I started with VH Audio AirSines well before the BHK era. They had Oyaide 004 connectors and were plugged into Oyaide R1 outlets. The idea was to match the contact surfaces and this worked quite well for me.
When I had the BHK pre and 300s I decided to try a power plant, the P12, for front end components. While it did improve things I discovered that the Oyaide plugs do not fully insert into the P12 receptacles because they have a slightly longer ground pin. They work fine with the usual power ports but those in the power plants are a little different.
Since I already had Iconoclast ICs and speaker cables and Bob at BJC is outstanding to work with I decided to try the BAVs. I was surprised to find the BAVs were close to the AirSines, maybe a little better.
Probably more history than you wanted to know. I’m looking forward to installing the Hurricanes but will wait until they have 2 or 3 days on the cable cooker, that saves time in the long run.
Those P12 receptacles are a bit finicky, they don’t seem to hold onto some plugs as well as others. Also, that darn iec input is so close to the first outlet that I can’t fit two regular sized connectors in side by side. What have you used to make that work?
I did not find it lacking through several component changes. I would probably still be using them except for the problem with PPs. I still use them on the stellar phono and a crossover/equalizer.
I am really curious to the comparison with the AQs coming in.
AQ PCs are notorious on break-in time. Both my AQ Hurricane and later Dragon HC and Source took over a week to settle. So be prepared for long break in time.
For about the same “street price”, a Stealth Dream 2020 is a better cord than Dragon in my opinion, and it took 3 days to get 99% performance. There are two sources to get good deals on Stealth should you be interested in future.
If you can, new or used Stealth Dream 20-20 might be one of the smartest upgrades you can do. I just upgraded dac & preamp power cables to 20-20. Eventually will upgrade the AQ Dragon power cable to my PowerZone, but that will be later due to the cost.
Thanks to both of you for the Stealth/AQ comparison. Since there is rarely a discount with AQ (I know one exception) it makes Stealth more attractive. Ironic that I was weighing price between Tornado and Hurricane just 3 days ago and now I’m looking at Stealth. I will not pretend to be surprised. We all know how this disease works by now.
The Hurricanes now have enough time to say they are a major step up from the BAVs. The first Hurricane went on the PMG pre; the others arrived several days later. In the first few minutes with the Hurricane there was not much difference from the BAV. However after 3 days on the cable cooker the Hurricane was way beyond the BAV for just about any parameter. In my system the most obvious improvements were lower noise, more solid imaging and better image placement in the soundstage (which was larger). There were still improvements for a day or two, so when the other cables arrived they got 4 days on the cooker. On the M800s the improvements were much the same but to a slightly lesser degree.
Overall this was a major step up in system performance so I decided to order two more Hurricanes for the remaining source components. Unfortunately AQ no longer makes these so I ordered a Firebird instead for the 512 DAC. And I splurged and ordered Firebird speaker cables at the same time. The speaker cables came two days later and were cooked and installed about a week ago. Similar improvements as above but to a lesser degree. As far as bang for the buck the power cables win by a large margin but the speaker cables are an improvement I would not want to give up.
Now I’m anxious to see what the Firebird PC does on the 512.
AQ Hurricane was not made anymore? AQ must sell their higher price cables more then (higher margin of profit too). I agree that power cords seem to improve my system more than other types too.
AQ is coming out with new models for 2027 which may have something to do with it. I have seen dealers offering Tornado (one level below Hurricane) so maybe AQ has stock of some cables but not others and don’t want to replenish because of the new models. Just a guess.
Congrats!! I love the AQ Hurricane for price/performance. And the Firebird speaker cables are excellent too. They somehow improve over 2-4 weeks, stay tuned.
Since I’ve changed several cables over the past 3 weeks or so it’s hard to say which cables give specific improvements. However the first was a Hurricane on the PMG pre and that was easily the most dramatic improvement from a power cord I have heard. Can’t wait to see what the Firebird PC does on the 512 DAC.
My best PC goes to Grimm MU2 and it really makes a difference than at other components. But recently I found out the 2nd best (or could be the best but I cannot compare to the above since they have different heads) at PowerZone has made an equally big improvement too (compared to another great PC resided there before).
Currently I am using Voodoo Air Dragon on my M400’s . Voodoo recommends them for tube amps which I had before. All my main components have Voodoo power cords. I will probably reach out to the cable company to try a few power cords in the near future.
