Mad Scientist "NEO" Power Cord Review


Review: June 2014

Topic: The Mad Scientist “NEO” Power cord from New Zealand.

I must start off by saying that I was one of the original skeptics about power cords improving Audio quality. The first power cord that changed my mind was the Synergistic Research Master Coupler. Back in the day I think they sold for about $150 but once I inserted it into my system, the bass was much stronger and I was a believer.

So through the years I spent a lot of time and money getting the power cords that seemed to grab reviewer’s attention. That list includes, top of the line products from Purist, Virtual Dynamics, Nordost, and Synergistic Apex power cables. I borrowed many more to try from the Cable Company.

Well, one day on Audiogon a thread appeared about HiDiamond power cables and the comparison to most of the cables that I had owned. I ordered a few HiDiamond P3 power cords (which were less than half the cost of my current cables ) and to my amazement they did in fact better my high cost Synergistic Apex cables with all the active shielding modules and such. One by one I replaced the Synergistic with the HiDiamond P3’s. Then a few months later HiDiamond introduced the P4’s. Now these were much pricier than the P3’s. But, eventually I accumulated 6 of the P4’s and defended these to all that these power cables are the best ever made.

A few months back I found a thread on Audio Asylum about a New Zealand company (Mad Scientist) that was sending out free samples of some little discs that when placed atop of cables were to improve the sound quality. The tweaker that I am, I had to try them. So, that I could get an ample supply to try them at several places I had my wife and daughter order some of the free samples also. Well the Mad Scientist noticed that the same address with different names was getting extra free samples. I fessed up to my little scheme, and was sort of embarrassed.

Anyway, The Mad Scientist later came out with a new power cord, the “NEO”. This cord appeared to have some actual technology involved other than just a different type of wire or braiding techniques, shielding, connectors etc that ever other Cable manufacture claims is what makes theirs superior to others.

No, the Mad Scientist NEO Power cord design goes beyond just wires and uses some proprietary black sticks, and bell shaped things woven in and out of the AC wiring. I ordered up one of the NEO power cords with upgraded AC / IEC ends and 11 gauge wires.
Surprisingly, though New Zealand is on the other side of the world I received them in a matter of days.

I was in the process of remodeling my Audio room and placed the NEO power cord on my Audiodharma cable cooker for about a week. Once my room was finished I remembered that I still had the NEO on my cooker.

Well folks, I first placed this Mad Scientists NEO Power cord on my Pass Labs X350.5 amp (which replaced a HiDiamond P4 Power cord). To my surprise, immediately, there was a marked improvement in bass, bass quality and definition. The midrange showed that special quality that brought the magic of the recording into my room. This is my belief that the improved tonal quality accompanied by a very large soundstage was of such high quality that when compared to the HiDiamond P4 power cord, it made the HiDiamond sound, well, HIFI!

Now, the HiDiamond P4 power cord had beaten all other power cords in my 15+ year journey through the power cord jungle.

So here is a power cord that looks sort of homemade and costs 1/5 of the HiDiamond P4 and was making my system sound way more real sounding. I’ve heard people use the word “organic” to describe sound quality and never really knew what that meant. But organic or “realganic” is correct for the sound of the new Mad Scientist NEO power cord.

I then tried it replacing the HIDiamond P4’s power cord that was on my Pass Labs Preamp XP-10 and later on my BSG QOL. In both places, the sound improved to quite a large extent with the Mad Scientist product. I then ordered 3 more of these Mad Scientists cords. Each and every place, be it digital, analog, power conditioner, power amp the change in sound quality improved.

I just received the newly designed Dac from PS Audio, called the “Direct Stream”. Placing this New Zealand power cord from the Mad Scientist on it made an already fantastic sounding Dac into extra ordinary.

I have no financial interest in this company. I paid the price for all of the power cords. The newly designed power cords with 11 gauge wire sells for less than $500 with the better quality AC ends(a must). But consider how much all of the other power cords that I have mentioned in this review cost and you can see how great of a deal these cords are.

They don’t look pretty. They have a cotton outer covering and several shrink wrapped bulges at the end that is holding in the black sticks, magnets, copper plates and the power kegs.

But boy, is it one great power cord.
128x128ozzy
Lancelock, Sorry, I didn't notice your post until today. Yes, I still think the Neo cord is still the best on that Dac.
I'm still comparing, my system has been down for several weeks for remodeling.
I just got it back together.
Thank you Ozzie. I would be interested in knowing if there is an appreciable difference with the OCC.
I just tried the NEO on my new 85" 4K Samsung LED and WOW, what an improvement! The video quality is so good that I can see the spinach in Meagan's teeth!

Previous to the NEO power cord I thought my HiDiamond P4 was the best.

So not only is the NEO less expensive than my many other power cords and performs great for Audio but its also awesome on Video!
Ozzy, Just curious, do you get any kind of discount on the cable for writing the positive review?
Lula, I know I promised my opinion about the OCC.
The new OCC version is said to be made with purer wire and heavier gage. So, I just plugged them in and just forgot about them. Common sense would seem to indicate they must be better. What I need to do is to take them out and replace with the other versions. I had a real rough time lately and I am just now recovering from a bad experience. I'll get to it soon I promise.

Geoffkait, Actually no. When I bought 3 at once I did get a quantity discount that most of us would expect. But the price listed on the web site is really not that much to have to negotiate. I did make sure that there was complete refund privileges if they didn't impress me.

Give one of them a try, let me know what you think.
Oohh and you could give me a finders fee if you want...
Hello Ozzy,
how are you?
Did you do the test?

Questions:
which kind of AC power cords did you test VS the mad Scientist?

your Mad Scientist Ac power cord has the Chinese brass plug or the improved Copper plug ?

Thanks.
Martin.
Martin,

Yes, I finally did put the OCC version power cord to the tests with the copper plugs. I compared it to the previous NEO versions and several other power cords that I had on hand. (If I list the other brands, Audiogon will delete the post.)

The OCC 9 gauge version was used on my Pass Labs X350.5 Amp and the OCC 11 gauge version was used on my PS Audio P-10 power regenerator.

Compared to the original Neo version the newer OCC 9 gauge has better defined and tighter bass with extended highs. Also, I noticed a very impressive deep sound stage.

I also tried using the 11 gauge version OCC on the Amp. There, it was still better than the original NEO version but the 9 gauge OCC was definitly a step up without a doubt.
Believe me, once you get one of these OCC 9 gauge power cords plugged into your Amp you will thank me. So feel free to send me $$$ donations. LOL

Now, I know I have mentioned this before, but I might as well include it again in this posting. The regular Neo cord is no slouch and exceeds many of my other power cords. I especially was impressed with the improvement it made with my video equipment, such as; providing better richer colors and a more 3d image.

No real downside with these cables,the cost is low, performance high. Perhaps the only negative I can comment on is that they are not as professional looking as I am used to, but, its about the sound...
Ozzy, did you test any of those cords on you're DS DAC? Or is the NEO still you're go to cord.
Hi Ozzy, you have had the high-fidelity cable long enough to give an impression of the sound for me yet?
Did anyone see this?

http://www.hifi-advice.com/mad-scientist-Neo-OCC-review.html
Lancelock, no I'm still using the NEO on my DS Dac. I only have 2 of the OCC version. But, I did find that the addition of the copper sleeve over the IEC on the NEO is a good thing.
Maxima95,
Thanks for the heads up regarding the article. It was a very interesting read.
I would miss a lot of these articles if it was not for members of Audiogon
posting them. Thanks guys, and keep on posting the interesting articles.