I have tried many lower priced power cords before, and only two impressed me. But power cords are system dependent, and the cord I did not like may excel in another system. In general, a cord that costs 5 times over will sound better. At least in my experience I have not found a true giant killer yet. Zavfino Silver Dart OCC comes close, but it is selling over $1k (not sure how much nowadays). It could not compete with a $5k AQ Dragon for sure.
Anticable Ref. (top of line) cord with a 3M tuning ring on it, and Silnote Orion M-1(for digital sources, but this cord costs higher than $500) are the two that really shine, and I believe they could beat many costs 2 to 3 times more. None of others are close. like I said, an expensive topline power cord will still leave them in the dust. AQ Dragon and ZenWave silver cords in my system are just so much better.
Lately I tried an Aliexpress Odin2 silver-plated cord, and it is surprsingly good. But when I replaced the connectors with a set of Furutech F50 NCF plugs, this power cord is sounding incredible. However, these connectors are expensive too. This cord used to serve Lumin U2 and it made a drastic improvement, until I replaced it with an AQ Dragon. Well, you knew which one won already.
From a cost-benefit perspective, a good used cable would be interesting. The Furutech DPS-4.1 is a very good cable. A Zenwave cable wouldnât be a bad idea either. Zenwave also has two different copper cables. Donaldâs beloved Zenwave is also available as a PSC version in copper. A little less resolution but more body. With Furutech FI 48 NCF a fair and definitely good cable.
Thanks to all of you who have suggested such great options for a power cable to feed the Innuos PhoenixNet thatâs now on its way to me. Iâll probably stay away from cables that lean at all toward brightness and also try to stay under $750 if I can. I also like having the option to try a cable in my system and return it if it doesnât work out.
If I decide to explore cables over $1K, Iâll probably try something that can work well for my DAC, which seems to be the most cable-sensitive piece of gear in my system. For use in the DAC, any new cable will have to sound better than my current Shunyata Delta NR V2. The silver Zenwave cable Donald is now using in his system is well beyond my price range, but a copper version may be a viable option. The AQ Dragon (Source) sounds like it would be great as well, but that cable is also out of my price range.
When I get the PhoenixNet, Iâll add some comments to the thread on audiophile switches.
Not necessarily an upgrade, but I just purchased a used Decware CSP3 preamplifer, that has all the Anniversary mods, and has been completely cryo treated by Wathen Cryotone, who people keep praising. Both Deckert himself and the current owner says it makes a profound difference. As I have an otherwise identical CSP3 in my audio visual system Iâll be able to compare the âdifference.â
It will accomplish a few things for me if it can replace my ZTPRE in the main systemâand it should easily enoughâit will add headphone to that system as I donât have one right now. And it will add the Anniversary Mods to the preamp as my ZTPRE does not have it. Iâll lose about 6 DB of output (30 instead of 36) compared to the ZTPRE but I never get that high in the gain anyway. And it will give me rectifier rolling for the preamp again as the ZTPRE does not use tube rectification.
I shouldnât have done it! But I did. Sigh. Itâs a sickness. It was priced way too cheap, so I wonât lose any money in a resale.
My first power cables were Shunyata Delta NR V1 cables. They were about $800 each. Jason from the Cable Company dragged me kicking and screaming into 4 of them. Bah.
I remember hearing a nice change. I was pleased. I soon started acquiring a bunch of Shunyata Sigma V1 power cables. None at full list. I started finding them used and I snapped them up. They are all in storage now.
The most I have spent on a single power cable is $13,500 for my Gryphon Ethos Transport/DAC. It is a Stealth Audio cable of course. It seems nice.
I like your choices so far. You might be good fo a while.
Your note along with the rainy day inspired me to pull my SE84UFO out of the closet.
For the first time, I looked underneath and discovered the label with my name, how cool.
2.3 watts powering 87dB, 4 ohm speakers, albeit at low 70 dB levels but beautifully.
They are just wonderful amps. I thought I was done (with more efficient speakers, and. a fraction of a watt more per channel in the Monoblock version) . . . but the SEWE300B called my name and I have to say, it has all that I loved about the Monoblocks and also that ease you get from having more power for your speakers and a less analytical more natural character to the sound now that it is broken in.
