Glad to hear you had as much success with the RF/EMI tweaks as I did! I don’t regret buying the Dragon HC cord for P20. Every bit of the wires in wall and good for the external cords matters. I didn’t really start with power cords having did 10 Gauge dedicated wires and circuits first and new breakers and outlets. Always when I think it is maxed out in performance. I get surprised by how much can be achieved with small incremental but thoughtful power upgrades. They all build on the foundation stepping higher up in SQ.
I just ordered another roll of copper tapes. I found wrapping the copper tapes alone without the aluminum foil may be less effective. The improvement on the Purist Audio Colosses PC was drastically better than that of Cullen PC. The difference is I wrapped th P.A. PC with aluminum foil first. So, I decided to redo my Cullen PC with both aluminum foil and copper tape. Hopefully that would improve it more.
I order another to do my powercord to my McIntosh HT amp. Maybe also the Television gets the wrap too.
Please provide feedback on whether two layers ended up better than single. I never tried just single layer of copper only the Al The copper over Al was better and test data on iconoclast site on shields showed two layer mesh and foil foil beat others for lowest transfer impedance across frequency spectrum. Since foil can crack having two layers of different types seems to make sense from a design margin perspective not as susceptible to performance degradation.
It would be interesting to find out if two layers are better! The only drawback is it will be hard to go back to compare the two. So, I hope I can hear an obvious difference.
Garth Powell claims after you have trained yourself in listening. The time frame between two samples makes no difference he compares it to a professionally trained musician who can hear a song then a few hours, a day or week later can write out the music from memory. Time frame makes no difference. If you know your system the changes good or bad become apparent. It’s like going between two systems in different rooms playing the same song. It is easy picking the better sound playing same music. You just know an A to B comparison becomes unnecessary.
I do agree, I am very familiar with my system and can usually pick up small changes easily (as long as I don’t change anything else at the same time).
I am looking forward to hearing, if any, difference and will report!
Vmax, I’m thinking out loud… Does the al and copper wrap need to be tight? Im imagining building more of a sleeve rather than a wrap. Laying out the foil in full length, trimming it long ways to create the proper width for a “sleeve” that gives the cable room to flex on the inside. Then before joining the long edges of the sleeve together, applying the copper tape to the entire al piece while still flat.
Also, there are 2 sides of the foil, one matte and one shiny. Which one are you using to face the cable? In cooking one is more reflective of heat, the other absorptive.
Cheers,
Some great questions with no real science data measurements just physical properties common sense to back it up. The Al foil I always put foil wrap matte finish facing cable no reason. Since it is RF and antenna not sure it would matter if it conducted heat, perhaps. The Al foil is a bit unwieldy loose. You usually end up having to close gaps if loose roll sleeve but, yes I like to give cable some opportunity to flex without tearing inner foil. The copper tape not gripping the cables outer insulation but insulation sliding against Al adds a durability factor. You do need to tape copper direct to cable plugs. Give no entry to RF with air gaps to inner foil wrap and connector splice to plug if connectors are a poor shield, which cheaper cables might be. Thus Al needs to be slightly shorter on ends for Cu foil adhesive to grip connector. And of course continuous piece to male prong ground lug. Unbroken length not pieced together is key, since impedance will be more if spliced despite adhesive being conductive, you do not wish to add series resistance, but once to ground prong. .You want RF to drain easiest path to ground.
If plugs assemble with screws always try to adhere copper to screw heads exposed so you are draining any RF they collect!
Vmax, there is no question that two layers of wrapping is better, it is a lot better than one layer of copper tape in fact.
After removing the copper tape (this task makes me realize I need to wrap AL foil first before adding the adhesive copper tape regardless of sonic impact. It is a task). I connected the Cullen PC without wrapping it to the PST and the sound was dull. After I added the two layers shielding per your most recent instructions, the sound is significantly better. If I must quantify the improvement by a 100% scale, the single layer would be like 30% better, and two layers would be like another 70% better.
I also noticed the single layer cracks easily. As I moved the cable behind the rack there were several cracks developed because of its inflexibility. Two layers give extra protection from cracking (will still crack, but less). So, do the two layers!
I’ve been wrapping PTFE tape over the copper shielding. It helps to hold the copper tape to the shape of the cable, and I like to think it helps prevent cracking.
Thanks for update. I suspected two layers and less likely hood of cracking outer layer was better. I have patched up areas where Al foil shows through after routing the cable. Thanks for quantifying the difference. The single Al foil then covering with Cu had similar boost in performance. It is a good cheap recipe for better sound without breaking the bank.
You do that as a final step after both Al and Cu layers? Where do you source your PFTE?
I haven’t tried your al-cu ac cable wrap method yet, but I’ve used it over copper tape on my dc cables. PTFE tape is also known as plumbers tape – you can get it pretty much anywhere. The key is just to pull it tight and put on a couple layers if needed.
In non-dragon news my Furutech HF-X NCF came today. Out of the box it’s punchier than the DH Labs HDMI. Someone needs to send me a dragon to compare 
My AQ Dragon hdmi and Wel Signature AES/EBU cables are sounding good with around 80 to 100 hours on each cable. These cables have taken my system to another level and the cables should further improve with more play time.
Me. 
For those of you looking for deals on Dragon power cables The Music Room has 3 pairs one source two high current. My guy Nick @tmr also heard the new Dragon analog interconnects and said they are absolute game changers! (And expensive!) I will be curious to see the new three cables in one design! The new Thunderbird and Firebird will be available also at much lower price point.
Really excited about new ICs. Did your guy Nick tell you when they are available?
The launch was scheduled on January, all at once AQ removed the Dragon image from their website when was present since December.
They are available in the US right now. In Europe I’m not sure.
Sobh! As usual here in EU things happen later… it’s quiet odd they are not on the official webiste of AudioQuest. I noticed they appeared on the EU price list downloadable in pdf but no descriptions and details are mentioned yet.
Any review available on the web from beta lucky tester?
BTW thank you Paul.