So each speaker will a high quality AC power cord?
I imagine each will both require and come with one.
Would you expect it to be much higher in quality than what is usually included in electronic gear?
i don’t know schiit from shinola, but it’s for powering the subwoofer. I don’t think it needs to be insane.
Doesn’t really answer your specific question, but I’m just tossing it out there.
But they might have a bunch of cables left over from when they moved to AQ stuff, so who knows!
They tend to include nice heavy AC cables with their stuff.
I am just getting into this thread. Thanks for bringing it up. I don’t think we have any plans to offer anything special at this point. But honestly, I haven’t given it any thought. We’re certainly not currently going down the road of adding a special and expensive power cable for the subwoofer. I think that while it may help the sound, it’s not a critical components that we should decide for people (just like we don’t do that for our amps and preamps which would benefit even more). Most discussions I have been a party to center around how we’re going to make this speaker a sonic spectacular the likes of which the high-end world has never known.
Paul if you can do this, that would be sufficient
best comment ever
I dunno - I expect more than that
Given you recommend replacing the “courtesy” power cords shipped with BHK300’s, out of curiosity, what is the gauge of those"courtesy cables? Are they shielded?
14AWG on those guys. Shielding is present but by no means plentiful.
Thanks.
Perhaps not truly relevant, but … I have Vandersteen 5’s which have built in subwoofers like the FR-30 will have. My speakers use a Class AB amp and came with decent quality off-the-shelf power cords, I think they were 14 AWG. Richard Vandersteen has said many times in the past the power cords don’t matter, not sure if that was his bias, but I think there were folks on Audigon who tried different cords and I don’t recall anyone saying “huge difference!”. Personally, I replaced the cords with Audioquest NRG-2 because I needed a longer cord for one speaker. One problem with the Vandersteen’s is the IEC inlet is buried in the amp face so most high end cords won’t fit since they use oversized IEC connectors. The lower en Audioquest cords use a “normal” size connector which fits just fine. Did I hear a difference? No, at least not one that was easily noticeable.
Bottom line, I would suspect the power cord of the FR-30 will be the last one in your system needing replacement.
Many feel that quality of power cables on subwoofer less important than quality of power cables on amps, preamps and especially sources.
I have upgraded interconnect and speaker cables, and have a Powerplant P12, but so far have not upgraded any power cables in my system. That said, at Axpona 2019, Audioquest had a demo in a room where all they did was switch power cables in the system, and I actually did hear a difference each time the chords were switched. I stood near the back of the very large room, at the center axis of the speakers and the differences could easily be heard. The first chord, which later was revealed to be the stock chord, sounded fine. The 2nd chord, later revealed to be the cheaper upgrade, sounded cleaner, but strongly muffled by comparison. The 3rd chord, which later turned out to be more expensive, sounded closer to the 1st cable but was smoother, and also sounded much better than the 2nd. The 4th chord, later revealed to be top-of-the-line, did sound the smoothest and most refined. The room this demo was in? Vandersteen
So did I catch that the cheaper AQ cables were worse than stock?
In the brief demonstration they sounded muffled by comparison. I thought the stock chords sounded good, but the 3rd and 4th did sound smoother and more refined in the demo
This mirrors my own experience… I already have an RMA to send my Monsoons back. Muffled… made my system sound like it lost all its magic.
The AC-5 is better and I will be getting the new Iconoclast BAV shortly.
Yup, power cables do make a difference, just not so much on subwoofers. With respect to the Audioquest demo, I had heard others here refer to it, which surprised me since I was at AXPONA last year and don’t recall hearing about it when I was there. Surprise just turned to shock finding out it took place in the Vandersteen room which I visited several times to hear Richard’s best, the System 9. Never saw anything in the room to indicate the demo, but that room was HUGE so must have been in some dark corner …
i** love ** Arnie’s 1st prototype.
i love each version of the AN3.
this new FR30…has left me cold.
i have no desire to even hear it, much less spend $20k on it.
i cant imagine even caring what it sounds like.
it turns me off.
i am sad.