Part one of three in our power shoot-out was completed over this past week-end. Sorry it took us so long. We gathered at Jfoxs house. As many of you know, Jfox has a whole lot-o-tubes! This of course makes for a very full bodied, warm and fuzzy presentation. Jfox has been using NBS Statement cables for ever, I mean since they discovered electricity and wired his cave, so convincing John that power cables matter is a bit like selling trout to a salmon fisherman. (What ever that meant)
Because John has eight power cords in his system, any conclusions drawn here must be considered as characteristics of each cord, as heard through the other cords, in that we could not create a base of all one cord or the other.
The cords we had on hand were three Electaglide Epiphany and one Epiphany X (or Epiphamy as I spoke it until I finally drove the good doctor crazy and he felt the need to show off his mastery of the English language by correcting me) We had three Isoclean cords, one Kubala-Sosna Emotion, One Elrod EPS-2 Signature and of course NBS. I had used NBS Statement for years and never felt I was lacking anything until I found the Epiphany cords. I had lately discovered Kubala-Sosna (K-S) Emotion cables, speaker, interconnects and power cords. So I must say I am biased toward KS cables on the whole in that I am working at getting all KS cables in my system soon to replace the Nordost Valhalla! I now carry a belief that KS Emotion and Electraglide Epiphany are the state of the art in power cords today. (This was my pre-conceived opinion going in, I thought you all should know my bias before you read any more.)
So our process was to eliminate NBS one at a time and replacing them with Epiphany until we ran out. Two cords were needed on the Audio Magic power conditioner (one on the digital side and one on the analog side) NICE CONDITIONER, but thats another post. We then used Epiphany on the digital side. One on the Manley DAC, and one on the Genesis Digital Lens. Once we had a basis of four Epiphany cords we tried adding either the KS or Isoclean or Elrod cords into either the DAC or the pre-amp. This gave us the opportunity to theoretically hear the influence of each of these cords on two separate components. Again I understand this is an inherently flawed test, but I do believe we could draw some conclusions on these cords in an all tube system. We also experimented with an Epiphany on the Aesthetics Callisto pre-amp while replacing two Epiphany cords with the Isoclean. This allowed us to experiment with the Epiphany on the massive CAT Signature mono blocks.
So my following opinions are basic overall reflections of what we heard. Because Jfoxs system has so many power cords and so many variables it is hard to conclude anything as an absolute, yet I do think I now understood the overall characteristics of these cords, and their abilities to perform with, or without impacting the sonic characteristics of the equipment used. In a nut shell, my initial opinions were upheld. The Epiphany cord is indeed the state of the art. I believe the Emotion cord has reached this same level and that these two cords are as good as power cords get today.
Now one quick word about these two cords. The Epiphany is a bit harder to work with, as it is a cord made from two plastic tubes within its sheathing. The emotion is highly flexible and even limp if you will. The Epiphany has a list price of $6000 for six feet where the Emotion lists for $1200. (This brings me to a brief commentary on high end audio pricing) What the hell is going on? No one has ever paid $6000 for an Epiphany power cord or the list price of so many cons going on out there. Why list a price that is never paid? BMI comes to mind as one of the first here at Agon. List prices were quoted, yet buying them was always direct from the manufacturer and never at list price. So why $6000? If you are expecting to find a KS Emotion new for less than list, goof luck. The entire KS line is priced at a reasonable (if not bargain) price and in my city is not discounted by the dealer.
Ok, enough of that small rant! The point is the two cords I believe to be state of the art are of similar pricing, at least the Epiphany used vs. the KS new. A quick look on the for-sale side of Audiogon shows the Isoclean to be $1800 new and the Elrod $825 used prices.
Ok back to our shoot out. I am sorry to say the Elrod was quickly thrown out. It was not in the least at this level of performance. The Elrod was tight, condensed, closed in, muddy and simply uninteresting to my ear and to my cronies. It lasted less than 60 seconds before we all agreed to pull it out. The NBS also was thrown out, very clouded with out the quite black background or detail of the leaders. The Isoclean however was close and potentially on level with the other two. I will hold my final judgment, because I have reservations on how it will sound with my solid state amp, digital front end and a couple tubes in my pre-amp.
My initial impression is the Isoclean is quite aggressive and potentially creating artificial dynamics that could lead to fatigue. The nest step in our shoot-out is my house, so we will be able to have all Isoclean, or all Epiphany or all KS Emotion. I believe this will be very telling, and the only opportunity for us to set up a system with all of each, in that the doc needs four cables, and we only have the epiphany in these numbers. So in the next couple weeks I will have a better feeling about the characteristics of the Isoclean cords.
JD
