I was talking to my dealer about how good the system sounds that he sold me. I mentioned that I had tried some new speaker/interconnect cables from a local amp/cable manufacturer & both I and the company boss agreed that there was little discernible sound difference between his cables & mine. He couldn’t understand why. He also told me that my room acoustics were amazing, top notch. He’d like me to bring my cables (& his) to his listening room & we’ll compare there. That’s for next week.
My dealer said that in his 40 years this has never happened & he was ready to rise to the challenge. He said he would send me a couple of AQ Hurricane power cords to try on my amp/pre and I’d be amazed. I said why bother, send some Dragons. He told me to connect them to my amp & preamp & I should be amazed within 10 seconds of comparing. Today I received a Dragon HC & Source power cord. I listened to some music I’m very familiar with through my Lumin T3 playing FLAC files from the attached USB. Then I swapped the amp & pre to the Dragons and listened to the same songs. No difference that I could tell. So I redid the test, one song at a time, switching back & forth. Still no difference.
I invited two neighbors over (separately) and asked them to look at my FLAC library & choose a song that they knew well. I played that for them with both sets of power cords. One said he couldn’t hear any difference between the two. The other said that one (mine) sounded like it had slightly more treble, the other (Dragon) sounded like more bass. I played a third version (turned out it was mine but he didn’t know) and he said that was the bass version. He was wrong & admitted that the differences were so small that he really couldn’t choose between the two.
I called my dealer & he asked if the difference was earth shattering. I told him no & he asked how that was possible when he just sent similar cables to another customer last week with a similarly priced system as mine & that guy said that the SQ improved 50% and was ecstatic. I said that that guy must have decided already that he was going to buy them and determined that for that money they must improve the sound. My dealer said that either my ears are those a near dead 95 year old or his last 40 years experience have been a sham. I suggested that he was selling & demoing a product to people that had a propensity to believe it worked & therefore it worked for them. I offered to have him drive here (4 hour drive) and listen for himself & I’ll swap cables while his mind is blown. We may get there yet.
I hesitate to post a photo of my listening room as experience tells me that those that are strong proponents of cables will pick it apart and blame a myriad of other crap rather than recognizing that the 3 of us heard no difference on a high resolving system situated in a room would good acoustics... but here goes.
I never heard the AQ Dragon but the Thunder, Tornado and Hurricane all made my system sound less coherent, with fatter bottom end and congestion in the soundstage. I have no AQ power cables now although I use AQ Diamond USB cable that I like between my streamer and DAC.
If you can’t hear the difference, then you can’t hear the difference. Inviting non audiophile neighbors to assess the changes in sound of a system they are not familiar with and aren’t even trained to hear differences or be able to assess things like imaging and soundstaging is a completely useless endeavor.
@dwcda I’m going to let the sarcasm in your response slide.
I’m well aware of what the AQ Dragons are. I also remember your adventure with a $80,000 Transparent cables where you also heard absolutely no difference.
So here’s my take on it…you either can’t hear the difference, which is totally fine…not everyone can, or this is a 🐂 💩 story. Cause it reads like one. With your neighbors helping you discern the difference between generic power cord and AQ Dragon. Lots of noise in these posts. So personally, I’m gonna call 🐂 💩
@krelldogwe’re going off of hearsay here. No one knows what the dealer said or if the dealer even said anything. We’re just reading one side of the story at best.
Oh I have no experience with the aq dragon. And I never doubted the fact that you can’t hear the difference. Good to see you have these cables on hand. Proving that either your ear is immune to the differences or your system is just downright amazing and is resistant to any cable changes.
Good for you! Enjoy the mogami!
Your reply to my first post here was sarcastic. No one is disrespecting you for the difference of opinion. Don’t play the snowflake card now.
Your experience is not threatening. You can’t hear what you can’t hear. That’s the end of it.
My neighbors are as able to hear discernible differences in sound as you are.
that I doubt
For some the entire premise of these threads when someone describes how two sets of cables sound the same is to diminish their experience.
Well let’s pick this apart a bit shall we?
you had tested a set of Transparent cables around $80,000 that sounded like your Mogami…simply indistinguishable. And you have just completed the evaluation of AQ Dragon power cords on your amp and preamp that also happened to prove that they’re indistinguishable from your generic power cords, to you and to your neighbors that participated in your abx.
The only thing diminished here is your ability to hear the difference. My experience is still good and isn’t diminished.
To add…I explained why having neighbors do the abx is useless in your first post. And repeated some of it here. But anyways…looking forward to your next post. AudioQuest Dragon power cords? Naaah.
