Review: NBS Statement Power cord

Category: Cables

My mother always told me, "never talk about religion, politics, sex or power cords." One sure way to start a war is to discuss the benefits of power cords with high-end audio equipment. Well I never listened to her as I grew up, so why should I start taking her advice now.
Power cords are something I have been interested in sense the early ‘70s when I tested different weigh cords on my Marantz amp. Then they direct wired cords so I soldered my cords directly to the power supply terminals. It was true in the ‘70s and it remains true today that different cords do definitely affect the performance of electronic equipment. I will leave the science and the theories to the forums, but I can tell you what I have found over the past few years. I have tried many of the cords available today (maybe 30) and believe most cords are truly system dependant. I have owned cords that were magic on one piece of equipment and awful on another.

The cords I found among best are the Shunyata Research snakes, BMI Whale Elite, Electra Glide Fatboy, Custom Power Cord Top Gun, FIM Gold and my reference cord NBS Statement. The "snakes" are extremely quiet and do an incredible job at eliminating much of the noise and haze from the signal. If you want a great cord and do not want to test many cords to find the perfect one I would recommend the new Python. It is as good as their older King Cobra at a third the cost. My only complaint of the snakes is they tend toward the dark side of neutral. I find them to add a bit of bloom to the bass, a smear of the bottom end that slightly masks the detail. BMI and Top Gun are excellent lower cost cords that provide 90% of the dark background and offers good detail and definition, decidedly not the best but very good. The Fatboy cords have excellent detail, very dark transparent background and a huge sound stage. The bass definition and slam where its weakness along with their extreme stiffness. In comparison to the NBS Statement the high end might be a bit thin. FIM Gold is perfect in sound quality, bass control, treble extension. They are so stiff they are difficult to keep in the equipment and I have heard of the cords breaking the receptor on the equipment. I had to go through many special set-ups to keep this cord from lifting my pre-amp off the shelf. Consequently I sold the FIM.

NBS Statement has over time become my only power cord. This cord is as quiet as any cord, with the blackest background I have heard. They have fully extended the treble with no grain or glare and with the proper weight and definition. The midrange is full and lush and the bass is extremely well defined with solid slam and impact. The PRAT is excellent, something often effected by power cords. I have tried this cord on several different components, solid state, tubes and digital, it always preforms the same. It is consistently the best of any of the cords I test it against. This is very unusual, power cords tend to be especially system sensitive and component matching is critical. For me the NBS has fit with every component I have used it on and has always provided the best of what a power cord offers. The used price of $500-600 makes it competitive with many cords on the market and a bargain compared with some.

Associated gear
Sony SCD-1 SACD player
Placette active pre-amp
two Plinius SA-102 amps, vert. bi-amped
Dunlavy IVa speakers
Nordost Valhalla cables
Shunyata Research Hydra power cond.

Similar products
Shunyata Research Python
FIM Gold