Cords and Conditioners...Curious as to what folks think

I find that power cables can and do make a difference to a system, but they are not going to do any favours for a poor setup, rather they can help you get the best from a decent setup in the first place.

I dont believe, however, that this need cost the earth... I use missing link mains cables, the opus for sources which cost £40 each and the Orbit for amps which is around £70, and they are as good as anything i have ever heard, at any price. I therefore feel no need to change them.

The opus definitely helped my system sound a little smoother and cleaner, and less cluttered with busy music.
 
mains conditioning depends very much on the quality of the mains in the first place, if you have real mains issues (which very few do)you will see real gains. also, the equipment power supplies and componentry have a big bearing. search sound on sound for a great article on mains and what actually works. hifi industry can not be trusted, sorry, but that is true of many, not all. pro audio industry offers much more comprehensive and honest mains advise. reviews of equipment have improved across the board and I have become very sceptical of some magazines.

that said, I have found twisted mains leads with class D amps excellent, my isotek sigmas close to useless and a transparent mains lead worth a shedload also pointless. did a blind listening test of mains power leads/products once, will post a thread on it.
 
End of the day its what makes you happy isn't it?

I can't quantify the price of a 3m pair of Odin vs a CJ Premier 350. Doesn't mean its a crap product but if I had the money I doubt I'd consider trying, seems morally wrong in a way.

I've tried mains cables in a number of different components. Some have benefited, some it seems to have made no difference. Most surprising was MF A5 gear. Changing a power cord to the amp made no difference that I could reliably tell. To the Pre it made a massive difference. No idea why but the later was night and day.

As far as I can tell, if you can afford it give it whirl, no garuntees either way.
 
in some cases, ive had "better" (read, more expensive) mains cables make my system sound worse than it did with the standard in the box cable.

Notably when i tried a sonic link mains cable a few years back, i found it made my system unbearably bright. Removing it made Miles Davis listenable again
 
Wow no-ones fighting must be a first on this topic!

My Ben Duncan \ Trichord power conditioners are very effective, but they have science behind them at least. In regards to mains cables I bought a £100 one well before the hifi mags picked up on this. Made no difference at all to my ears.

Personally I'd thoroughly recommend well designed mains conditioners way above power cables.
Tim
 
lbr said:
I've got two Kemp power sources and for the price I paid (one ex-dem, one second hand) I think they are very good value. I've tried isolation transformers in the past and haven't got one well with them.
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i've just bought one of these, also s/h.

have you ever noticed any difference with different sockets? it has 2 dedicated sockets for amps, 1 for preamp, 2 for digital and 3 for lower grade sources.

i have 4 monoblock amps, 1 preamp, 1 DAC with 2 powercords, 1 PC transport, 1 TT, 1 phono preamp, and 1 reclocker.

wow - i should have bought two actually!
 
Hi - hope you like it. To be honest, it never occurred to me to see if there were differences between the sockets - I just plugged my kit into the most appropriate-sounding socket ;)

If you're inclined to experiment with different sockets and you do notice a difference though, I'd be very interested to know.
 
LR which Kemp product do you use? I can't remember was it the regenerator or the multi gang conditioner? Regards Keith.
 
Hi Keith - it's the multigang conditioner pictured below. According to the distributor, UKD, it is "the complete solution to clean mains supply for the serious audiophile". It works for me, so also suitable for the flippant audiophile ;)

KEMPPSC.jpg
 
If you dropped it on them it might...Ouch! No, my dynamics are full and bouncy :MILD: It's a criticism oft leveled at isolation transformers though - I had a 1.5kW iso transformer a few years back that left everything a little flat.

