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  3. 131836-126

Power Cords

I currently have Wireworld Silver Electra power cords with upgraded Platinum plugs. I had two 1M Wireworld Platinum power cords, but rearranged my system and required longer cords. Yesterday I borrowed two Shunyata Sigma NR power cords. On the first note my wife softly said, "that sounds better". She said it was clearer. I listened for a couple hours, changing the power cords a couple of times. In my system and to my ears this is my conclusion:
The Sigma's are cleaner, definitely has more bass, a dead silent and completely black background. The Wireworld cords are more detailed, with a wider soundstage and better spacing/separation of instruments. All things considered I'll keep my Wireworld, but I'm curious to listen to other power cords.
After inserting the Sigma's I just don't understand how anyone that listened to different power cords could conclude that they can't hear a difference. There is a difference, but like any other component the individual has to decide if the change is worth it. $6K for two power cords is relatively expensive. Expensive, but oddly maybe a good value? In my system there was a definite improvement with better bass impact and articulation. Would spending $6K or just changing amplifiers yield similar results? As with most components there are trade-offs...is there a power cord out there that has the benefits of the Sigma's and Wireworld Silver Electra's? If so, at what cost?  
ricred1
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

@guidocorona

@ricred1

I whole heartedly concur with a couple of your statements on being objective. The idea of someone pushing a statement as the be-all-end-all "fact" and then continuing on a rant to try to force this idea without offering any objective statements on how a characteristic sounds in comparison to something else is to be avoided in my opinion.

I have read other threads from this poster and statements such as "Monitor Audio is the best speaker period and B&W is garbage" tells me the poster has some sort of agenda. For example, I recently was looking to upgrade my speakers and both Monitor Audio Platinum II and B&W D3 were on my short list. This was until I read a review the Monitor Platinum had highs that were somewhat lacked excitement. This prompted me on to further research which indicated that ribbon tweeters tended to have more of a laid back sound, where conventional tweeters such as diamond/beryllium had a more exciting sound/impact. Now I have no doubt that Monitor Audio is a fine speaker. However, I could not find a local place to listen to them and the "laid back ribbon tweeter" sound was not my preference. I ended up going with B&W D3 and have no regrets. I love the resolution and excitement this speaker brings me.

My point is that the choices are all relative to the type of sound somebody wants to hear. The new Audioquest cables could be very good indeed, but I have yet to see a full technical description on Audioquest’s website. It’s obvious that they are tripling the cords to make larger awg. They are also documenting the wire conductor material (such as solid PSC copper or solid PSS silver). But I have yet to see their description of termination plugs (whether they are gold-plated, silver-plated, or whatever). I hesitate to believe an outside source for this if Audioquest themselves have not published these specifications.

ricred1 OP
2,043 posts
 
auxinput,
I submit Monitor Audio series II speakers are neutral compared to their series I. To my "ears", in my room, with my equipment, I find the PL500s chameleon like. Several people from Audiogon have been to my house to listen to my system. I recall at least one saying, "they had bite", meaning some excitement in the tweeter. I say they reveal the recording.
No speaker can be for everyone. I think so many of us struggle choosing the right components to get the most out of what ever speakers we have. Not that my components are perfect, but I submit they have synergy. I have other priorities in life and my spending habits must change. The final touch for me will be a couple power cords.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,750 posts
 
ricred1-
I too liked the Wireworld Silver Electra7 power cord. Keep me posted as you audition more cabling. Happy Listening!
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,750 posts
 
Thanks! for sharing your knowledge and listening experiences-bo1972
I look forward in reading more about the Hurricane.
Happy Listening!
michelzay
114 posts
 
A- Regarding Shunyata Sigma NR, looking at the specs.,
A1- they claim having some Noise Reducing scheme. This is actually RFI suppression capacitor place on X shape at IEC side. The CPCC (Custom Power Cord Company) power cords were the pioneer of this kind of filtering. 
These Caps could be found on ebay for  $1-2. Some drawback is that it could push back the noise toward the main distributer:/conditioner and eventually sharing the ground noise with other devices in network! I use some of these RFI Caps on my DIY power cords with careful measurement regarding each cord.

A2- AC plugs at these cables are Nickel (!) plated over Tellurium Copper or Copper. No need to say Nickel plating on AC plugs ($2) used on these Power cords, is one the worse plating compared to Rhodium, Silver, Gold.  Perhaps they are saving money.
----> at $3000 for PC, they could use at least some good AC plugs! 

Shunyata uses a lot of none-sense abbreviations/words in their product's specs in order to foll people. One concrete example is their Hydra PC which has nothing but a couple of RFI capacitors and some Levitan outlets:
http://www.10audio.com/diy_power_conditioner.htm

B- Audioquest Power cords are usually very good for their price. I use a Audioquest NRG-2 (for Einstein The Turtable Choice phono preamp) where I cut the AC plugs and changed them with Furutech Fi-25 and Fi-15plus. Audioquest cables uses Solid Core Pure Copper as conductors which is fantastic. In my testing bench and system, AQ power cords (NRG-100, 1000) perform much better than High Fidelity CT-1 power cords (with their BS technology which makes no-sens for any engineer/physicist!!!) , Dynamic Design Challenger, Transparent Audion XL and ...

I think new AQ power cords would be a very good choice for high current Amps.

As for Audioquest AC plugs, on their early NRG-100 PCs, they were using some Oyaide Ac plugs. Now they use some other vendor to make them pure copper connector with direct Silver (NRG-1000) or Gold (NRG-500) plating. I use a couple of their 20AMP NRG-1000 plug which is phenomenal.

hope that would help...
cheers
 
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