when used in the panel, where the improvement is just as much as when used directly under a component. There are a few places that matter more, but a girl has to keep some mystery about her or the guys lose interest.

I think no way you use 600 watts other than maybe for a fraction of a second if you turn everything on all at once. 

A used Synergistic Research Master Coupler is right in your budget range. Big, bold, detailed and very well balanced. There's a reason they sell used for about what they went for new 30 years ago.