Let me enclose some additional information.
Criteria’s for cord selections are following:
1) Price range – cord should be available new(from dealer or manufacturer direct) for under $600
2) Cords should have generated a lot of interest ever on Audiogon or AudioAsylum, or should be one of the cords I/my friends, discovered and found to be an interesting value minded product.
People involved in auditioning are going to be me, my fiancé(who have much better hearing), occasionally Bill Brassington and Clement Perry as well as some other audiophile friends.
All cords will be broken in for 3 weeks using about 1800 watts of load.
Cord failing during break-in based on current delivery limitations or heating will be excluded from roundup.
Review methodology. We will start with a system connected with HT PRO 11 AC power cords and will be replacing cords initially on source components and later on the amps.
At the end we will put one cord on source component and 2 cords on the amps. No tested cords will be placed on power conditioning unit.
Listening impressions would be recorded and compared later. Then we will move on another brand of cords. Essentially all cords will be compared to HT cords first and 2-3 better cords for each component will be compared to each other. Main goal of this review is more to describe what effect and to what degree those cords are going to introduce to the system rather then try to determine “Ultimate Powercord”
Systems to be used:
Main Rig:
Meadowlark Ibis speakers with upgraded active x-over and external power supply
VPI TNT V turntable with JWM 12 and Spectral Reference cartridge.
Sonic Frontiers Phono One SE
Sonic Frontiers Line 3 SE
BAT VK 60 mono-blocks driving treble/midrange
Sunfire Signature driving woofers
Sony 777ES used mostly as transport
Altis Reference DAC with all the latest upgrades
Perpetual Technologies P1A upsampler.
The Ortho Spectrum Analogue Reconstructor.
Power Conditioning by the way of 4 RGPC, PS Audio 300,Shunyata Hydra and 2 Quantum Symphony.
Speaker Cables are Acoustic Zen Satori and Wireworld Silver Eclipse III
Interconnects are Acoustic Zen Silver Ref (RCA), Wireworld Gold Eclipse III (XLR) and Analysis Plus Silver (XLR).
Digital Cables are Acoustic Zen MC-“Squared” and Purist Audio Proteus.
Accessories: Vantage Point rack, modified Osiris Equipment Stands, BDR shelves and cones, Simposium Rollerblock 2 isolation devices.
Room has extensive acoustic treatment and 6 Argent Room Lenses.
Effect of the cords on low frequency will be tested in
Small Rig:
Aiwa XP 37 CD changer modified by Stan Warren as transport.(Excellent transport and 5 disk changer on top of it)
Sonic Frontier D2D upsampler
Kora Hermes DAC
Kora Ecilpse Preamp
Kora Cosmos Monoblocks
(You could learn more about them at www.kora.net)
SCE Harmonic Recovery System
Apogee Ribbon Monitors.
Wires by Analysis Plus Silver and Acoustic Zen Matrix Ref.
Power Conditioning - 2 RGPC
Leon Rivkin