Mains Cables (again!)

I decided to go for the Clearer Audio from the feedback rather than the scientific boasts.

I could not find much feedback on the Brothers Nildram stuff which goes into what seems a rant about the purity of the silver they use.

Then again I'll have 30 days to find out if the Clearer Audio cables are any good. If not, I'll try the Brothers Nildram ones.

As for Campaign Audio and Sound-Dealz they need someone to have a look at their website, too jumbled up, so gave up looking.

If anyone can can suggest any alternatives I will happily check
those out too.

 

Yep their web sites are dire. I'm not really sure about the whole "silver" thing as there are lots of qualities that copper provides which silver doesnt.

There's another site, which to me was the most convincing, but I cant find the link anywhere.

Have you looked at the TNT TTS - DIY cable?

 

I've got some of the mains cables from Campaign Audio Design. Yes there website is sh*te, but they're nice to deal with and their products are well constructed.

I've got a 2m Conquerer Elite mains cable to 4-way adapter, which was my first HiFi mains product. I bought it to see if it did anything, with the intention of returning it if it didn't. It stayed. I'm not saying it's the best but it does do the basic mains things of reducing the noise floor and giving tighter, deeper bass. My gut feeling though is there are probably better vfm ouptions out there.

Later I bought some of their standard conquerer cable and made up IECs to link to all my components, and this made no noticeable further improvement to my ears. More recently I've been picking up various other IEC leads to try between the CAD block and the components. So far I'm using a Kimber High Current PowerKord on my transport and a Shunyata Diamondback on my Pre-amp. I've got a Eupen and an LAT AC-2 sitting in a bag in my bedroom as they didn't noticeably do anthing more. When I get more time I will be spending more time trying these out though.

 

Here's another one worth a look and low price:
http://www.hificollective.co.uk/accessories/kemp_lo-power_cord.html

 

as a follow-up. My first rejig of the mains cables in my sys had a positive impact...

Before rejig:
- std domestic mains supply to switched double socket
- single Trichord Research PowerBlock 500 (with two unswitched sockets) plugged into wall socket
- one typical, surge protected, 8-way with two led plugged into Trichord powerBlock
- standard power cables to all equipment plugged into 8-way

After rejig:
- std domestic mains supply to switched double socket
- shielded cable 4-way from eBay (user: Audio1st) - well made, with ferrite rings, quality plug and 4-block (unswitced, no led) - £23.
- single Trichord Research PowerBlock 500 (with two unswitched sockets) now plugged into 4-way
- 2nd hand Eupen silver powering SACD/CD player - plugged into Trichord
- 2nd hand Eupen silver powering amp - plugged into Trichord
- std lead powering amp's power supply - plugged directly into 4-way

The results:
Well, based on my before v after - there are three changes:
1. Trichord PowerBlock has been moved up the chain to directly supply CDP and amp.
2. multi-socket has been upgraded
3. Eupen silvers replace std leads to CDP and amp.

I have yet to test each change singly, however I am very surprised by the results of the combined changes: my system has simply come alive. The digital harshness I so disliked from PCM/CD has been transformed considerably into a fuller, more coherent and more engaging musical articulation.

Right across the frequencies, the sound is more cohesive and far more engaging than before. When the volume is cranked up, the experience simply is more of the same rather than any hardening that I experienced before.

Detail has increased - but to the benefit of the music - rather than being at all clinical. The soundstage has improved considerably as a result of the better communicated detail.

I am fairly convinced that moving the Trichord up the chain has had a strong part to play in the improvement but I certainly doubt more than 50% of it. How I would then split the influence of the Eupens from the improved 4-way is more difficult to say without further careful testing.

Interestingly it has somewhat convinced me that the Cyrus 7 amp and Ruark Epilogue speakers have far more potential then I had hoped for. Regardless of peoples opinions about the mainsteam, bright "sound" of Cyrus amps, or the diminuitive Epilogues, I have to say I am more convinced than ever that this combo is a solid partnership at their combined price point (for my tastes naturally). The combo is now fuller sounded, far more musical, decently coherent, certainly forward (but not bright) and no longer hard sounded when listening to CD. However before this experiment I was well on my way to replacing them.

It kind of begs the question should I completely exhaust my mains upgrade options - both domestic rewiring, and additional cable experiments - before I consider replacing amp and spkrs?

 

You might want to try that 4-way with an without the ferrite rings.

Some zerogain members are fervently anti ferrite.

My suggestion would be to try a before and after with/without the ferrite and see what you think.

 

Greg,

Sounds like you have raised the sound from your system a few notches!

Of course, all of these improvements are imaginary, as mains cables/conditioning is a load of bollox

 

Oops sorry, yep I forgot. Strike all of the above....

 

Thats news to me, I'll give it a go. I realise the ferrite acts as a filter, but what are the concerns?

 

The concern is that the ferrite seems to suck a bit of the life out of the sound. I guess the best thing to do is to try it with and without and see if there is any discernable difference. If not, the you may as well leave it in - it cant be doing any harm.

Regarding your Cyrus amps, Kermit (who used to post here) had a load of DIY isolation transformers to power his cyrus kit. By all accounts his system was very good.

Cheers, Robbo

 

Just got my Clearer Audio power leads today. I have just hooked them up. It has made an immediate difference to the sound. The soundstage sounds wider than before. I get the feeling of more space behind the speakers as well.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, it's too early to tell.

I'll edit this post with more thoughts as they get run in more.

 

I would be interested to hear how you get on with this mains lead as I didn't rate them at all,I sold mine and replaced them with Kimber classics which i thought gave a smoother sound for less money,maybe system dependant.

 

I have had them running in now since Monday night. So far I am still very impressed. They have really brought up the bottom end in my speakers. Before I couldn't really listen to music at low levels without loosing the bass. Now I can listen at lower levels and everything is there as it should be. Stereo imaging I think has also improved.

I think I'll be keeping them at the moment. I will give it another week or so then revert back to my old RA Classic PowerKords to hear if there was in fact any difference!

 

Blimee, another poor soul who thinks that cables make a difference...what can you do......

Personally, we've always found that the digi stuff does like it's own dedicated Conditioner. I run Dino's (Cookiemonster) old Lynwood (stuffed full of Bybees and other tweaks...) for the Teac VRDS T-1 and Wadia 15, and at the moment it's running 2 * the smaller Eupens out with an Acoustic Zen Tsunami II going into the conditioner, and it works well. Eventually I'll replace them with some of our own when I can afford it, (time and money), but to be fair it works very well as it is.

The Trichord conditioner is better than the stock Lynwood IMO, I've always been very impressed with them. If I get a conditioner for the amp (Densen) it'll be a Trichord, no question.

Cheers

 

I must say the 299 I spent on my Trichord 500 felt well spent, and very much more so since I now plug CDP and amp directly into it. This cost more than my speakers.

 

Did someone mention my web site? I agree it's not going to win any awards, but my speciality is cables, not websites

What I know about HTML could easily fit on the back of a postage stamp.

What I know about mains cables though is another story . . . . . . . . .

 

FWIW I've just been testing a Trichord 500VA in my system and it made absolutely no difference at all. See here.

Michael.

 

Yep I was interested in your comments. I'm going to recheck my view on it just to see whether I have misjudged it - i'll be as objective as poss. I'll update with my findings against your thread.