Now that I may have possibly peaked your interest. This thread is dedicated to discussing the Whisper Power Cord and its performance in your system.
I am have just received two one meter Whisper Power Cords. I will be positioning them and repositioning them in my system to optimize where they perform best. I hope to share my experiences Of which pairings I like and finally settle upon. Keep an open mind as everyone’s desires and equipment differs.
If you are a common ground cable customer. Feel free to post your listening experiences, reviews, and in this Cable Sutra. If you’re just curious then questions. Be sure to stay well grounded, and you’re share which cable position(s) rocked your world or just continues to give a euphoric or blissful experience! The subject matter can be shocking but please let’s ourselves appropriately while having fun.
All tongue in cheek joking aside. I received the cables last night. First off these are serious cables. Duncan Taylor spent years doing DIY cables and prior to me investing in them. He answered all of my questions knowledgeably and professionally. And was experienced in what worked by trial and error, learning, research, and listening. . I am not a gambler so armed with information ordered two one meter power cables. I had tossed the idea back and forth describing my system and desires.
They were received well packaged and protected. Plastic, bubble wrap and cardboard. The kind of cable I like no wasted dollars on fancy boxes.
I knew he had burned them in about 80 hours but decided to hooked them up to my MC1000 mono blocks first. Like any cold cable it was different, first thoughts, congested and muffled. Not deterred I let them run twenty minutes. And they started to open. Then swapped back to my core power cables.
Initial thought then was hey I am not liking my Cables as much. So back in with the Whispers. Now things were happening with the Whispers, details, layering, separation of images, fullness, strong powerful bass. Hmmmm i am realiy really liking these. Out to the Kitchen for a refreshment and dishes and cabinets are excited by the bass at low listening level. How can that be?
I see a lot of mass in the cable all the way up to the connectors where it’s reduced significantly. I assume that’s because that particular connector is specified for cable diameters from 6mm to 20mm. It’s the Furutech FI-50.
I’m trying to understand the need for all the mass in 95% of the cable and then not needing it before it enters the connector. Internally to this connector and it’s new sibling the Fi-50 NCF, there’s features that reduce distortion.
I understand that inside the connector you do have to get to the conductors so they can be attached to the lugs. But I generally don’t see the removal of the shields and other components inside a power cord removed before the connector.
To be clear, I’m not criticizing, I am simply being curious. I’ve struggled with finding connectors that I don’t have to carefully enlarge the opening to fit a cable I’d like to use. In fact, I’ve not used some cables because I can’t source connectors that will accept above 21mm. I would really like to find a quality connector that would accept 30mm.
Is there a chance that Stealth will sell them or you might be able to DIY something?
I have no knowledge but you might be able to 3d print a housing and adapt some sort of readily available lugs or maybe print all of the pieces and then assemble?
Just throwing a few things out there to see what might stick.
I’ve been thinking about 3D Printing. Sort of a receiver that I could use at the transition point between the cable and the rear of the connector. If the receiver has enough room, I could line the inside of the shell with EMI blocking material.
The thickness is from the weave that Duncan employs. I agreed not to disclose specific construction details but being inquisitive and an engineer wanted to know more about the design and what makes it work. He talks about his cables on the podcast in detail at time about conductor metals, and extrusion processes of wires plus keeping impedances low. There is science behind them. My Core Power cables are more of a spiral weave vs the 90 degree conductor crossover like in Iconoclast speaker wires or types of weave Whisper employs.
I’m mostly curious about the area that’s not as thick. If it’s not needed just before the connector, then why is it needed on the rest of the cable.
I’m reflecting on your experiments with foil and copper as well. You’ve shown full coverage has an effect. I’d love to see a EMI meter go from one end of the cable to the other while in use.
Cable burning - I use a power strip made by Wattbox. It has a moveable power cord that uses a standard IEC connector. My Wattbox is used for powering my workstation, four monitors, usb hubs, and a network switch.
Whenever I want to burn-in a power cord, I put it on this power strip for ~2 weeks before I put in service in one of my audio rigs.
My current amp Core Power cords are Diamond XTreme They feel like that spiral. No idea how they do the weave.
Diamond uses 18 separate cores of 16 gauge 8N OFC copper plated with 70 microns of extruded pure silver. It is insulated with FEP teflon.The custom weave we use is optimized for maximum performance, ie inductance and capacitance.State of the art black carbon fiber IEC power plugs are used.
Just to be sure the Whisper cables were better. I powered down the monoblocks and put back my original Diamond XTreme core power cables. No mistaking it the magic was missing.
