Eupen Power Cords

Julian, I suspect, like many of us, the appeal of endlessly waffling about hi-fi is wearing off. Given that any reasonable person, as they hear more and more gear, tends to conclude that just about any choice is as reasonable as any other when it comes to hi-fi, it becomes difficult to get exercised about it one way or another. So the few genuine points of disagreement tend to get repeated endlessly.

That's my guess anyway.

Have you bought a new CDP yet btw?

-- Ian

 

ian,
you may well be right. angst is a terrible thing is it not?
nope... and i doubt i will be now... nothing i've heard so far has blown my socks off so i'm probably going to buy a mode economical car instead - much time spent on some citroen fora at the moment.

cheers


julian

 

I don't think ZG has ever been any more subjectivist or objectivist than HFC. It would be dangerous for me to try and break down where the differences lie but I wouldn't say there was a subjectivist/objectivist dividing line.

ZG, if you remember, started off from the ashes of GrooveHandle and had no "raison d'etre", mission or defining ideal other than to give the people from GH a place to come to that wasn't HFC.

GH itself started from people who were disgruntled with HFC but, if memory serves, for reasons that had nothing to do with the subjectivist/objectivist debate.

Joel having been the initiator of it I doubt he saw it as a subjectivist refuge, himself being a fairly outspoken objectivist

It might be seen as not very constructive if, as soon as a cable thread comes up, for someone to post "don't waste your money, makes no difference" and I can see why people would find that annoying but look at it from another angle:

If someone was asking about changing from a Cyrus amp to a somewhat more expensive Arcam one and then someone else chimed in with "don't waste your money, get a PSX-R for your Cyrus and you'll be sorted" isn't that the same thing?

People will post their opinions of whether a certain bit of kit is worth getting based (hopefully) on their experiences and if someone feels that it's not a worthwhile spend then why shouldn't they be entitled to say so? Tones did try the Eupen and found no difference with it so why should he not be allowed to say so in a thread about Eupen power cords?

Michael.

 

This works both ways though.

Someone starts asking about tests, research PROOF, and it's only a matter of time till (1) <sarcasm> "Don't worry about it, it's all bollox " and then (2) "Tests don't matter (even though that's what ther person's asking ) just use your ears....

then off we go again....

 

Interesting debate on a £25 cable :MILD:

 

why can't those that want to avoid the cable debates ignore the threads that are cunningly titled "cable"?

It always makes me laugh in a bbs when someone complains about a repetitive subject.I ask myself who exacty put a gun to their head and said "YOU MUST READ YOU FOOL! YOU MUST REPLY HOW BORED YOU ARE! DO IT OR BE SHOT".

Do audiophiles believe the web is running out?

 

FWIW I just tested my Eupen (05/2.5) against a stock lead with my DAC and transport and I could hear absolutely no difference. I also tried using the stock lead with the socket in the wall instead of the Olson distribution block - again, no difference at all.

The tests above btw were witnessed by an audiophile friend of mine who is not an objectivist and he also says he heard no difference :MILD:

Isolda vs. OCOS coming up next

eagle - the cheapest Eupen cost £48 last time I looked.

Michael.

 

:lol:

Agree with you to a point.

It's when arguments carry on over to other threads.

I think these threads pop up so often, especialy when the posters asking for "proof" (see the cable direction thread), is because they're never really answered! And after a few pages of interesting replies it always heads off towards Naim, mana, BMW, Merc, lexus etc....

 

Micheal
It is funny to see you say these things after you sang the praises for the same items

Next youll be telling us that you did a DBT on *nix vs Winbloze and couldnt tell the difference

 

sorry my mistake, £48 cable then :SLEEP:

 

I realise that I have a lot of humble pie eating to do but I know now that I was imagining things. I should add that when I tested my Eupens originally it was with a different transport (Marantz CD50SE) and a different DAC (DAC20) so it's just about conceivable that my Teac T1 and DAC64 are not susceptible in the same way as the Marantz and DAC20.

Tonight was the first time I tested Eupens with my current transport and DAC against a stock cord and I heard no difference.

If you care to search the forums though you will find that Eupens were the only products I sang the praises of. I don't think I even commented on the Olsons and I remember distinctly commenting that I heard no difference with my Isolda speaker cable.

As soon as I've found enough stock cords I'll be selling my Eupens...all 6 of them . I'll keep the Olsons though as I need some king of disty block and preferably one with surge/spike protection so the Olson fits the bill. The hassles of selling them wouldn't be worth it.

Rest assured though that if there's no difference with the Isolda and the OCOS when I test again then that'll be in the Buy & Sell section too in the near future

As I said to merlin - do you seriously think I'd be selling the stuff if I thought it made a difference?

Michael.

