MY Sidewinder AC cord progress:

Thank you, Megasam.

The Tiffany Carl is speaking of is the TPC-60, long discontinued, but can sometime be found used at about $60.00 to $75.00. The Tiffany sold for a retail price of $179.00 when new. Although not the best AC cord available, it is nearly impossible to beat when considering purchase price. I keep several around for testing at my place, and I have mostly Purist Dominus everywhere in the system.

Tonight I got bogged down with just the Cardas speaker cable in the system, so I can't make an accurate observation on how the current combo (Black Mamba on CD player, Proteus on amp) actually compared with the Sidewinder-Proteus combo, but hope to do that tomorrow. The sound was the best in many ways that I've heard the Cardas (Neutral Reference), and that's why I listened longer than I should have (2.5 hours, too long for the volume level I chose; sometimes I have no will power)....and then I ran out of time, like I always do. My take is that there are three things inevitable in life: death, taxes, and running out of time (when everything is just starting to get good!).

And thank you for the clarification, Albert.

Black Mamba on CD player, Proteus on amp:................(from my notes).....More "simultaneous details" within the ambience of recordings. Much more liquidity than when the Sidewinder was on the CD player (and the same Proteus on amp). Instrumental images were more separate and distinct. "Jump factor" and pace are noticably reduced, however. Musical subtlety is conveyed in the manner that analog can convey it (mostly in the midrange and treble); a good thing indeed! This is the closest I've heard yet to the character that the Magnan Signature AC cord had (it exhibited this ONLY in the treble, however, and only when used on the amp; it was just VERY bright on the CD player). Comparing this combo to the Magnan (the MIT Z-cord 2 was on the CD player at that time), the dynamic contrast is actually not as resolved as the Magnan did it in the treble, but better in the upper mids, and on down thru the bass. The Magnan had the very fastest bass I've ever heard in my system (again, only when used on the power amp), and it would be nice to have most of that, and dynamics too; oh, well.................THE DOWNSIDE........Basically, the Black Mamba on the CD player seemed to exaggerate the Proteus's "speed/pace" weakness below 300 Hz. This is in contrast to what the Sidewinder did on the CD player, which was that it actually never failed to correct that weakness, somehow. IMAGES were less solid and yet more delineated, but "instrument edges/outlines" weren't necessarily hyped (like my Dragon speaker cable can do sometimes); so there's some good, with the bad. SOUNDSTAGE depth was normal for the front two-thirds, but got quite truncated beyond that (when compared with the Sidewinder on the CD player)...................Next, will be the Black Mamba on CD player, and Sidewinder on power amp.