Not in the same league

Boulder provides power cables capable of 32amps and with special speakOn type connectors, not the “courtesy” cables typically provided by component manufacturers.
Most manufacturers, including PS Audio provide courtesy cables just to get you going, knowing that in most cases those cables will be discarded by audiophiles who will choose from their favorite cable manufacturer.
At the recent Florida Audio show, even when there was no cooperative mention of cable suppliers, there was not a single display with stock black power cords, there was no zip cord, there were no Amazon quality interconnects, etc. Wonder why?

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I wish I couldn’t hear differences in cables, it would have saved me a bundle of money.

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Rob…in my .0002 opine is that your listening room is handicapping your
system however good it may be…and perhaps in your case the finest of
finest power cable won’t make much of a difference.

In my case between stock cables that came with my gear and my very modest
Pangea 9AC SE MkII and 14AC SE MkII …the delta was big enough to
keep my Pangeas…not going back to stock…

However my 15x25 L shapped room with no furnishings beside or in front of
my speakers allow for a wide open and amazing sound stage where even the
slightest tweak will be heard good or bad…

When your new speaker stands are installed hopefully you will notice a pleasant
improvement in your sound stage…

Wish you the best Rob with your quest…

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I’ve thought about this a bit - some HiFi amps these days seem to go for minimal circuitry, minimum signal path, as little feedback as possible etc. etc.
This design philosophy could lead to less immunity to EMI, (e.g. no RF filters on the input) whereas a “well-designed” amp according to best practice for electronics design including e.g. RF filters and bandwidth limiting via selective feedback etc. would be more resistant to such stuff.

Both are valid approaches for different design requirements, if manufacturers would be more honest and open about the process (not looking at PSA here as they are more open than many).

A “minimum signal path and no additional filters” approach seems more likely to respond to e.g. screened and/or filtering RF via esoteric geometry type power cables.

Just a thought :slight_smile:

Naim have made high quality external DC power supplies for their components for almost 50 years, and they cost 4 figures, not 6 figures. Teddy Pardo, a Naim lover all his life, built a business making alternative power supplies for Naim, now a significant international business, and he makes power supplies for just about any brand of hifi with a DC input. The Naim power applies cost $500 to $2,000 and a quality DC DIN cable is $125 to $500.

The power supply itself can be plugged into the wall with a $5 kettle cable, no expensive cable or conditioning or regeneration required.

Digital components increasingly have DC connections, so a good external DC linear power supply is always an option. MCRU in the UK have ben doing this for years, mostly designed by Nick Gorham of Longdog Audio.

We have other options in the UK, Dr Sean Jacobs, who also designs the power supplies for Innuos. Paul Hynes was popular, but I think he retired and his designed are now made under license.

Of course Class D amplifiers are generally only as good as their power supplies, and the likes of Linn, Devialet, Primare and of course nCore have invested heavy in their power supplies.

These are all UK and European brands, perhaps why there is less interest over here in expensive cables and regenerators.

For my part, I installed a good quality mains supply, which made a big difference, and now use a Puritan conditioner, which came with their best 2m C19 cable and cost $1,200.

I believe it’s spelled poll. The other pole sometimes has a young female attached to it and some throw a lot of money towards those poles.

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I’m not saying there aren’t other decent power supplies - of course there are - but most (nearly all) will be at a level where increasing the quality of power cord will make a major difference. I think another person above (maybe Luca) made the same point. Just my opinion.

And yes, all will power up and play music with any power cord, even the stock one.

My point was, in response to the comment that increasing quality of power cord is a waste of time because the real problem is in the power supply AC/DC, that well, yeah, but we change what we can change and unless you are buying Boulder-level, you can probably realize a net gain in SQ by getting a better power cord.

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In the demonstration I was at, the results were announced after blind listening, and those results turned out to correspond exactly with what I heard.
There were some naysayers in the same room, that were off to the side and behind others.
There is a sound compromise in Rob’s system due to speaker placement, limiting the ability to hear differences with cables/cords.

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This is demonstrably untrue. The two leading UK brands, Naim and Linn, are based on high quality DC power supplies and (in the case of Naim) a decent DC power cable, but no benefit from crazy AC cables. They sell an AC upgrade cable for their AC powered devices, priced at about $100, most of which is for the high quality plug.

And then every decent Class D amplifier has a quality power supply, else it wouldn’t be a decent amplifier.

I replaced my Shunyata power cables with Puritan cables at 10% to 20% of the cost and it made no difference at all. The main reason for the Puritan is that they are “floppy”. Floppy cables are very practical, they take no space.

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Curiously, have you used a Class D amp or amp with an external DC supply in your system?

Last I checked, the original owners of Halcro sold their interest to Chinese? investors.

I tried noise harvesters and kept them. When they go on sale, the price was enough to give them a try. My experience is you need to try in your own home. I noticed the noise floor of my living room stereo was reduced when using my halogen torchiers, also when my fridge kicked in. I compared the sound with Harvesters vs. without. No, the difference wasn’t night and day, but noticeable. Like andynotadam I noticed when the torchiers / refrigerator fan weren’t activated, the Harvesters had no lights flashing.

Cheers!

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LMFAO! Thanks for the correction paul172, I had a great chuckle over that lol

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No argument davida, and on a different note, I did follow the advice earlier in this thread and purchased the ISOAcoustic stands sitting on my speaker waiting for a home.

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Hey Rob…

Try placing them under your speakers :innocent:

They will work better there… :rofl: :innocent:

Best wishes

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Right! I’ll get right on it :rofl:

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No Rob they are not for you to get right on top of them…it is
for you to place your speakers on top of… :rofl: :innocent:

Have fun with your innovations and tweaks

Happy journey!!
Best wishes

Congrats, let us know your thoughts, Rob. If you can, at the same time, try moving the speakers 4 feet away from the wall for a while. Just for curiosity, a couple of hours, before moving them back again according to your marriage agreements.

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To add to Luca’s comment, if you have any flat boxes around, or even a small rug without any backing, you might try temporarily setting it underneath the footers so you can easily slide it around on the floor for a short while.

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Iso Pucks under my speakers and some other things that don’t slide can be fixed with self-adhesive felt from Amazon. $10 for a lifetime’s supply. My speakers are 50kg each and can easily be moved around with this stuff applied.

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