MY Sidewinder AC cord progress:

Interesting takes Carl, I was inclined to switch my cords around based on your reference MIT cord on your CD player. I had one on my Classe and a couple of Synergistic Master Couplers on my Meridian front end. I put the MIT on the transport and WOW!! I now have the SR Masters on my DAC and amp and the SR's improved the bass in the lower octaves tremendously. I think both components improved based on the switch but I don't know which had the biggest impact. I haven't done any crictical listening yet but when I made the switch I put on a Sheryl Crow disc to settle them in and didn't get up until it was finished! Good luck on your quest.

Romies, I'm glad you heard improvements after your experiment! I've got a Synergistic Reference Coupler on the way to try next, and hope to also try the Shunyata Cobra, and an ESP Essence........I've never had so much fun evaluating cables before, and never realized that AC cords make as much difference as the cables actually carrying the signal, but they sure do! Maybe a good analogy could be a car's engine, where the AC cord would be like the fuel line/fuel injection for the engine...since it would have total effect on the engine's performance. The interconnect and speaker cables would be the drivetrain, and the speakers would be the wheels/tires.

No doubt! It is amazing how much difference power cords make. I'll be real interested to hear what you think of the SR Reference - I hear it is a big improvement over the Master Couplers it's also twice as expensive. Hey, what's your final take on the MIT cord on your CD player? Is it a keeper or what. Later.

So far, it's a keeper, yes. I bought it, and have had it six months.

Treble was very extended, and detail retrieval was very good. Low level details from the presence region, and upward, were quite amazing. However, some of the "analog ease" quality that the reverse cord combo had, was missing. The upper mids could be very slightly "hard" on rare occasions. Another strange tonality was that occasionally, the "chest range" of both male and female vocalists could turn overripe. But the biggest problem was the lack of ryhthmic drive and pace, especially when compared to any combo that included the Shunyata Sidewinder cord (although it kind of exagerrated pace). And compared to most of the other cord combos, the images of instruments did lack solidity. The treble could almost be "wispy", but was very liquid. Stage depth was good (but ultimately U-shaped), and fatigue factor was very low. Layering of depth, especially in the treble, was intoxicating (the U-shape notwithstanding). My attention kept being drawn to instruments whose range occupied it, and away from the instruments in the rest of the range. Stage width was slightly beyond "average". The air between/around instruments was very clear, and the background was kind of medium black. Attack transients were only slightly hyped, and midrange timbre was almost too transparent; or at least not "juicy" enough, lacking warmth and tonal color...but wasn't really cold either. Bass was very extended with good weight, but lacked focus; had a good "round" quality, though. And yet somehow, I COULD CRANK THE VOLUME TO ELEVEN, and wasn't overly bothered by the problem with the lack of pace. It was there in abundance, but it didn't scream at me...kind of a sin of omission. Tonally, overall the presentation was strangely reminiscent of my Sennheiser HD-600 headphones (except for the bottom octave, of course).................About the U-shaped soundstage: I noticed it the most on the RCA UV-22 remastered Rimsky-Korsakov "Scherazade" gold CD, Fritz Reiner conductor. I realize the Chicago concert hall was wide and shallow, but somehow the Proteus/Black Mamba combo missed what little depth there was in the back corners. I freely admit that the ac cords don't deserve 100% of the blame here, but....while listening to this CD, I was nowhere close to believing I was back in that 1960 concert hall, especially during "The Young Prince and Princess"........My quest continues.