 

I put a Eupen on my 64 tonite, and I couldn't hear a difference either, but then they all sound the same to me
I'll be honest here, The eupen (smaller) is better on digital than amps (although on SMPS I dunno) , the bigger one (green/white) just screws the timing up, bloats the bass, room interaction probs etc
I don't dis believe Mike at all
I also have here a silly money power chord, and it makes a RG style difference on all my system, However so does another one here about 1/12 the price, prehaps mike you should try a z/sleeve on a stock power chord, and report back.
It's really odd this mains thing, we have a very specialist mains regeneration unit at work (weighs about 3/4 of a tonne, about the size of a mini), that feeds very sensitive instrumention test rigs with ultra pure and uncontaminated juice (I've surconded it), fully programable (pc controlled), it has 4 totally seperate outputs, each has a range of 50<>600V single to 3 phase and upto 10Kva, It can programme/simulate ANY mains pattern I choose,From pure to UK next to a sub station stylee interferance (great for testing all form of power equipment including mains cables and their effects).
We can take ANY power chord you care to mention, analylise it the input/output patterns, and repilcate it's end output if you like, I wonder if they sound any different . This of coarse means nothing, it's purely a post based on my say so, nothing more
Maybe Mike has better mains in Portugal than we do here (thats not hard, over the last 18 months we have measured voltage extremes from 215.4 to 255v, the UK limit is 230+/- 10%, voltage isn't the only artificats we measured that has an effect, thought it shows that as all your hifi's run from the mains it' may be the single most influenical thing *maybe*), Antonio did report the Belcanto as having 'Thin' mids. (never even something I've experianced, at home or at work or at Robbos' or Grahams)
Either way believe him, in the same way Mr Sukebe *imagines* it helps his sound, Blimey this fence is getting heavy

 

Guess what? No difference . I'll leave the OCOS cables in for a few days to see if I notice any change that might not have been obvious in the testing I did but if not, a 2.75m set of Isolda (spades at the speaker end and bannana/BFA plugs at the amp end) will be for sale by the end of the week.

Tone - Antonio says the mids on his Belcanto are fine now. I had a listen to it yesterday and it was sounding very good indeed

Michael.

 

I remember distinctly when Groovehandle started, I bet a lot of us can

It seemed to me people wanted to go someplace where people knew a little more and could have informed debate about audio. A place where a question like....''What CD player should I buy for 150 quid?'' was less likely to come up..

If you agree with that, then maybe you'd also agree that people stating both sides of an arguement is a good thing.

I agree with Michael that stating a negative view is as important as a positive one, on the proviso that nastiness is avoided. Well done to Tones for repeatedly saying what he thinks, despite it sometimes being unfashionable.

For my own opinions, I often hold them back - I see other people holding back to - most notably WM and Bub, who both bite their tongue so hard it must hurt! .. Is it because we're tired of saying the same thing, or because we all know each others opinions by now?

I personally believe the only time we have to be careful are when relatively new people post on the forum, we can give the wrong impression with OTT postings, and seemingly unprovoked vitriol..- which might scare people off... ZG would be weaker without new blood IMO

 

Cynicism? Objectivism? How about the truth? Fun? Who wants fun? I want the truth... and I want it now!

 

What I hoped it would be (and one of the many things it didn't become) was a place where people with different viewpoints could meet to discuss and disagree. Without disagreement, there would be no forum.
I think Zerogain is far more successful from that point of view.
I'm not an objectivist, though. I'm an audiophool who has spent far too much money (and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future ) on shiny boxes (Champagne Gold, naturally). I've also "tried" cables and came out of that experience sceptical of the myriad and rather roccoco claims made for these things - so you're not the only one Michael.

 

You may well have hit the nail on the head there. Maybe it is time for some of the old guard to take a sabbatical and recharge the batteries.

My current system:

Rotel 1055 AV amp
Denon 2900
Proac Response 1sc c/w the two JBL subs
Cables are stock for the mains, blocks by Woolworths, old Cable Talk speaker cable.
Supports courtesy of mdf cabinet

The Proacs sit directly on the subs.

The result is thoroughly enjoyable to my ears. I do not question that it can be bettered, and improved considerably by tweaking the cables and supports. But for now, as a music lover, I simply don't feel the need

So I am left asking myself, have I overdosed on hifi or is it all really just superfluous to requirements?

 

You'd better add my missus to that. She thinks it makes a bigger difference than me, despite me not telling her I'd changed anything.
Still, could have been the pot we were smoking earlier in the evening...

 

Micheal, i said it in jest not as a dig
sorry

 

Mike, maybe I was being a touch objectivist at the time as you know, my system runs stock chords and bulleted bell wire , and man there's no difference. so FFRC for me now
You did ask me what we did to 7v's speakers to change the sound, any ideas ?