A Better Bluesound AC Cable?

FWIW, a Synergistic Research UEF blue consistently sounds smoother to me than other power cords I’ve tried (including a $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Gauge Power Cord) when used on both a Denafrips Ares II DAC & a Pathos integrated amplifiers. My guess is that the Synergistic power cord may be better at channeling or rejecting analog interference such as EMI which can come across as harshness and lack of transparency.

BTW, the $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Gauge Power Cord sounded pretty decent and was clearly smoother in sound than an $200 Audience forte f3 powerChord. I also tried out a Shunyata Venom that was pretty decent. I haven’t compared the Shunyata enough versus the $15 Tripp-Lite to know which is better because the Synergistic Research cord is just clearly more enjoyable (smoother, more detailed) than all of the other cords. I think the Shunyata and Tripp-Lite aren’t so far apart in sound quality. At least, not to a degree that is clearly evident to me.

I was lucky enough to have the Synergistic, Shunyata, Audience power cords loaned to me by a friend to see IF power cords made a difference that I could hear. Unfortunately, some do & it looks like I will be now several hundred dollars poorer. Haha.

@williewonka

Also - what type of improvements were you listening for...
- better defined bass
- faster Dynamics
- improved clarity
- larger, more well defined image and performer focus

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100%, that’s exactly what I hear from a "better" cable as well as other improvements to reduce analog noise. The "faster" improvements are something surprising to hear for sure. My guess is that better definition to the leading and trailing edge of notes helps produce clearer rhythms in music reproduction.

I also hear tonal color of instruments and voices more clearly with improvements to clean up power.

@calvinandhobbes  I forgot to add DETAILS - micro details to be precise - those little reflections, echo's and reverberations off venue walls.and ceiling - what I call "Venue Acoustics".

Those add a more realistic element to the music and with it brings out more layers in the recordings.

Since my last posts I have upgraded to the Node 2i and it was worth every penny. They reconfigured the PCB, which is supposed to improve performance - AND IT DID !!!

The analogue stage is amazing - and I've kept pace with more cable upgrades, so it sounds even more amazing.
- even bigger image, due to improved clarity
- deeper bass with even more texture and speed
- faster dynamics across the board

Regards - Steve

@williewonka 100%, also making instruments and voices sound more 3-dimensional versus sounding flat. People like to harp on the cost of cables, but that can have better ROI than purely spending on more expensive equipment.

@calvinandhobbes - I with you on that score - I now consider cables more important than my components.

I’ve been auditioning and building cables for over 6 years and had the opportunity to try cables on a variety of systems AND that time also allowed me to train my ears

Todays components are much better than the associated cables allow them to be, but only if the listener knows what to listen for and from your comments it appears you have a great handle on that.

Treat ANY system to good cables and it will improve the sound.
- my $350 mini system responded extremely well
- my Bluesound Pulse Mini speaker shocked the sales guy when I put a good power cables on it
- right on up to my Audio system, which sounds better than any high end/priced system I have auditioned in any audio store.

Unfortunately, many cables offer a similar level of performance and as such, for someone that has not experienced really good cables, they may not hear a significant improvement from the cables they currently own. So for them, there is no incentive to change and moving to a better sounding cables is not always within their budget.

Then there is he dilemma of which cables does a person upgrade first?

This is a dilemma not only applicable to cables, but components as well

If you start with interconnects, your speaker cables may not allow improvements to be heard and vice versa

If asked a respond with

1. speaker cables
2. interconnect cables
3. power cables

I leave power cables to last because their effectiveness can vary greatly by component (generally)

• source components "generally" show a larger degree of improvement because their power supplies may not be designed as well as the power supplies in an amp
• The improvements in replacing the PC on an amp is "generally" a lot more subtle, but some people have reported great improvements from upgrade the amp PC.
• So it’s best to leave it as - it varies from one component to another

But I believe once you have great speaker and interconnect cables, the improvements power cables bring to the game is more noticeable.

As for myself - you may have seen/read this thread...
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/duelund-conversion-to-diy-helix-geometry-cabling

These are the cables I use and they saved me a ton of $cash and provided exceptional performance.

In closing - I like to think people on this forum are getting more educated as to the benefits of installing good cables.

But it can be an uphill battle :-)

Regards - Steve