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ABX testing with AQ Dragon power cords

I was talking to my dealer about how good the system sounds that he sold me. I mentioned that I had tried some new speaker/interconnect cables from a local amp/cable manufacturer & both I and the company boss agreed that there was little discernible sound difference between his cables & mine. He couldn’t understand why. He also told me that my room acoustics were amazing, top notch. He’d like me to bring my cables (& his) to his listening room & we’ll compare there. That’s for next week.

My dealer said that in his 40 years this has never happened & he was ready to rise to the challenge. He said he would send me a couple of AQ Hurricane power cords to try on my amp/pre and I’d be amazed. I said why bother, send some Dragons. He told me to connect them to my amp & preamp & I should be amazed within 10 seconds of comparing. Today I received a Dragon HC & Source power cord. I listened to some music I’m very familiar with through my Lumin T3 playing FLAC files from the attached USB. Then I swapped the amp & pre to the Dragons and listened to the same songs. No difference that I could tell. So I redid the test, one song at a time, switching back & forth. Still no difference.

I invited two neighbors over (separately) and asked them to look at my FLAC library & choose a song that they knew well. I played that for them with both sets of power cords. One said he couldn’t hear any difference between the two. The other said that one (mine) sounded like it had slightly more treble, the other (Dragon) sounded like more bass. I played a third version (turned out it was mine but he didn’t know) and he said that was the bass version. He was wrong & admitted that the differences were so small that he really couldn’t choose between the two.

I called my dealer & he asked if the difference was earth shattering. I told him no & he asked how that was possible when he just sent similar cables to another customer last week with a similarly priced system as mine & that guy said that the SQ improved 50% and was ecstatic. I said that that guy must have decided already that he was going to buy them and determined that for that money they must improve the sound. My dealer said that either my ears are those a near dead 95 year old or his last 40 years experience have been a sham. I suggested that he was selling & demoing a product to people that had a propensity to believe it worked & therefore it worked for them. I offered to have him drive here (4 hour drive) and listen for himself & I’ll swap cables while his mind is blown. We may get there yet.

I hesitate to post a photo of my listening room as experience tells me that those that are strong proponents of cables will pick it apart and blame a myriad of other crap  rather than recognizing that the 3 of us heard no difference on a high resolving system situated in a room would good acoustics... but here goes.

 

McIntosh MC462/C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Gold Note PH-10/PSU-10 phono stage, Lumin T3/Sbooster, Sonus Faber Amati G5 speakers, Sonus Faber Gravis V sub.

dwcda
skeptikal's avatar
skeptikal
33 posts
 

You are biased to never hear a difference, so you won’t

If that were the case, blind A/B testing would still prove the truth, because both cable enthusiasts and cable deniers are tested. Blind A/B testing proves that cables make no difference. Especially power cables.

There is a clear lack of understanding of what confirmation bias is and when it does or could apply.

We all know what confirmation bias is, it’s a very simple concept, this is an Ad Hominem attack and unworthy of a polite debate.

soix
9,538 posts
 

New troll says what?

classicrockfan
168 posts
 

@dwcda

Thank you for sharing your story/photos we appreciate your courage and honesty.

I have a power cable that i bought on Amazon and I like it a lot not because it pleases my ears (compared with the stock) but pleases my eyes. Only paid 35 instead of 3500. Oh and there are many paid trolls aka influencers trying to mislead viewers on this forum. You’ve probably recognized them already

 

dwcda OP
116 posts
 

Ha, it takes no courage to anonymously discuss an experience with strangers. Audphile1 began a little rough but came around and offered some helpful info in the end. I appreciate comments from all, those who agree with me and those who don’t. I try to learn something from all.

I plan to try a PS Audio P12 for a bit as the power where I live is known to be noisy and prone to brownouts and surges.

I went to Hans Looman’s house (owner of Infigo) on Friday to return his cables and compare his/mine on his system. All he has going is a streamer, DAC, a pair of the monos that he produces (Method 3 I believe) and some Dutch speakers whose name I forget. We swapped his XLRs for mine back and forth a few times and then swapped his speaker wires for mine. He could hear a difference each time but I didn’t. Then we listened to the same song (Uninvited Alanis Morissette) with his speaker and XLR cables and at that point I could hear a much larger presence to the music. I don’t know all of the adjectives that people use to describe music but it definitely sounded better. Not a huge and alarming difference but the kind of thing that once you feel it (as the main difference was the feeling of the bass in my chest) you want to feel it again. So I plan to get the P12 and continue experimenting.

Hans’s monos cost $55k US a pair I think and sound amazing.

soix
9,538 posts
 

Not a huge and alarming difference but the kind of thing that once you feel it (as the main difference was the feeling of the bass in my chest) you want to feel it again.

That’s a really good way to put it with regard to cables.  The differences or improvements don’t often bowl you over in magnitude like speakers can, but once you hear them they’re meaningful and always there and you don’t really wanna be without them anymore. 

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