Cable Break In for the Naysayers

@ozzy , I’m at 240 hours on the three AQ Dragon power cords and they are really opening up starting today.  I actually hung on to one of the fully burned in demo Dragon cords for a bit longer.  I tried replacing one of my new cords with the fully burned in demo cord, the one feeding my Tambaqui DAC.  Sure enough, the fully burned in demo cord made my system sound even less constrained, through the entire frequency band.  So even at 240 hours I think my cords have a ways to go.

I read a pro review of the Dragons where they say AQ says that it takes two weeks “to form the dialectric”, and two more weeks for it to fully improve.  And yeah I know many give AQ flak for stuff that may not be absolutely grounded in science, with their little battery packs attached to the cords.  All I know is the cords sound great and they are getting better, as I can easily hear comparing the broken in cord with the new ones.  Haven’t done a blind test yet but I’m sure I could easily tell the difference.  But not for long as my new cables catch up.

nyev,

I think the Dragons will continue to improve. Do you have a AQ Niagara power conditioner?

I can't believe that my mono block amps sound more dynamic plugged into AQ Niagara 7000 than just straight into the wall outlet.

ozzy

@ozzy , no question my Dragon cords have improved yet again checking in at 265 hours.  I do not have the Niagara, for two reasons. I borrowed a Niagara 5000 from my dealer once, and found that the transformers buzzed audibly from across the room.  The manual even states that I’d this happens, you are simply out of luck.  Secondly, I find that any and all conditioners change the sound in some way.  I found the Niagara 5000 to enhance the sound in every way except for the upper frequencies which I found to be a bit closed in sounding. The sound was more of a hard, energized, dense, driving sound, which I actually enjoyed aside from the upper frequencies.  Of note though, I had tested the Niagara 5000 with my Hurricanes, not the Dragons.  I’ve found happiness with a Puritan 156, after having used a Torus RM 20 for a few years.  The Puritan may not be as smooth and may not have as “black” backgrounds but in my system I found it to be more even-handed than the other options I’ve tried and it has a very free-flowing and musically engaging sound to it.  It’s a bit more up-front and in-your face which I like.

nyev,

I have read that some people hear hum with the AQ conditioner. Maybe, if I place my ear right on top of my 7000, I can hear something, but I have Critical Mass footers under all my components including the Niagara 7000 so perhaps that lessens any noise, but I really don’t know.

ozzy

Vibroacoustics

Really, we are just babes-in-the-woods as regards music's effects on us. There is a much wider arena of influence that may explain our befuddlement with the differences we hear between scoped measurements and our perceptions.

****************************

LIGO

"The LIGO project helps demonstrate that just because we do not have the tools to measure a phenomenon does not mean that phenomenon does not exist."