ABX testing with AQ Dragon power cords


I was talking to my dealer about how good the system sounds that he sold me. I mentioned that I had tried some new speaker/interconnect cables from a local amp/cable manufacturer & both I and the company boss agreed that there was little discernible sound difference between his cables & mine. He couldn’t understand why. He also told me that my room acoustics were amazing, top notch. He’d like me to bring my cables (& his) to his listening room & we’ll compare there. That’s for next week.

My dealer said that in his 40 years this has never happened & he was ready to rise to the challenge. He said he would send me a couple of AQ Hurricane power cords to try on my amp/pre and I’d be amazed. I said why bother, send some Dragons. He told me to connect them to my amp & preamp & I should be amazed within 10 seconds of comparing. Today I received a Dragon HC & Source power cord. I listened to some music I’m very familiar with through my Lumin T3 playing FLAC files from the attached USB. Then I swapped the amp & pre to the Dragons and listened to the same songs. No difference that I could tell. So I redid the test, one song at a time, switching back & forth. Still no difference.

I invited two neighbors over (separately) and asked them to look at my FLAC library & choose a song that they knew well. I played that for them with both sets of power cords. One said he couldn’t hear any difference between the two. The other said that one (mine) sounded like it had slightly more treble, the other (Dragon) sounded like more bass. I played a third version (turned out it was mine but he didn’t know) and he said that was the bass version. He was wrong & admitted that the differences were so small that he really couldn’t choose between the two.

I called my dealer & he asked if the difference was earth shattering. I told him no & he asked how that was possible when he just sent similar cables to another customer last week with a similarly priced system as mine & that guy said that the SQ improved 50% and was ecstatic. I said that that guy must have decided already that he was going to buy them and determined that for that money they must improve the sound. My dealer said that either my ears are those a near dead 95 year old or his last 40 years experience have been a sham. I suggested that he was selling & demoing a product to people that had a propensity to believe it worked & therefore it worked for them. I offered to have him drive here (4 hour drive) and listen for himself & I’ll swap cables while his mind is blown. We may get there yet.

I hesitate to post a photo of my listening room as experience tells me that those that are strong proponents of cables will pick it apart and blame a myriad of other crap  rather than recognizing that the 3 of us heard no difference on a high resolving system situated in a room would good acoustics... but here goes.

 

McIntosh MC462/C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Gold Note PH-10/PSU-10 phono stage, Lumin T3/Sbooster, Sonus Faber Amati G5 speakers, Sonus Faber Gravis V sub.

dwcda

I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. 

I never heard the AQ Dragon but the Thunder, Tornado and Hurricane all made my system sound less coherent, with fatter bottom end and congestion in the soundstage. I have no AQ power cables now although I use AQ Diamond USB cable that I like between my streamer and DAC. 
 

If you can’t hear the difference, then you can’t hear the difference. Inviting non audiophile neighbors to assess the changes in sound of a system they are not familiar with and aren’t even trained to hear differences or be able to assess things like imaging and soundstaging is a completely useless endeavor. 
 

 

AQ Dragon is the top of the line power cord from Audioquest. My neighbors both have ears, 2 channel systems of their own and have spent time in my house listening to my gear. But you're right, they didn't show me their "audiophile" credentials.

 

@dwcda I’m going to let the sarcasm in your response slide. 
I’m well aware of what the AQ Dragons are. I also remember your adventure with a $80,000 Transparent cables where you also heard absolutely no difference.

 

So here’s my take on it…you either can’t hear the difference, which is totally fine…not everyone can, or this is a 🐂 💩 story. Cause it reads like one. With your neighbors helping you discern the difference between generic power cord and AQ Dragon. Lots of noise in these posts. So personally, I’m gonna call 🐂 💩 

 

"I called my dealer & he asked if the difference was earth shattering. I told him no & he asked how that was possible when he just sent similar cables to another customer last week with a similarly priced system as mine & that guy said that the SQ improved 50% and was ecstatic"

The fact that your dealer stands behind another customer who states his system improved 50% because of the addition of a power cord....leads me to believe that the customer and the dealer are full of crap.

Power cords certainly can make a difference..but the notion that it will make your system 50% better is laughable.