They are entirely different and they both serve useful purposes.
A conditioner makes certain the power is as clean as possible.
Power cords are shielded to reduce contamination of equipment that results from AC emissions.
Power cords or power conditioner
I’m at a cross roads and I’m looking for some advice from those have have gone down this road. I recently added a 2 channel integrated amplifier to improve my 2 channel performance. I had been using my Datasat LS-10 for music and while it sounded really nice, it was missing the depth and clarity that I know my speakers are capable of. My speakers are KEF Reference 3s, rest of my 2 channel set is is as follows:
Luxman L 509x
Luxman D-03x
Roon Nucleus Plus
Lumin U2 Mini
Transparent Audio Super speaker cables
Nordorst Red Dawn XLR, Blue Heaven USB
Wire World Platinum USB
All power cables are DYI using Oyaide Tsunami V2 cable
So what I feel I am missing is that 3D holographic sound stage. It was there with the Luxman 509 when I demo’d it, but I am unable to get that experience at my house. I feel that majority of equipment is up to the task but I am curious if I should ad a top shelf power condtioner like a Shunyata Triton or Torus AVR20 into the system or replace my Intergrated’s power cord with a Shunyata Alpha NC? I’m getting tapped out, so for now it can only be one or the other.
Or should I skip the above and focus on room treatments?
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@wheelndeal1099 I find it interesting that TheCableCo found Transparent speaker cables and Nordost USB interconnects (not familiar with Wireworld). I’ve demo’d Nordost USB cords before and found them to be quite neutral. Not a personal fan of Transparent speaker cables (I’ve tried them), but I can’t say they are bad. Just not my thing, in my system. But I can’t think of why that combo would elicit such a strong reaction from TheCableCo. Did they explain this at all? Anyone else have experience with this combo? What are they sending you? Hopefully you are trying a 1.5m or longer USB cord (as I mentioned I found 1m and in particular shorter than 1m cords compress the soundstage). |
@nyev I did't order a new USB cable. That one is going to have to wait. This is what was said to me regarding my signal cables. "My advice would be to bypass power cord auditions for now and try a loom of a brand that has a more balanced approach than the split personality you're running now. Nordost is all about speed, transparency and leading edge transients. Transparent blunts all of that, rounds off the edges and warms things up. However, these two together don't make anywhere near as balanced a whole as you might hope and I'd encourage you to consider listening to signal cables instead. You've got to get the signal side right before you start playing with the power side." I ended up ordering an Acoustic Zen Silver Reference II XLR, and Acoustic Zen Hologram II speaker cables- Bi-Wired. Nice thing with The Cable Company is if I don't like the sound, I can swap for something else. However I've read a lot of people say how well both Luxman and KEF sound with this combo. I'll soon find out. |
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