Looking for the Best Digital Power Cord
@mountz Here's a great effort and overview of a number of power cables. From Jay Luong // Audio Bacon: https://audiobacon.net/2019/08/17/27-audiophile-power-cables-reviewed/ |
After carefully looking through the the responses I decided to give Pete with Triode a shot. I just ordered the dig Amer. So far he has been a pleasure to work with and quite informative. I will be sure to reply back when I have had a chance to audition his work, thanks to all that had input! Happy holidays! |
You could also consider putting a Shakti Online stabilizer on a power cord or speaker cable to remove noise. I’ve done it for years on the top-of-the-line Shunyata (Constellation series, up to the ZiTrons) , Nordost (Valhalla, Tyr, Frey, all of which I’ve owned for at least 2 years, so I had sufficient time to hear them in my two systems, not just in stores, where setups are usually less than perfect (too much equipment in one room, power cords touching interconnects and not at right angles, etc.), and - no matter what the manufacturer said - it reduced the grain that manifests as a slight noise, making violins’ horsehair sound grittier than it does in real life, and filling spaces between musicians sitting next to each other with a very fine "fuzz" (if you have a system that actually separates out individual musicians in a section (mine does)). That also affects the sense of how illuminated the stage is, so that the back of the stage is as transparent as the front (meaning, you hear harmonic information, just as you do in some concert halls (mostly Carnegie, the one I attend the most). I was surprised at how effective Shakti devices were. I had Shakti Stones as early as 1988, but was not as experienced a listener as I am now (plus my setup was nowhere near as precise as it is now). They do quite a good job on even the "super" cables. I doubt Shunyata (or even Nordost) would approve, but as a trained listener, I can easily hear more harmonic information when they are in the system. And the experiments are completely repeatable over the course of years, so given my hearing is LESS good now than it was, I would expect to lose the ablity to hear overtones as easily, yet I still hear them quite well. I can also tell when a stabilizer has fallen off the top of a speaker cable (there's just less "jump" to the music, and a reduction of spaciousness - which means more noise in the system). But then, I’m only listening to well-recorded music, mostly - but not confined to - classical, jazz (from the 50s, not the ’70s when there were too many mikes being used) and ’50s singers (easiest way to hear the improvements). I'm not listening to pop records as often to make my assessments. Just easier to listen to Ella or Frank or Sarah and know there's only one microphone (or two) being used in the recording session. Too many mikes spoil the soup! :-) |
mountz, it’s just my experience (not merely my opinion), but having too many different manufacturer’s cables in the system is not, perhaps, the best idea. Since manufacturers have different goals for their cables, the end effect is not very uniform. For example, I’ve mixed Transparent’s Reference speaker cable with Shunyata’s power cords - and that sounds fine. But if I put in a Shunyata interconnect? Not as harmonious an effect, and noticeably more "colored" in the sound coming out the speakers. And I’d avoid altogether putting Nordost and Transparent in the same system. I see people all the time on here saying, "I need a cable with ’better bass’." They’re using the cables as tone controls for what they don’t have (either the component or some other power cord/interconnect/speaker cable). Frankly, that’s a recipe for confusion, and, if you’ll notice, the REALLY professional reviewers almost NEVER have two or three different manufacturer’s cables in the same system. I’m not saying this as a criticism of your system itself, but the mixing and matching approach has rarely yielded the highest results in a system. Nordost, for example, is just a bit lightweight in the bass (all the way up to the Valhalla!), so if you wanted more midbass, you might install a Shunyata or a Transparent cable. HOWEVER, Transparent’s (older cables, anyway) lop off the highest frequencies, and while they give music weight and "majesty," they then revealed a certain lack of rhythm, if you then listened to Brazilian music, or even funk, both of which are groove-oriented musical genres. Oh, it’ll sound "good enough" - until you put in another Nordost, say, a Frey interconnect/power cable, and then the sound coheres much more noticeably. It’s hard to know this until you fit the system with a full "loom" and listen. And then later, if you can, THEN you substitute another manufacturer’s cable into the system (after listening for weeks, NOT hours) and you’ll hear the difference right away. Just the voice of experience here. |