Decware used to be a well-kept secret. The cat is out of the bagâI couldnât imagine waiting three plus years for a component. I effectively waited nearly two years for my SEWE300B (even though not really as two years ago I ordered another component that I changed to the SEWE300B).
I think @Stier2704 has been beating RC and digital unused ports. I didnât like sound shutting off RCA outputs on mk2. Probably system dependent and requires obsessive experimentation.
The tourmaline connectors do not short the signal. They resemble a capacitor. The tourmaline is piezoelectric, it basically absorbs RF interference. The sound effect is subtle, there is probably less noise. Voices and instruments get a natural signature and subtleties become more apparent. DIY tourmaline plugs are not expensive. Furutech now also has RCA and XLR clearline termination connectors. I opened my Epluggs plugs out of curiosity. They contain a 47 pF ceramic capacitor and a viscous mass that supposedly contains minerals and gemstones. I havenât seen anything about them being added as nanopowder. Maybe I will get a capacitor to see if it helps. I would like to get suitable plugs for the USB ports so that I can fill them with tourmaline. I have to try another tip to increase the sound on the USB. Also on the cable LAN modem. A capacitor with around 0.22 uf is supposed to buffer the external power connections +/- 5 volts on a USB plug and thus keep the power clean from external interference and additionally smooth out the switching peaks. A Jantzen Supreme was suggested. In my experience, a duelund JDM silver 0.22uf should work very well. A high-quality capacitor should work wonders on the USB port. An audio quest jitterbug, on the other hand, is supposed to sound bad.
But doesnât it have to hurt to buy for something to be useful? Nano particles, thatâs a good thing right? I want my nano particles to be AI driven.
You can get tourmaline powder on Aliexpress. If possible, the plugs should be large and have as much space inside as possible. There is also the option of supplementing the connector housing with a copper tube or replacing it completely. The electrode on the center pin should have a large surface area. I used silver wire in a spiral. Small copper tubes or solid wire also work.
Are you trying to compete with @Vmax to be the tweak king of the forum? This is the first time I heard of powders and capacitors in cable connectors can make a difference in sound.
My latest upgrade is brass footers on my speakers. My experience between the Isoacoustic Gala and brass is that the Gala has nice open sound but the brass had better tone and solidity to the sound. Both are excellent but brass is more to my taste.
These are the Mapleshade Mega brass footers power coated black.
My first set up: router (Sablon short cable) > EXT-2 > (Sablon) Innuos PhoenixNET > (Pink Faun cable) > Innuos Statement
Next days Iâll try different combinations, before the switch and before the server/streamer.
Meanwhile I bought a grounding cable from MSB DAC to MSB amp and this was a pleasant surprise, more than other tweaks like fuses or filters. At least until now.
Never heard of this filter before, and I guess it works with PhoenixNET 100mb limit better.
Interesting to know what is the best combination in your system. I still have Muon2 filter in my list. I heard some good things from combining with Omega ethernet. Wait, was that from you?
Yes it works at 100Mb/s at its best. It seems to passively cleanse the noise from network without altering or coloring the sound.
As for Muon2 USB cable Iâm still liking it, while the Muon Pro filter is not on my plans, canât say nothing about that. I had recently a few mails with Rob from NA and probably I test soon a new ffilter from them.
Rob explained to me that the Muon Pro could be compatible with my PhoenixNET and somebody is getting good results even at 100 Mb/s because is not a speed matter but a bandwidth matter. Anyhow to work at its best it needs a Gigabit path.
So the ENO, that is different and designed for 100 Mb/s network, is going to be updated with a new ENO2 version. He said Iâll be one of the beta testers.
The MUON Pro is a shadow of itself at 100 MB vs Gigabit. No No No No No.
I am getting a quote from Jason for the Furutech NCF Clear Line RCA & XLR âLine Optimizersâ. a pair of each. So dumb. So very dumb. Dumb like using the MUON Pro and 100 MB.
