Pssst! I keep hearing fire trucks outside my window, but no disaster here yet.
"Slawney, you are continuosly surprising me with your pioneer spirit!"
"Pioneer"? I like to think of myself as a full-fledged OTA OTAKU! Sead, please ask Teramura or Kimura about the meaning of the word "Ota" in Japanese and ask whether there was an implied reference to the Japanese "Otaku" movement of the 80s. Young, permanently infantile Japanese nerds sleeping away there life in a protective imaginary universe of their own making. As for me, OTA cable kit is perhaps becoming my electronic "umbilical cord" to "mother 47 Labs." I am starting to hear those " infinite tentacles" Teramura describes--at least, see them stretched between all plugs and outlets in the listening room. He didn't warn us that these tentacles would be blue/green, but isn't that the color of the Pacific?
"Franky, I would say feeding you VAIC with mains from tiny 47Labs cable is an overkill. I wouldn't dare even try that! Well, I couldn't sleep the first night I had my low power consumer setup hooked on it but I think I told you about that."
The VAICs are fed AC power with Storatos, and they will remain fed AC power with Storatos. (They are even wired inside with Storatos now, he he, don't tell Alessa). In fact, I finally got the entire rig wired with Storatos power cords! As for nightmare fantasies, I did have a daytime anxiety attack on a commuter train outside Frankfurt when I was suddenly overcome with the fear that one of the IECs had not been inserted far enough, and that it would touch off a fire in my listening room. I desperately wanted to return home to remedy the problem, and was distracted the entire time I was at work until I could return. Nothing bad had happened.
"Why did you need 20ft power cables? You had them hooked to the mains in the other room?"
Not the other room, but the opposite wall. Has to do with house wiring and the need to separate high power and low power users in the system. I did not like at all using that much Storatos for this hookup, and some day I will not need it. I hope then that the long ac cables can be returned to normal interconnects. Have you ever recycled a Storatos ac cable into a Storatos interconnect?
"Just throw away ALL the metal not strictly related to contact making."
Have done exactly that: except (and this is an important except) for the brass (they are brass, unfortunately) "U" guides that channel the bare Storatos wire (in the IEC) towards prongs on the components. Without them, I would not be able to make a direct contact with these prongs.
"You can glue back IEC and PC plugs instead of screwing them back with metal screw."
I would need a third hand to apply the glue. Things are tricky enough with making the direct contact between Storatos and IEC prongs since I have to push the two halves of the IEC female together after it is slipped onto the male. (I really like the language here: "the two halves of the ... female ...slipped onto the male")
"From an ordinary PC plug and three IEC connectors I usually end up with fistfull of pieces I put into dump."
The dump is increasing here in Frankfurt, too.
"Did I tell you that one (that "Phonosophie" makes copper prong plugs)? Actually, I didn't know about that one but when talking on the subject with Jonathan Carr, he raised my attention to this product."
Yes, Sead, you told me that one: perhaps after pondering the deplorable aspects of my previous $21,000 ac cable network. I rarely forget a thing you say. I do not know if Phonosophie actually made this copper prong plug (come to think of it, what do they actually "make"?) and it is rather difficult to track down, but the person I got them from says that he possibly could have gotten them from Phonosophie, but he isn't sure.
"Are the extra bananas you ordered last time for (use as ac cable plugs)? If so, good I didn't have them in stock… Forget about getting them, unless using them for speakers, hehe. I intend to see you in May and not to bring flowers to your tombstone."
I like the way 47 Labs does not let you electrocute yourself with their products. Arthur Salvature was right when he said (on "high-endaudio.com") that the service with 47 Labs is excellent. They will even bring flowers to your funeral! Much better than with "some other manufacturer" (I was going to mention the name, but decided to wipe out any trace of violent comparative advertising). With the unnamed product I really gave myself shock treatment: disoriented myself for two weeks. The flesh on my hand actually stank like a corpse, and took a long time to heal. Remembering this, I feel pretty irresponsible suggesting this heretical use of the banana plug. Please do not use OTA banana plugs as power cable leads! Forget that I even mentioned it! Sead, the banana plugs I ordered were for a speaker: except for the fact that I do not have the speaker yet. And probably will not until I hear "Essence" for a second time in May. So long as I live till then. Thus, yes, it is perhaps in your greater interest to not sell me the banana plugs just yet. And probably in my own interest. It may be that I will not need banana plugs at all, he he.
"IEC contacts: Copper, then brass, then rhodium would come on my list. Nothing else. No plating."
The IECs I use come with brass contacts, no plating. The guide for the wire is a circular hole through a rectangular brass fitting. Many other IECs do not have circular guides, but simple screws, where the cable is pinched by the screw against the side of the IEC housing: avoid these at all costs! They are frustrating to work with and electronically, and mechanically inferior. Make sure whatever IEC you use does not strain Storatos when screwing the insulated portion into place.
Sead on my suggested method for terminating the Storatos wire in the IEC (see above): "This one is tricky and I sense problems with this arrangement (as in most cases, a good contact will remain to be desired, if not done right)."
Admittedly, "tricky." You need the right IEC. You also need to leave just the right amount of tension in the bare Storatos wire, as well as arrange the wires very precisely in the "U" guide. Also, the "ground" center wire has to maneuver around the hole for the screw that holds the two IEC halves together. But... it has worked every time that I have done it. My recommended amount of bare Storatos at this end is 3 cm, although you can lengthen it to 4 cm and wrap the bare end of the Storatos wire around the brass guide (just in front of the screw clamp) for extra sturdiness after you make the "V" turn and reach sufficent distance from the tip so that the male IEC does not encounter resistance (too short, and the IEC male will not fit fully inside and you will have anxiety scenes like the one I described above). To get the best fit, the gully of the "U" must have only one strand of bare Storatos wire in it, straightly arranged, and not absolutely tight, cut to the correct length so that the insulation does not interfere with the penetration of the male IEC plug into the female. The only problems I have encounted is that the Storatos-equipped female fits tighter over the normal male IEC (this perverse technical language!) and difficulties may be encountered when removing the IEC in the future without loosening it up with a screwdriver first. What problems do you sense?
"Why bother with multiple cables? That leaves you with problems. Why not use one PC plug and run multiple IEC's out of it?"
The advice sead gives you above is valuable, and worth rereading and referring to in detail. In particular, the advice he gives concerning consistent polarity orientation is crucial for Schucko users, since (unlike other systems) you can easily reverse polarity. Color code all of your Storatos cables when making up the power cables and make sure you have the correct polarity orientation. Use a polarity checker or take off the chassis of your components if you are not sure where the "live" wire is. You must do this before you make up a Storatos ac power cable with multiple runs to compensate for any reversals in polarity you have in a given component. Perfect polarity consistency can be heard by a trained human ear (by listening closely to the bass, and other things), of course, but it is better to check polarity visually by looking at the wiring of the component rather than play around switching wire orientations in a multiple run (Storatos will eventually break and you will have to recut and perhaps lose groupings) and listen with each regrouping. I recently ran 3 multiple lines of Storatos ac cable out of an isolation transformer/filter outlet, and the method I used is very similar to what sead mentions.
»Note that it is no advantage to shield Storatos ac power cables.«
"Very much agreed."
And yet think of the high cost of the shielding that goes into a boutique power cable (some even with active shielding). LOL. ... However, as you can tell, I am not entirely against using Storatos with power conditioning in problematic mains situations (like my own). But, unfortunately, one hears the positive AND the negative effects of power conditioning much better with Storatos than with "boutique" power cables.
Best regards,
Ota Otaku
