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What Power Cord for Tubed Preamp

About a month ago I made my first foray into tubes. I was not satisfied with the rather sibilant sound coming from my system. I thought that this might be a good "excuse" to try out a tubed preamp. What a difference. My system has never sounded more musical. Even my wife commented that the SACD player/tubed preamp was warmer and more natural. Well, anyway, my question is, what power cords have you found to be beneficial with tubed equipment? I know that cables are system dependent. But I want a place to start my search. For digital I use Marigo Labs Ultra series II and the CPCC model 11 for my power amp. Here is my equipment list:

Sony C333ES SACD player
Audio Experiment Symphonies tubed preamp
B&K AV6000 power amp
Paradigm Reference Studio 60 Loudspeakers
Home Grown Audio Super Silver Interconnects
Ted's Excellent Cable Speaker wire.
gallaine
gallaine OP
114 posts
 
Thanks for the responses. Garyl, I tried the MIT Z cord when I auditioned around nine PCs late last year. Maybe I should try it again on the tubed preamp. One thing I should mention is that I try to keep my cable cost to about 30% of the component retail. That would put my upper limit on a power cord for the preamp to about $350; more than that doesn't make sense since I could replace all three 12ax7 tubes with Mullard CV4004's for about $150.

I've heard many good things about the BMI's and the Bob Crump design PC. My only concern is either finding a good deal on which I wouldn't lose too much or a thirty day money back guarantee.
snook2's avatar
snook2
626 posts
 
Take your time and find any good used cord. When I had the Wolcotts I didn't hear any difference from the 5 brands I listened to. I settled on the JPS power cord.
avnut
153 posts
 
The BMI whale has worked great for me. i put one on my 50se. At first I didnt notice anything. I first installed it in mid-August. I didnt notice how good it was until it just seemed to open up one day in October. I didnt think the powercord on the preamp would produce any mentionable results.
I noticed that the whole musical picture was cleaned up and more clear. Dynamics became more linear instead of robust like it was when I first put the cord. But the trade off I guess is that the music is more linear and coherant from top to bottom.
bfshifid69b
2 posts
 
Tube preamps oftentimes prefer and sound best with ribbon based cords. I suggest Walker ribbons or Electra Glide ribbons. These two cords sound different, and will emphasize different aspects of your tube preamp's sound. In either case, you will notice less grain and greater dimensionalty, with a greater sense of texture and immediacy. Negatives can include some tonal washout or some dynamic restriction depending on the gear being used.

MGDeWulf
johnnybravo
36 posts
 
Second Marty's observations.

Electraglide basic. Wonderful on my Joule Electra.
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