ELROD new MASTER SERIES Statement Gold,a true surprise; changes the game considerably


ELROD new MASTER SERIES Statement Gold Power Cord:

Installed ONE of these in the system today on my Esoteric A-02 power amp to replace a 2 year old Elrod Statement Gold next-gen cable as a test.

Cable was cooked for 6 days and then rounded out by David on his system to a full 2 weeks of burn-in. 

To say the design changes are major would be a huge understatement....double the width of the widest ribbons used to date and double the count over what was already his latest generation design for Statement Gold; that's all that can be said. Furutech's latest FI-50 NCF connectors are utilized as they were determined to be superior to anything else available.

Within the first 12 hours the phrase (which I've only used once before for any cable) "component-level upgrade" came to mind. It's as if my amp had been further upgraded along with my entire system. This is no exaggeration and I'm surprised at the uplift from a single power cord from the level I already was experiencing. All frequency bands experienced significant changes for the better, an already 3-dimensional wrap-around soundstage on most recordings became an even more dense, musical energy-filled 3D wrap-around deeply immersive soundstage on EVERY recording, every note, voice, etc...became even more real and life-like, inner detail increased on most material (already have tons of inner detail thanks to the TAD R1s), musical energy increased in the room and the listener is pulled even deeper into the recording. I found myself rewinding or starting tracks over many times as the surprise factor with this change was extremely high.

I had talked to a couple of guys who had gone this route picking up this brand new cable family in the last month; they were saying that the Master Series Golds eclipsed the Diamond and MBX2 families of cables and simply blew the doors off the latest Statement Gold generation. That all sounded hard to believe (particularly the part about eclipsing MBX2 and Diamond/X2; after 12 hours, I do believe it to be true...

Tough part about the Elrod line is the website has not been updated in a long, long time as more time is spent on design and build than on marketing. My advice is to reach out to me or others using these cables and get some candid conversations going. Also, you can easily reach David Elrod via phone / email; he's a wealth of knowledge and will discuss cables, music, system design/synergy with any serious audio-nut.

It's been a very surprising day!
128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xzephyr24069
I have been saying, for years,  that cables and power cords are fun!
Aren't they?  Happy Listening!
Alright, I'll bite, since I haven't heard any cord made by David Elrod in the last 10 years or more. 

All I have ever owned are his EPS-2/3 Signature and Statement cords, which are what? 12, 15 years old?

Anyway, my take on them is that they are very powerful, rich, vibrant, and musical cords which offer a well layered sound-stage.
However, as I recall, they do not provide a high resolution sonic picture.

So I am wondering how his newer designs stack up with cords like PranaWire Vajra SE, Nordost Valhalla 2, Stealth Dream V12, or other cords using silver as far as the resolution offered by David's newer designs.
" Anyway, my take on them is that they are very powerful, rich, vibrant, and musical cords which offer a well layered sound-stage.
However, as I recall, they do not provide a high resolution sonic picture. "

Good questions....I have no experience with the EPS cords or anything prior to very late 2011/early 2012 but have heard similar feedback from several friends and other audiophiles that I've communicated with over the years. 

Speaking only for those Statement Gold and Silver powercords, Statement Gold interconnects and Signature Gold and currently, Statement Gold speaker cables in my system prior to the MASTERS SERIES, I can tell you all of the above positive feedback/attribute list is true of what I hear as well accompanied with great pacing/timing accuracy of the music, soft to extremely full-on dynamics, ultra-quiet backgrounds and energy together with a very accurate and high-resolution sonic picture.  The high-resolution sonic picture is not just instrument and voice plus ensemble placement accuracy but also accuracy of size of an instrument, voice or ensemble in the sound-stage.  Another attribute I've noticed in addition to the well-layered sound-stage is also the sheer size of the sound stage in all 3 dimensions plus the wrap-around sound when recordings are laid down properly in 2 channel.

From what I understand, Elrod has added/modified his designs extensively in recent years and is always innovating and looking for the ideal combination of metals (there is much more than OFC/top-tier copper in his cables but I don't know details beyond that), sizes/layout of ribbons and the terminations, connectors and techniques) and topology to give an incredible capacitive effect in his cables without smearing, blurring or tonal coloring.  My own experience listening has definitely supported this as I hear all that I've written above and more accompanied with getting my system to be incredibly musical and have certain tube-like harmonics and transient behavior that I've only heard in the finest all-tube, all-analog systems; all the while having a 100% solid-state and digital=>analog system.

All of that is up to the latest iterations of Statement Gold products that I've been using for anywhere from 1 to 4+ years.  Take all of that feedback and then add the "final 1%" audible improvements I've written about with these first MASTERS SERIES Statement Gold cords I'm using and you have one hell of an audio performance emerging from my speakers. In fact, as I have mentioned these singleton powercord-only updates have shown me things that that amp, preamp and Transport/DAC are capable of over and above what I ever thought possible having been extremely happy with the Statements Golds I've been using with great success.

These cords and the prior Statement Gold and Signature Gold are larger than many other choices (but smaller than some I've seen), require a bit of planning and measuring to ensure proper length, layout, no major bending, etc...and are top of the heap (and beyond) as far as being well beyond anything I thought I'd ever be spending on cables but they are well worth it and I'm glad I was introduced back in late 2010. For me, Statement and the new MASTERS SERIES are 'destination' and it will take me some years to move up to MASTERS SERIES across the entire system, after that I plan to be done.  I hear there are MASTERS SERIES "Diamond" level that those who are fortunate enough to be able to try/have in their systems are raving about; I'll never get there for several key reasons but at the same time, I cannot imagine what I am not hearing per se as what I do hear is at times, beyond words.

Have a great day!