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.
I would say if you can't hear a difference without straining or having to swap multiple times - then the utility of change is marginal. Why spend an absurd amount of money when it's not going to improve your listening experience? Why even pursue the dealer coming over? Even if he does hear a difference - it should not make a difference for you and your listening endeavors.
Just send it back. It's not worth the aggravation or cost.
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I’m always amazed at how emotional these discussions become. This seems simple. If you don’t hear a difference, be happy that spending the money is unnecessary for your experience. Trust what you hear. I don’t understand why that would be upsetting to someone who has a different experience or vice versa. spend your money on something that does make a difference. This doesn’t seem difficult. My experience with trying different power cords, speaker, cables, etc., in my system is that the differences are discernible, but subtle, certainly nowhere near 50%. But if somebody else has a different experience either way then so be it. |
@lordrootman +1! The OP was brave to post his results here because they are upsetting to those so invested emotionally and monetarily in their gear! |
So he can’t hear the difference. Fine, he saved himself some money. Untrained people that don’t know what to listen for are useless to evaluate high end stereos. My daughter says her iPhone sounds as good as my system… I have Dragon HC, Cerious Matrix, Snake River Signature, SR Master Coupler and generic cords. All sound different in the amount of detail, bass, mid, high frequency they provide.
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