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Power Cord with great tone

Category: Cables

I am on a look out for a power cord which I would like to hook up on my Transport. Basically my aim is to buy the best possible power cord I can afford and place it right at the beginning of the chain so as to maximize its effect.

My chain is pretty neutral and typically the fine tuning I do at the source level finally turns out to be the flavor of the system. To this effect I want to give the best possible power cord to my source (starting with the transport).

In my priority list, the very first attribute is TONE. I am looking for a power cord with the most realistic tone. I am not really looking for a coloration here but something which does super tone in terms of realism. Vocals should sound almost in flesh and blood.

The second on my list would a quiet background without eating into the micro details. I have noticed that there is a thin line between quietness and loss of micro details. Putting it on transport I cannot afford to lose details.

The third attribute (if I can choose) would be airy and coherent soundstage.

My transport is a modded TEAC VRDS10. AFAIK it has the ability to deliver all these attributes in spades but needs suitable cabling.

My budget is $1000 max. I would look at used market in general.

My shortlists are:
- Transparent Powerlink MM
- Purist Audio Aqueous, Dominus or the 20th anniversary which ever is available in my budget

Both these cords I have shortlisted purely based on user comments. I do not have the luxury of listening to them since I stay at India where there is no "Cable Company".
I am expecting you guys to help me out here by describing your experiences with these cords so that I can take a call.

In case you would like to add to this shortlist, please feel free to do so. BTW, in the past I have heard a Yamamura Millennium 5000 power cord and with my transport it was stunning. It did everything I have on my list of priorities in the that order but unfortunately the company is no more and the cords are very rare on the used market.

Please do comment.
pani

Showing 4 responses by pani

pani OP
1,212 posts
 
Tvad, Macdadtexas, first off, apologies if I could not communicate my thoughts well. I would try to elaborate a little more:
My source is a TEAC VRDS10 + Reimyo DAP777 (TEAC is the transport)
Amplification : Symphonic line (Preamp is vacuum tube)
Speakers : ATC SCM40

The system already has plenty of all the things I have asked for (Great tone, airy stage etc) and I know they are capable of even more. Now it comes down to some fine tuning with cables. My IC and Speaker cables are doing extremely well. I am now looking at power cords.

In general I have found power cords to have equal or more effect as ICs and speaker cable to the final sound. Especially at the source. Now, every power cord is ought to bring in some characteristics to the sound. Hence, for me the characteristics I am looking at are as described in my post. First off, tonally they should do really well. I have heard many power cords which can swing the tones in a relatively less natural direction (just like ICs).
Power cords enhancing the staging and air in the presentation is also not uncommon. So on and so forth.

Hope I am a bit more clear.
I suppose the power cords I have mentioned in my first post is pretty popular, hence an opinion would really help.
pani OP
1,212 posts
 
Thanks for all your responses guys. I am now spending the money to buy an AC regenerator from Monarchy Audio. I heard it at a friend's place it was a super product. The performance improvement was just unbelievable so I made up my mind to first buy one of these and then look at power cords.
pani OP
1,212 posts
 
Mapman, in my observation, power cords especially on source has the highest impact on every aspect of sound compared to any other cables in the chain. I am not talking about entry level sources like the NAD, CA, Marantz stuff here. They do not carry signal but they affect the way the signal is generated, which is a more fundamental aspect than carrying a signal. I have had in the past many power cords, all of them being tried on my Reimyo DAC and the results were worlds apart from one cord to another...it was not splitting hairs, it was like even my mom in the other room could hear it. The tones went from being extremely bright to extremely dull with one change of power cord that too on just the DAC. There are many articles on the net on why a power cord makes so much of a difference, however I just go by my ears and always suggest the same to fellow audiophiles.
pani OP
1,212 posts
 
Hello Mapman and others, I suppose it is a common sense that tone is a function of the device being powered and not the power cord itself. It is just audiophile language that we keep using (abusing?) to describe things. Having said all that there is still a way to describe the characteristics of a cable, in this case a power cord. For example a VHAudio Flavor4 power cord clearly sounds forward with a big bold tonal presentation. Put it anywhere in the chain and you are most likely to hear this effect. Similarly I can describe quite a few power cord's sonic character in general. Thats exactly I expected when I wrote the title of this thread.
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