Best power/digital cords for C E C transports.

I have a Parasound belt driven transport and am using it with an AudioPrism Super Natural 9.5 with really good results. Actually, I just got the transport back from Modwright earlier today. The sound is *phenomenal*. Danny Boy knows his craft...

The problem with them BMI cords is their exxxagerated soundstage and mid bass slam. I would not use them at all for a transport. CEC based transports need low gauge, low resistance power cords that will help their not so beefy power supplies. Lak and I have experimented in his system and mine with many many power cords, including the BMI's (he has a CEC 5100 transport) and the VenHaus Flavor 4 w/gold Wattgates and my Jena Labs cryo'ed Tice PC3 w/ Highwire Wirewrap tuning device turned out to be the winners, the cryo'ed Tice being a close second. The CEC's respond favorably to switching from a Flavor 4 w/ regular Wattgates vs gold plated. The gold Wattgates smoothen glare and edginess, opening soundstage. I haven't tried the Shunyata's but maybe in the near future I will have a chance...

I strongly recommend you have the IEC terminal on your transport replaced for a high quality, audio grade one. I had VenHaus ship Dan Wright a Furutech Rhodium plated IEC to install in my transport. For only $30, that's going to be THE best bang for the buck at improving the beef and noise floor in your TL-2. No soldering is needed.

With psychic power and primal intensity,

You've probably got an impedance mismatch between the output of the transport & the input of the DAC. Just because two components have matching jacks doesn't mean that they are going to have matching impedances. It is what is on the inside that counts electrically.

As such, the coaxial in & out of each component might be a better match than the xlr's. Since neither jacks are probably exactly what they claim to be ( 110 ohms for xlr or 75 ohms for rca ), you'll probably have to experiment a bit with what interconnect works best with these components. As mentioned in a few of my other posts, interconnects act as impedance transformers between components and are kind of a hit or miss deal whereas what works best as a speaker cable is pretty much set in stone. Finding an interconnect that allows the output of the transport to "load up" efficiently while also presenting a suitable feedpoint impedance into the DAC will provide the best sonics. This is due to increased power transfer / reduced vswr / lower jitter / reduced ringing.

As far as CEC goes, they've literally built MILLIONS of RF transceivers in the past under various brand names. Electrically, their RF based circuits were always stable and very long lasting. Having said that, they were never quite up to what some of their competition had to offer in terms of power tranfer / impedance matching. Given that the digital signal out of a transport is an RF based signal, your problems ( that could be impedance based ) wouldn't surprise me.

As far as power cords go, that's a whole different ballgame. I would not doubt that Psychic's / Larry's observations pertaining to VH Audio's Flavour 4 working well is true. It is a high capacitance / low inductance design, which is what one wants in a power cord. While i like this cable electrically, it is a bit rigid for use with a transport. If you're going to use this or any other semi-rigid cable with a component of this nature, i would try to find a way to keep the cable itself from transfering mechanical energy back into the component. The physical coupling to the chassis of the component makes such a cord a prime candidate to feed air-borne vibrations into the transport. When it comes to transports, a highly flexible mechanically damped power cord is very desirable.

One more thing. The CAL Delta is somewhat high in jitter from what i can remember. It is not a bad transport, but i would expect the CEC, when properly set up with a DAC of the quality that you have, to be a better performer. It's just a matter of working out the bugs. This can be frustrating but also quite educational. Sean
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I was very let down when my friend & I compared the Delta with the TL-2x and the Delta was the clear winner. I know no other Transport that I researched so much that I wanted more than this one. So you have given me direction & hope as where I was ready to sell the TL-2x and not know where to go from there.

Thanks 4x8man,you allowed me to realize the TL-2x has great potential with the right cord combos.

Thanks Psychicanimal.V H Audio was one company I was getting ready to look at. the VH flavor 4 with gold plugs looks good.The F R plated IEC sounds really good and I could have someone local install it.

Thanks Sean,A flexible cord with the Flavor 4s characteristics would be ideal.Also I will try some different digital rca cables & find what sounds best. Maybe a handful from the Cable Company.

I can assure you that a Flavor 4 w/ Gold Wattgates plus installing the Furutech Rhodium plated IEC will surpass your expectations.

You can use the Flavor 4 if you make sure that the cord is not positioned in a way that will transfer vibrations to the transport. A few strips of mortite clay around at and near the power cord's IEC should help. The TL-2's chassis is so massive there should not be a problem.

Psychicanimal,

What mods did you get from Modwright and how much did they cost total? I have a Parasound Belt Drive as well and have been annoyed by it's lack of PRAT. It's like a beat behind on rock recordings with fast bass lines. Did the mods improve this?

Michael