David,
I've tried several power cords with my 301 and, for me, the cardas golden reference always comes out on top. You might talk to Steve at Great Northern Sound. Also, I had Steve mod my 301 and it took it to another level altogether. Next, I have run the 301 direct to my amps and also through my preamp (CJ 16LS2). The results were different, but I would not say one was better than the other. I found running the 301 through the preamp made it a little pretter and made the image a little more cohesive. I found running the 301 direct to be a little more detailed. I chose to run it through the preamp, but I know some people would prefer it direct and I could argue it either way. Play with the dip switches to find the gain you like with your system. You may like something other than neutral. Lastly, doing blind a/b testing (to the extent that we could) we found that there was a slight improvement by keeping the volume setting at 100 compared to settings below about 92 or so. However, the difference is slight in my system and I run it in the 70 to 90 range a lot. In other words, I found it more important to set the dip switch where I like it most of the time and if I'm listening to low volume I don't change the dip switch, I just lower the 301's volume. Hope any of that helps. Jeff
I've tried several power cords with my 301 and, for me, the cardas golden reference always comes out on top. You might talk to Steve at Great Northern Sound. Also, I had Steve mod my 301 and it took it to another level altogether. Next, I have run the 301 direct to my amps and also through my preamp (CJ 16LS2). The results were different, but I would not say one was better than the other. I found running the 301 through the preamp made it a little pretter and made the image a little more cohesive. I found running the 301 direct to be a little more detailed. I chose to run it through the preamp, but I know some people would prefer it direct and I could argue it either way. Play with the dip switches to find the gain you like with your system. You may like something other than neutral. Lastly, doing blind a/b testing (to the extent that we could) we found that there was a slight improvement by keeping the volume setting at 100 compared to settings below about 92 or so. However, the difference is slight in my system and I run it in the 70 to 90 range a lot. In other words, I found it more important to set the dip switch where I like it most of the time and if I'm listening to low volume I don't change the dip switch, I just lower the 301's volume. Hope any of that helps. Jeff