Electraglide Epiphany vs Kubala-Ssna vs....

The particular Epiphany was bought used,and broken in.The cord it replaced was a very expensive,yet also superb sounding Electra Glide model.The pre-amp is a highly modified,by great northern sound co.,Audio Research SP-15,that has gone through some extensive tube rolling,and is a SUPERB unit,not the villain here.I suspect that the previous cord was a better match.That's all!My observations were corresponded by all of the few additional listeners,on hand!All very experienced hobbyists.I,also have some Electraglide cords in my set-up,yet have resisted the upgrade path,since it sounds good to me,and I believe that "If it ain't broke,then don't try to fix it"!Unless,of course one can A/B something in one's own set-up,which was not what happened,here.In this case,the purchaser was happy,yet was greatly influenced by industry hype(the solid silver sheathing,on the cord,should have sent up a RED FLAG.Why does this skin have to be so ostentacious?Sales hype,for a megabuck PC,I suspect,and I have spent some dough,myself)and the rediculous SIX thousand dollar list price!

Best to all!!

Sirspeedy. We all agree the list pricing on the EG cords is down-right silly, since NOBODY pays more than $1100 for these. I would also agree that the EG is better suited for some applications than others. It is very fast and open, but in some systems, it might be sterile, and that's what you found. Thats has not been my experience, but I think if I had ALL EG's it might be too much of a good thing. I have some EG, some Isoclean in my system, but am still experimenting.

BTW, i did receive a new epiphany X which is better than the regular epiphany. It adds body, bass and is still very open and extended. Really superb. I've tried it on all my components, and in every single instance (to line conditioner, amps, preamp, digital), it bettered the regular epiphany. It was smoother and more musical, and still fast open, and dynamic. Bass much tighter as well.

Anyway, the power cord rolling is on. It still boggles the mind that they would make such a difference, but time after time, the ears tell the truth.

Artg,very salient point!Appreciated,as it is the EP-X that interests me,and on the used mkt.BTW--How come the Reiymo and new amps?The other stuff(AA Cap)seemed pretty SOTA!

Sispeedy. I am a restless soul, and found I could not tame the residual glare and harndess of the Berning, so I spent some time reading, and found that the Verity people (who make my speaker) use the Nagra VPA's to show off this speaker. I already had (and loved the little Nagra PLL), so it was worht a shot. The glare is gone, I love the VPA's in my system.

Finally, I got a good deal on both the sale of my AA and the acquisition of the Reimyo, so again I went for it.

Wow, I just discovered this thread. Cave man here indeed. And the issue of tubes; I have become quite a fond follower of Telefunkens. I guess this makes me a TeleTubey!

I am definitely guilty of living on the warm side of the fence but with the help of JD and Art, I am working my way slowly to center. This is rather fitting as I am quite a moderate by nature anyway. The CAT amps were really the first product I have purchased in a long long time that did not emphasize the warm side of things but rather brought on a level of resolution and dynamics that has to be heard to be believed. And this along with the full bodied nature of the Aestheix Jupiter models is a match made in heaven for me.

As JD pointed out, I have been running with NBS Statement cables for a long long time. These are an awesome match with the 80s-90s ARC gear to tame the forwardness of this product line and also retain the 3-dimensionality within it. But with the latest changes to my system, it was clear that I was long overdue to focus again on my system's cables.

In the end of the power cord shootout, I too had to give the nod to the Epiphany X in the context of dynamics and resolution. But there was something about the tonality of Kubala-Sosna that just did it for me. Perhaps it was simply that the K-S was not calling attention to itself....everything was just naturally enjoyable and therefore less focus on the listening to the sound and more so to the music. I really liked this cable. The remaining cables did absolutely nothing for me. I had heard none of these in my system and had no prior knowledge or experience with these.

One bias that I did have going into this shootout was the degree of difference the power cords would make. As JD wrote, the AM Power Conditioner is wonderful. I suspect without this, the power cord differences would not have been anywhere as significant.

One thing we all noticed was how much more significant the difference was with the power cords into the AM were than elsewhere in the system. The Manley DAC benefitted from the more resolving cables but it was really the Callisto where the biggest gains were achieved on a single system component. And at a far distance, the CAT amps had a very subtle improvement. There was definitely a pecking order in power cords. We did not spin LPs so the jury is out on the gains with the Io.

One thing JD pointed out, that I agreed with, was that the single K-S IC (DAC to Callisto) we had tried in my system vs. the NBS 2 months ago had a more significant improvement in resolution and noise level than my system fully loaded with ALL of the Electraglide and K-S power cords. So here again, there was a definite priority as to where to put the resources into system cables. And my experience with IC's from line stage to amp is that this link is even greater than the other IC links in the system. So this really is where my focus needs to be before I drop a fortune on power cords. And for JD and Art, I have a little surprise here. Stay tuned.

I have much appreciation to JD and Art for teaching me a lot about the importance of power conditioning and various system changes to bring on a level of resolution that has been hiding in my system since I did a major overhaul to it earlier this year.

John