You're welcome to borrow one of mine if you wanted to try it out in your system and make your own mind up. It might even end up for sale if the battery plan pans out ;)
 
FrankDeckard said:
During my days as a 'reviewer', I had the chance to audition a lot of "accessories" and found that most of them did not justify their often ridiculous price tag. I have been using the same Chang line filter that I bought in 1994.
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The fact is people judge differently if a certain price is reasonable or not. The fact that these components are for sale for that price means that there are enough people who believe that they need that unit nevertheless.
When I think about what differences can be achieved when positioning the speakers slightly in another way or with room acoustical treatments, then I could believe people have strange priorities.

FrankDeckard said:
I also wonder if I am the only one (especially in these tougher economic times) who found RG's review of the Nordost Odin to be utter crap. Nothing more than "I'm so happy I get to buy these at 75% off retail" shilling.

Does anyone here use a multi-buck power conditioner and really feel that it was worth the expenditure?

The same deal applies to power cords that are more than say $2-300.
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I tried some power conditioners but they all gave me a worse quality of sound for my taste. So I don't have that problem. Instead I felt that power cords could change certain sound characteristics and I feel the ones I bought were a must for me even if I found the price was ridiculous (way over 1000$). At that time there were no second hand ones so I had to pay for new ones. Today I look for second hand ones and if I can buy these type of cables for 50% I would be happy. Recently I bought one for 1/4th of the retail price.

FrankDeckard said:
YNMOAN,
Cables do make a difference, but I shake my head at some of the stuff I've bought over the years; even with some big discounts. That includes cones, cleaners, and stands.
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I'm soory for you. I know that other people also are in that situation. But others like me are happy about their choices. Yes some things I don't use any more but it was the price to pay when you didn't try something better.

FrankDeckard said:
I think many of us have systems that can reveal differences, but when does the craziness stop????
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When you are completely satisfied with the sound of that what you have, for example. Maybe also the look is important, maybe after a while one wants to get something that looks different.

One main problem I believe is the hearing education of the individual. People spend so much money in electronics, spend so much time in studing theory but hardly anybody invest anything in educating his own ears. There are people who can hear perfectly up and over 16KHz but then cannot recognize an instrument in a full orchestra for example.


Corruption said:
I'll save my money for more music instead....
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Well for those who already have hundreds of cds buying more music is also in a way throwing money out of the window.
What do you do with so many cds? most of them just stay in the shelf for years and years getting dust: what a waste of money!
At least the guy who buys an expensive cable uses it during several years every day (I hope so :D ).
 
Over the course of the past year, I have incorporated products into my system to address room tuning, resonance control within the equipment and the quality of mains supplying power to individual components.

I was not a novice in respect of mains conditioning and have tried a number of different manufacturers 'solutions' over the last five years, including an IsoTek SubStation and Nordost Thor with Valhalla power cords before arrving at my present 'magic' box, the Vertex Elbrus Point3 balanced power supply which I have lived with since early 2008 and has since been favourable reviewed in the hi fi press.

The Elbrus has two 'unlimited' outlets, one of which supplies power to my CJ Premier 350 power amp. In addition there are three further outlets supplying 230volts balaced power which supply my CD player, preamp and alternatively, my DVD/Digital Surround Controller or turntable power supply.

The Elbrus, as well as being a substantial beast weighing 20Kg, has two Vertex Silver Jaya AC filters built in and alot of jiggery pokery designed to minimise the vibration passed between components and back to the equipment.

Having substituted the Elbrus for the Thor, the benefits include a substantial lowering of the system noise floor and a coherent, full-bodied sound with incredible detail and transparency which was not evident before.

I also found that substituting cheaper MusicWorks ReCoil power cords (£200 each) for the Nordost Valhalla power cords resulted in a much better sound balance and richness to instrument tone without any compression effects or limitation of dynamic range.

The Nordost Thor/Valhalla stuff now resides on the A/V part of the home entertainment system supplying AC to my plasma/Sky+ box, centre channel speaker and sub!

The Elbrus is expensive but the results are very worthwhile in a high-resolution system and I would recommend a home audition to anyone interested in improving the quality of mains feeding the hi fi.
Elbrus3.jpg

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