Always curious if things could be better if the sources were treated to better cables. I decided to go after the HDPLEX300 LPS powering the Sonic Transporter i5, Matrix, UltraRendu, and my PSAudio DS DAC analog board. Four streaming components one whisper cable. I pulled my Signal Cable Silver Resolution Furutech connectors with DIY foil shields and rebooted. The whisper back in powered by the P20 Regenerator on a 30amp line and AQ Dragon HC. Back to the same evaluation playlist the Monoblocks were on.
The one Whisper was giving clearer sound than the sSignal Cable. Some aspects in clarity were better than the two Whisper Monoblocks cables. Not quite the same bass as Whispers on the Amps but clearer mid bass. Another go with the Qobuz Whisper Evaluation playlists. A mix of many genres hirez and CD Quality
Needless to say I was getting pumped again and loving the layers and soace and even wider sound stage than I bit out of the Iconoclast series II speaker cables. I even did a Roger Waters Qsound track too much rope that had phasing anomalies my last play before the Whispers. All was cured and depth was entire room again Last time I played the song effects barely got past the speaker plane. So it wasn’t the Series II. Nor my DSP previously. Another swap back to previous cable. Yes Whisper confirmed to be better not by a little but a wide margin
So with system in normal configuration. Time to ad a single Whisper power cord. The McIntosh MX150.
My previous best power cord for this a WireWorld Electra 7 with OCC copper plus RF drain Shields of DIY variety. Expecting great things. Swap in the Whisper Low an behold hit the playlist. Music that was thin as a Sparrow Bone and just as light. Totally perplexing and god awful. So I did a lather rinse and repeat trial. Yep Electra great again Whisper poor again. I even put whisper back to HDPLEX300 and tried with double whispers. No go again. Another cable head Scratcher. Maybe the RF absorbing insulation Wire World uses is needed by the MX150?
Lesson Learned Electra 7 back in place. My system so far 3 for 4 wins on Whisper placement. My next cable Sutra installment will be adding the Whisper to the my modded PS Audio DS DAC.
I am going to try that after I found where it has the most impact. One whisper there the other on P 20. Maybe I buy an IEC adapter so I can put 20 amps through it too. I will definitely try it at 15 amp input. Maybe I put the Dragon on the preamp.
The inside of the cable is not filled with mass, actually. Spacing is an important part of the design. Spacing of the outer two ground elements is important to keep interactions lowered. The bulk of the cable design fits snugly into the connector.
Thanks Darrell! I’m so thrilled they’re performing well in your system. Appreciate that you are sharing your experiences, and that it’s getting you closer to the music you love!
Where do I start? Cable Sutra position 5. Renamed Blossoming Flower Kissed By Angel Wings
This swap was like going to sleep in the dark under a starry sky to find you have meadow awakened in a meadow. The sun is shining. Everything around you is buzzing, blooming, in a busy Mother Nature flowering field filled with beautiful vibrant life. The world is in natural balance every voice and instrument in a tonal pallet of color. Your vision snaps into focus on every delight in a huge field of view. As if you never saw this world.
I have found myself drilling into any song that pops into mind. Always thinking I will find something stuck in the speaker or a musical flaw. Eve tired old Audiophile standards of Nora Jones or Diana Krall. Don’t Know Why I couldn’t find a flaw or Case of You expected to hear Diana Krall’s pedals echoing over emphasized. No nothing but the rods sliding and soft pedal presses not overpowering vocals
Whisper’s powering digital front end is truly an amazing balance. The decays as a note trails off and voice nuances and inflections. Perfect as are the spacings. I find myself wishing if I had more Whispers in the system would the Amps have more balanced mids. But even more richness and layering?
Cable Sutra 6. Coming Soon Only a whisper on the DS DAC HDPLEX300 gets it signal cable Silver Resolution reinstalled.
System Configuration Notes: Whisper power Cord to the DS DAC Modded MK I. Other Whisper Powering the HDPLEX300 LPS powering the DS Analog 12V board and R emaining Digital streaming system UltraRendu, Matrix and SGC Sonic Transporter i5. Preamp McIntosh MX150, McIntosh MC1000 Monoblocks feeding McIntosh XR290 Line Arays. Signal and Speaker cables are Iconoclast Gen2 UPOCC and Bi wired SPTPC and TPC series I and Ii. Digital cables Inakustik Referenz Ethernet and USB and AQ Dragon HDMi. PSA P20 Regenerator with 3M AB7050 HF absorber mods.
Of course. But They are damn good cables. I will have to admit. They are chameleons that not only blend in but give a clear and immersive nature layered quality cleaning up the digital noise. The naturalness and clarity both hard to find powering digital equipment . .I listened to some Voodoo Chile off electric Ladyland prior. I admit there is some mixing effects. But Jimi was moving naturally. Easy to follow where his direction to the microphone was snd hid guitsr was not glued to the amp mike. . Winwood on the organ. Pretty psychedelic without the meds.
