Most Beneficial Cable Upgrade

Matjet - Update?

The power cord question has me wondering to the extent that I have designed my own experiment for this Saturday. The goal is to understand the potential magnitude of a power cord change. Since adding expensive, high-end, state-of-the-art power cords without knowing whether or not there will be improvement is impractical, I've decided on an alternative, low-end, approach.

I have received 21 power cords in 14, 16 and 18 gauges and lengths of 1, 2 and 3 feet from Monoprice.com. The total cost, including tax and deliver, is less than $30, definitely low end. The plan is to replace all the power cords in my system with the shortest possible length between my components and my very recently acquired Audience Response aR12.

Unfortunately, the complexity of changing all power cords makes blind testing overly difficult but since all power cords are changed at the same time, sonic differences should be clearly audible. I am keeping an open mind on the test and will report my findings.

Cheers,

Greg

It is like everyone has said for eons on the Gon. System matching is everything. The Pangea AC-9 sounded great on my Proceed AMP 3 and awful on my Rowland Model 1. Who knows what impact the rest of the chain had (pre, speakers, cable, etc.).

My next step is to see if I can duplicate the magic of my first DIY cord by ordering some more THHN and better terminations.

Craig

Matjet,

My experience is mostly consistent with Stanwal's original answer, that it depends on the synergy of the system. I think having a good shop that will work with you is the most important thing to arriving at a satisfying system. I'll share some of my experiences and maybe it'll be helpful:

- A few years ago I got a good deal on a WattGate audio grade outlet. Installed it and didn't give it another thought. Several months later we were selling that house so I took it out and reinstalled the regular outlet. Listening to the system subsequently I realized that it wasn't quite as extended or liquid as before. I invited the owners of the shop over a few days later and A/B'd the outlet and they noted that the soundstage was more balanced with the WattGate. I had just gotten the thing because it was a good deal on it, and I had heard that Kimber said it was a very important link in the chain. I was skeptical, but figured there would be no harm in getting it.

- Here's why a shop that will work with you is so important. My shop here expects that you will audition cables at the high-end level before buying. One night they let me take some cables home and keep them for a week or so while I was building my system. As I was driving home I did the math and realized that I had a big box in the back seat of my car with about $15k worth of speaker wire. There was probably about another $3k in interconnects. My system is such that it will resolve the differences, and in many cases differences were immediately apparent, but in all auditions I listened to the cables long enough to understand what each was doing in the system.

- It ended up taking me several months to get my system dialed-in. I tested a lot of cables and rolled a lot of tubes. And that was another thing, the guys at the shop let me bring home RCA, Tung Sol, Telefunken, Mullard, Amperex, and Sylvania tubes with which to experiment while I was auditioning different cables as well. But in each case I trusted my ears. Period.

- I didn't experiment with power cords. My instinct was that without clean power, there was no point in anything else. I have a dedicated line, audio grade outlet, power conditioners, and Kimber PK10 Gold power cords throughout. I figured that was good enough and I spent my time tuning elsewhere.

- Interconnects: I tested Kimber Timbre, Hero, and Select; a couple of Cardas; and vintage Audio Magic Sorcerer silver ribbon. I went with the Select although it could have been a coin toss between it and the Sorcerer.

- I have been helping a friend assemble his new system. We have the same CD player. On his system audible differences between the interconnects I described were much more noticable than on mine. I didn't expect that, but learned something.

Anyway, I really like the way my system worked out, but it took a lot of effort and a shop that let me audition a lot of stuff to find the right symmetry for my ears.

I also have a lot of Kimber select cable (speaker/interconnect). My dealer has mentioned to me that Kimber has outlets that they/he feel improve the performance of the power cord/system. I am still waiting for my new power amp delivery and power cable audition. It could be a few more weeks before delivery.

last night i put a ps audio powerpunch [40 dollars] ac cord on my decco/mmg bedroom system. straight to the wall/ no power conditioner. if there is anyone here that says i didn,t hear immediate improvement in 3d, openness, musicality i will ship them the stock cord because i am going to throw it away with the garbage.