Sharing my experience with cables


Almost 40 years ago, a dealer in Montreal loaned me a pair of MIT cables. My scientific background refused the idea that cables would have any impact on electrons propagating at the seed of light.

The impact on the soud was so evident that I bought them. Since, I have tried many cables of all kinds and spent over 20 K on cable for two systems, one in Montreal and the other on the lake.

My criteria for all my components is physical:  if my arms and neck hair are raised by the music, it works for me. The other critical aspect I discovered over the years is distortion, which I think has a lot to do with crossovers. I beleive that crossovers are powerful filters whose job is to kill music.  Electrostatics are clean because they don't use such filters. But i still prefer normal drivers, , 2.5 ways because somehow the roll off frequencies are away from most of the music is. 

My latest speaker are Wilson Sophia 3, Raidho X3 and Q Concept 500 .

The Transparent speaker cables work fine with Wilson and Q Concept. For the Raidho I use  Luna Red for speakers and usb from the Aurender to the Devialet amp.

All of this just to give you context on what I a m about to say.

The cables I foud to have the most impact is the Power cable to the power amps (solid state)!  Here are my recent experiments:

Audioquest Blizzard makes the Raidhos sound dark, as if the riboon tweeter were dead !  

My most expensive cable is a DR Acoustics Red fire ultra ( 5K).  It makes  the Qconcepts too bright.   

Custom made Furutech are  much better with the Q Concepts.

I will try the DR power cable with the Raidhos next week.

They are all way better than the 5$ cords supplied with electronics. 

Finally, I have found litthe effect of cables on Aurender streamers and Dacs. This is aanother subject though.

 

Thank you for any suggestions. This is my first post here, so be indulgent !

 

lucmichaud1

it's totally crazy to spend $5000 on a pair of cables when it buys a good amp or turntable, a luxury holiday or even something nice for the wife.

Someone with a lot less money than you would say it's totally crazy to buy Starbucks when they can make instant coffee at home. 

If it gives someone pleasure to buy Starbucks or an expensive power cable, then your opinion as to how they *should* spend their money is almost the same as telling them that they are having the wrong pleasure. But surely you cannot say that.

Call me crazy, I noticed a difference when I installed my Audioquest Thunder PC....for me, an expensive cable at near a grand. It is connecting my Amp to my AQ Niagara, from there I use a AQ NRG Z3 cable to the wall receptacle, an AQ Edison. You have to wrestle the Thunder cable like a Python, but once in place, it stays put.

Jason Bourne: you sound like you are in distress and / or panic mode. Three consecutive posts in a very short period of time:

The OP did not use blind testing! His opinions/conclusions are highly suspect! If I had a dollar for every "my golden ears tell me it is so" post here on Agon I’d have a million $$$$!

When is the OP going to submit his theory of why power cords sound different to the Noble Prize Committee for Physics? Enquiring minds want to know!

The Emperor really has no clothes on!

I encourage you to not do anything crazy, and calm down.

 

Breaking news to you: people are free to share their impressions here at will. They don’t need to provide any proof, blind tests or otherwise, to be able to share their impressions. On the other hand, please feel free to share your own blind tests, if that is what you are all about. Obviously, all your blind tests needs to be conducted under strict scientific parameters, and certified by an independent third party panel. 

 

+1 @ghdprentice 

I have definitely heard difference’s on my amplifier with different power cords, but little to none on my streamer or either CD player/transports.

All the best.

JD

The OP did not use blind testing! His opinions/conclusions are highly suspect!

So are yours.

I like Synergistic Research cables (and still use some other brands in the mix for power), but like you @lucmichaud1 , certain equipment seems to benefit more than others. Have to experiment and find what works best with your equipment.