I like the suggestions to use the Power Zone with an average performing power cord first before buying a more expensive one. Its just plain common sense.
Full disclosure, when I installed my Power Zone, I used a Stealth power cord Dream 20-20. I am very happy with the results. Anyway, I have no advice for a power cord; will leave that to others.
Not to throw water on this happy band of PZ owners, but I am experiencing something I can’t shake. Yes, it’s quiet, resolving, more dynamic and has improved my imaging more than any other component. In fact, a couple of issues related to speaker height and room anomalies have reduced greatly.
But, my gripe is that there is an undeniable amount of grain and hash most notable in the high frequencies. I noticed this most on vocals where the trailing sibilance is irritatingly bright. This condition was noticed on Al’s unit as well.
Great recordings have little of this extra garbage and I could just forget about it and chalk it up to lesser pressings that the PZ is faithfully reproducing Also, it is not my recent influx of Stealth cables. In fact, every cable change has mellowed the high end rather than exaggerated it.
Nor is it a break-in thing.
What I do think is that my incoming power is particularly nasty and the PZ does nothing to address that. When I had the P20, incoming THD ran high, from 7 to 10%. I do not have one now to experiment, nor would I keep it for that single function.
Let’s hope I’m just momentarily mad and this is my artifact and not the unit lacking line noise filtering.
Some of you might want to try it with a regenerator .
That is unusually high, I have not experienced the treble issue on the first week, and my THD is typically around 2%.
It could be room related too. You can experience moving the speakers out more or adding diffusing elements in the back to see if the SQ would improve. Then you can prepare your next major upgrade on the room.
That was probably on Friday, I wasn’t able to get there until Friday night. I did go in the Gryphon room briefly on Saturday, totally unaware of the PZ. The sound was nice, but I really missed the in/out the demo of the PZ.
I haven’t tried other power outlets as this one is maximized by a separate 20a circuit, separate ground and specialized outlet and cover. I also did not plug-in gear combinations. Power capacity does not seem to be the issue.
The situation of disruptions in the power grid is varied and not everyone here has the same problems.
A THD of 10% is very high. Mine is between 2 and 2.5% and it is reassuring to see that the output on the P10 is only 0.1%.
I think I’ll keep my P10 for now. Maybe I’ll connect the switch and the CD drive and the TV or something to it. The rest to the new Furutech Vault power strip that will be delivered in a few days.
Your impressions confirm that I shouldn’t act too quickly.
To reveal the secret, I was able to experience the Schnerzinger Grid Protector on Tuesday in the development room at Schnerzinger. I am very impressed with what it has achieved there. I will bring a device home to try out as soon as I have the Vault power strip.
I hope that my results will be similar. I was told that it works on most power grids. Only a tiny minority of them are unsuccessful. I hope that my situation is not one of them.
As far as I know, a test in connection with a Gryphon Powerzone is also to follow.
Perhaps Luca’s dealer will do that too and it could be quite a while before Luca gets his Powerzone after extensive testing.
Greetings Andreas
My suggestion is merely intended as a temporary experiment to find out if there are differences:
in the power grid, due to the dedicated line (wire, socket, receptacle, ground…)
in the way the components (and the power cords feeding them) respond
Just to find a starting point to focus on, if possible, that allows you fine tuning the sonic presentation. A matter of a different synergy between the electrical system and the gear, so to speak.
I agree with you, replacing the Dragon with STEALTH, I’d rather expect the contrary.