Audio Magic Stealth and Virtual Dynamics PC

YYZ, are those your initials, or are you a Rush fan, or have you an affinity for Toronto Intl. Airport? :-)

I live in the Bay Area, too, and share your view that a SP is a MUST. While I have not tried the VD PC's, I have lived very happily with a Stealth for about 6 months. One thing first. Allow at LEAST 200 hours breakin time before attempting to assess any changes you introduce into your system. The Stealth takes forever and three Sundays to breakin, but the time waiting is well worth spent.

I don't think the Stealth is particularly sensitive with regard to PC's between it and the wall outlet. The more important PC's are between the Stealth and your components (a view shared by AM, BTW). That said, there are obvious improvements over the stock PC supplied with the Stealth (and not least of which you will find by upgrading your component PC's, too).

I tried a few combinations with the PC's I currently have and a few others I've sold. I wound up using a HT ProAC11 between the Stealth and my cryoed Hubbell outlet. Then, I used my "better" PC's between the Stealth and components. When comparing the ProAC11 in that position to a Synergistic Res. Master Coupler, Audience Power Chord, PS Aduio Lab II, and a FIM Silver, I found little difference, so I used the ProAc11, it being cheaper.

I am from Toronto and grew up listening to the hometown band. I understand your airport remark. If you like Rush, check out their second last album (Different Stages??). Unbelievably good. Read some of the reviews on Amazon.com. I can concur with the statements there.

My Stealth is a demo so it already has some hours on it. The Stealth sure sounds better (clarity, detail, blackness in background) than my old Panamax.

From what I understand Audio Magic no longer supplies a PC for the new cryoed Stealth units. I bought mine from Joe at JCAudio and he threw in the old Audio Magic chord which he had lying around.

Your info on the PC's between your Stealth and components is very informative. I have also heard the same advice from some other dealers. I was not going to change the PC between the Bryston's and the Stealth, just the SACD. But if the results from the SACD PC are dramatic then I will have to consider changing the chords to the Bryston. I'll have this nagging, what if, feeling otherwise.

I will research the cords you have mentioned, thanks. I have spent the last 4 months upgrading my system. Kind of getting tired of it now. I just want to finish my system and go back to what I really like to do, which is, to enjoy the music.

You should include the Belden 83802-based PCs in your review. Contact me.

When mine first arrived I used an old Pro AC-11 laying around. Sounded good and left it there a bit. Then when I stuck the BMI Whale there the thing changed dramatically, for better and worse. The clarity over the entry HT cord was amazing making the ProAC-11 sound dark and restricted in comparison. The top end really opened up as well s the mids while the bass definition was markedly superior. However, I found the soundstage of the Whale to be VERY two-dimensional and that really bugged me. I tried pulling an Omega Mikro Planar III DC active shield PC I love so much I own three of them there and it really sucked? Strange indeed, but OM tells you they make a Red & a Blue PC and they send you both when you buy them new and you try them and send back the one that doesn't work so I chalked that experience up to trying the Red cord. However, once I got the Elrod EPS-3 on the Stealth then things just went BALISTIC! FWIW, during all this I never touched anything else upstream from the Stealth, leaving my Shunyata Viper V2, Cobra, Omega Mikro Planar III and I believe back then it was a Black Mamba (now a TG Audio SLVR) all in place. SO I guess my own personal experience was to FEED THE STEALTH THE BEST PC from wall to Stealth and let the Stealth pass along all those benefits to the power cords and components upstream? Worked for me but everyone needs to try things in their own system. Teh Nite cable is very good feeding what has now become two Stealth's, since Iadded the Digital to separate things a while back.

I purchased 2 VD Signiture and 1 VD Nite cable. All were 3 foot. I also recieved a Audio Magic Xtreeme cable for free. All this cost a grand. Hell of a lot of money to satify my curiousity.

I plugged the Nite to my Sony SCD-1 SACD player and the Sigs to my Pre-amp and amp. The Xtreeme was plugged from the wall to the Audio Magic Stealth. All the equipment was plugged into the PLC. I put in about 50 hours of listening to these demo or used chords and come to the following conclusions.

Wow! Compared to the original power cords plugged into the Panamax 1000+, there was more detail and bigger soundstage with the new setup. The music sounded more sweeter than ever and it had greater emotional impact with me. My foot was tapping away with all the tunes. I was even singing along to lots of tunes. So much so, that I sometimes couldn't listen attentively since my bad voice was making so my noise. It was quite the shock for me to get such a dramatic change with my system.

I listened to the following CD's and they all sounded better but the following differences stood out.

AC/DC Black in Black
- the decay on the drum rim shots was startling, felt as if I was in the studio with the band

Arthea Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
- I felt as if I could visualize Arthea's facial expressions as she sang

ColdPlay - A Rush of Blood to the Head/Parachutes
- beautiful, melodic piano and vocals

Led Zepplelin - Disc 3 of the First Box Set
- Stairway to Heaven was stunning as were all the other tunes on the disc. I could visualize Jimmy Page's fingers picking his guitar on Stairway (had to listen twice to this track since it was so good)

The Great Bob Marley - Live
- "Get Up, Stand Up", just as this song starts there is a fan shouting the F'word. Never knew that was there. I was startled to hear that.

Al Green - Call Me
- Sounded better but this is not a great recording. The music kicks some serous butt, unfortunately the sonics are lacking.

Rush - Moving Pictures
- The decay on Neil Peart's drum shots was also evident here. Alex's guitar was scorching. I know this album really well and it just sounded almost as good as it did when I listened to it at a dealer, on an all Mark Levison system with Revel Salons. That system was a crazy $50,000+. The differences between that system and my $17,000 system was marginal with the new chords and PLC.

The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
- the drums again never sounded this good, very lifelike. Missed most of the 3 quarter of the Super Bowl listening to this CD. Couldn't move my butt away from the couch.

I listened to a whole bunch of others that escaped my memory. The common thread was that they all sounded so much more musical with the new chords (compered with the OEM chords). Another note, the sound seemed to eminate from a very black canvas. I noticed this with the PLC and the OEM chords also. So I think this is the PLC at work here. Sometimes I would get startled by the sudden burst of sounds. Very exciting.

As far as I am concerned this was a very fine purchase for me. The system has gone to another level. Thanks to Joe at JCAudio, Jerry at Audio Magic, and Rick at Virtual Dynamics for their advice and products. All that is left for me is now to replace my Bryston 4b-st with the 14B-sst.

I hope this writeup is helpful for anyone who had the same questions as I did about power chords and PLC's. This site has really helped me get some seriously fine sound out of my CD collection.