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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
dwcda OP
116 posts
 

So mclinnguy came over with his cables so we could experiment and see what differences we could hear. Initially we listened to the system as it was, Mogami 3104 speaker wires, Mogami 2549 XLR cables & Powerline 10 awg power cords with Furutech FI-11 Cu connectors (referred to as stock cables previously in this thread). I played some of my favorite songs & some songs that mclinnguy wanted to hear. I repeated them as necessary until  he was ready to swap cables. 

We started by  using the Puritan conditioner  and connecting the amp/preamp/Lumin to that. Then we played the same music. Neither of us could hear any difference

We swapped speaker cables. No difference.

Then we swapped power cords & the XLR between the pre & Lumin. Both of us could hear a slight difference.  A little more & fuller treble & mids. mclinnguy thought there was more difference than I could hear. I suggested that he let me swap some stuff blind and he could tell me what he thought & he said "I know, you're  one of those guys". We had a brief discussion about the value of not letting your brain override or determine what your ears are hearing but in the end I didn't push it & we swapped back to my cables. The change was not significant but there was a slight noticeable change.

The bit with the sub was more of me being a dick than anything. mclinnguy felt that the sub was loud so  I used the app & said ok, better? He said yup and I told him that I hadn't  changed the sub. It's not like he gave it a lot of thought. The only reason I did that was to try to make the point  that your  brain will tell your ears what they're hearing & by  thinking I'd adjusted the sub he believed the music sounded better.

Overall the most noticeable change (for me) was the swapping of the amp. But a lot of the difference was because it was much louder at the set volume of my preamp. So it was difficult to tell  if the amps sounded that different or if increased volume made it seem so. But his amp did sound good, for a fraction  of the price of mine.

It's my honest opinion that if he & I were to hear the system with his cables & my cables and we didn't know which was which neither of us could reliably choose either set of cables as "better". But I also believe that it's possible that different cables could sound better, I just don't think that the brain can store a sample and compare it to another sample reliably 5 minutes later. When I adjusted the sub the effect was immediate & we could both tell that something had changed.

 

mihorn
508 posts
 

One needs a clean sound audio system to hear the cable sound difference. All your systems sound un-natural (with noises) like a left speaker in below video. The much important sounds are masked by the glare and veils which makes hard to see/hear the music.

Below is a live recording of my system which is cleanest sound. Hear my system at THE Show 2024, OC. Costa Mesa audio show (my rm #272) on June 7-9. Alex/WTA

roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,982 posts
 

That's a funny title "To You Who Don't Love Me" instead of doesn't.

On a different subject, I'm really glad that the moderators moved that "What happened to us" thread. 

Post removed 
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,925 posts
 

@dwcda nice! Thanks for the update.
So the most surprising first - you couldn’t tell that the Puritan was in your system. That’s a 180 degrees from my experience with it. Is it the PSM156?
In my system with PSM156, using 3 different power cables feeding it, it restricted dynamics, sweetened and mellowed out the presentation to the degree I couldn’t live with it. I tried their Ultimate cable and didn’t like it - brittle up top, thinner sounding although with higher res than the Classic. Running amps into Puritan was garbage. Even the dac and preamp sounded pinched. I’m exaggerating for illustration purposes but you get the idea. I sold it and don’t miss it one bit. Direct on dedicated line now. Some people love this power conditioner, I didn’t.

Second part…the loud sub. That’s potentially the culprit. Bass that’s overpowering is going to overwhelm the entire presentation. I would be testing every change in the system with the sub off. But it’s your system you do what you like. However, like I said, sub will null subtle changes. You’re going to probably tell me I’m looking for way to justify hearing the change but that’s how it is.

The fact that both of you heard power cables make a difference is cool. And that again comes down to the degree of improvement, if any. Is it worth it to you? Going back to original configuration, you would know if you can’t live without that cable you just heard. If this feeling isn’t there, move on.

That’s my take on it. And I’m looking to hear @mclinnguy thoughts on what he heard.

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