Hours of Zoom later ...
In March I moved out of my Manhattan apartment to a friend’s in-law apartment on Long Island and took my Roon Nucleus and LS50w’s as my "pandemic" system. The Nucleus was connected to a Google WiFi endpoint via ethernet, as were the LS50w’s. All three were plugged into the wall using their stock cords, via a short multi-outlet extension cord. Bits were provided via mostly Hi-Rez files from a Samsung T5 SSD hooked by an AQ Carbon USB cable to the Nucleus, or occasionally Tidal HF.
After about 4-6 weeks of listening to the system, set-up in near field on a large desk that became my new office, I finally pulled out a pair of 6 ft. Signal Cable MagicPower Power Cords I had brought with me, but had not bothered to hook up, because I thought that even if they improved the sound, it would not be by much.
WRONG!!
I was flabbergasted and floored. The better power cables made an instant difference, easily heard. A clear reduction in noise floor, and increase in clarity and tonality. There was no need to replace the stock cables and go back and forth to know what was better.
Based on this finding, a few weeks later I returned to my Manhattan apartment and picked up my Core Power Technologies Equi=Core 1800 Balanced Power conditioner and plugged the three power cords into it. Once again, the sound was better, mostly in a lowering of the noise floor. Surprisingly though, the overall magnitude of the improvement was less than the replacement of the stock AC cords.
Lastly, I decided to replace the ethernet cables to and from the Google endpoint with CAT8 cables from Monoprice. I heard little to no improvement.
So, in my experience, upgrading the power cables on KEF LS50w’s makes a significant improvement. I think the improvements would have been even greater if I had used some of my AQ Hurricane or Shunyata Apha or Sigma NR cables. Conceptually, think of better AC cables extending out the beginning of your component, not as the last piece of wire in the hundreds of miles of wire from you power generation station.
I’m curious to hear what experience others who have changed the AC cables on their LS50w’s think. I don’t care what those who claim to "know" that it makes a difference, or that it doesn’t, if they haven’t done the experiment and have "data" (which is subjective in this case; but that is a lot better than no data-which leads to pure speculation and conjecture).
-docknow
PS-I think we all have a common love of music and want to experience it in our homes, as if we were seeing it live. We might differ in how we think we can get closer to that goal in a real world, cost effective manner, but keep in mind we are all trying to get to the same place.
PSS-Have a safe and happy holiday. The news on the vaccine front has been beyond expectations. We will be back to normal, mostly, by next summer. Just stay alive and healthy till then.
In March I moved out of my Manhattan apartment to a friend’s in-law apartment on Long Island and took my Roon Nucleus and LS50w’s as my "pandemic" system. The Nucleus was connected to a Google WiFi endpoint via ethernet, as were the LS50w’s. All three were plugged into the wall using their stock cords, via a short multi-outlet extension cord. Bits were provided via mostly Hi-Rez files from a Samsung T5 SSD hooked by an AQ Carbon USB cable to the Nucleus, or occasionally Tidal HF.
After about 4-6 weeks of listening to the system, set-up in near field on a large desk that became my new office, I finally pulled out a pair of 6 ft. Signal Cable MagicPower Power Cords I had brought with me, but had not bothered to hook up, because I thought that even if they improved the sound, it would not be by much.
WRONG!!
I was flabbergasted and floored. The better power cables made an instant difference, easily heard. A clear reduction in noise floor, and increase in clarity and tonality. There was no need to replace the stock cables and go back and forth to know what was better.
Based on this finding, a few weeks later I returned to my Manhattan apartment and picked up my Core Power Technologies Equi=Core 1800 Balanced Power conditioner and plugged the three power cords into it. Once again, the sound was better, mostly in a lowering of the noise floor. Surprisingly though, the overall magnitude of the improvement was less than the replacement of the stock AC cords.
Lastly, I decided to replace the ethernet cables to and from the Google endpoint with CAT8 cables from Monoprice. I heard little to no improvement.
So, in my experience, upgrading the power cables on KEF LS50w’s makes a significant improvement. I think the improvements would have been even greater if I had used some of my AQ Hurricane or Shunyata Apha or Sigma NR cables. Conceptually, think of better AC cables extending out the beginning of your component, not as the last piece of wire in the hundreds of miles of wire from you power generation station.
I’m curious to hear what experience others who have changed the AC cables on their LS50w’s think. I don’t care what those who claim to "know" that it makes a difference, or that it doesn’t, if they haven’t done the experiment and have "data" (which is subjective in this case; but that is a lot better than no data-which leads to pure speculation and conjecture).
-docknow
PS-I think we all have a common love of music and want to experience it in our homes, as if we were seeing it live. We might differ in how we think we can get closer to that goal in a real world, cost effective manner, but keep in mind we are all trying to get to the same place.
PSS-Have a safe and happy holiday. The news on the vaccine front has been beyond expectations. We will be back to normal, mostly, by next summer. Just stay alive and healthy till then.