Go big or go home. Nordost Odin, Shunyata Omega…I can give you few recommendations.
Well hold on Mike. I think I am seeing either a power strip or a power conditioner or both. Let’s not rush to conclusions that the amp and preamp are getting good power for their property designed power supplies until the OP confirms. A bad power strip or a limiting power conditioner can cap your system performance at a certain level and no matter what you do that bottleneck will prevent any further improvements. It’s tough to see in the pictures what that stuff behind the rack is and what the unit on middle shelf to the left of Lumin is for.
Dude you have your McIntosh components plugged into a surge protector?
It doesn’t matter how many amps they draw. That surge protector is your bottleneck. Take it out. You’re choking your system.
Plug the amp and pre at least for the duration of the evaluation directly into the wall using the dragons. Re-evaluate. Seriously surge protector?
Choked by the surge protection circuit in a cheap strip like that. Fine for routers or cable box. Not great for audio components in a system of that caliber. Something like a passive power conditioner that’s not restrictive would work great. Shunyata is one example. Listen to it for a few days then reintroduce stock cords. Don’t just listen to changes in treble, mids and bass. Pay attention to the entire presentation. Where the instruments are in the soundstage. Depth and width of stage, layering. Make notes on your favorite recordings how they sound. A quick A/B is not the right way to do it. Give yourself time to get used to it for a few days or even a week. Then go back.
One other thing for your evaluation…best listening experience is usually after 11pm when you have lowest noise on the lines (even with dedicated circuit it still appears to be the case) and the house is quiet. Spend some quality time listening and making notes. As I said a few days minimum. Let it all settle. Before you switch back. And no surge protector. Direct to wall.
in that system with properly set up and positioned speakers in relation to the listening chair (start with equilateral triangle toed in then make a slight adjustment by moving the chair further away by half a foot or so and correcting the toe in for the new chair location) you should begin to hear changes however subtle they may be. It will most likely be increased clarity, more focus and position of instruments in the soundstage will be more clearly defined.
Make sure you are listening to at least the redbook 16/44 and higher res files.
The few days of listening hard and alone without someone talking at the same time music is playing, should begin training your ear to be able to discern changes.
No guarantee that the final results will be any different than your initial assessment but at least you have given it all a fair shot at showing you what it’s capable of. I’m familiar with McIntosh amplifiers and they react to power cord changes and the AQ Dragon is one of the power cords that should take these components further towards more refined presentation. If at the end you hear no difference then it is what it is.
One other thing I forgot to mention is to make note of volume level for each of the tracks you use in the evaluation so that you can match it when switching back.
The electricity came from a long way off, how is the last couple of feet going to matter? In any case, the first thing an electronic unit does is convert the AC to DC, so it doesn’t matter how pure the AC signal is. But such arguments are pointless with these people, because you can’t use logic and evidence to convince someone who never used logic and evidence to begin with.
there are two things that are taking place here
demonstrating lack of experience
Ad Hominem - labeling everyone who doesn’t share your beliefs as lacking logic, intelligence and common sense (done without any experience to back it up…going straight to assault)
So please…expect to be treated like you treat others. You’re a theorist. Keep theorizing. Share your opinion when you have a real system and some actual experience. Until then go give Amir a foot massage.
Btw, I returned the Dragons yesterday via Canada Post... same way I shipped back the Transparent cables. I’m not going to accept any more free trials as the cost of shipping & insurance is too much. So far it’s cost me $350 Cdn mainly because of the insurance. And at that I’m only able to insure up to $5,000.
still no difference then or there is a difference but just not worth the dough?
Nope. Outlets make a difference but even with a $3 outlet I could tell a good power cord from a stock one. Upgraded outlets don’t enhance these differences.
I have two furutech gtx-d ncf outlets. If you don’t hear the difference between stock cord and the AQ Dragon, don’t bother with outlets. And only buy the ps audio regenerator if you can return it. You have a tin ear. And to hear the differences you would need a change of a component such as amp, preamp and speakers. Something drastic. I even doubt you would tell DACs apart but that’s something I wouldn’t bet on.
Oh and I forgot…having a Furutech FI-11 CU (copper) AC connectors will change the sound of the cable. Just like using Furutech XLR connectors on Mogami instead of their stock Neutrik. Good connectors make a difference and will improve the sound of the cable. The FI-11 CU is relatively cheap but excellent connector. I used it before.
@dwcdanice! Thanks for the update.
So the most surprising first - you couldn’t tell that the Puritan was in your system. That’s a 180 degrees from my experience with it. Is it the PSM156?
In my system with PSM156, using 3 different power cables feeding it, it restricted dynamics, sweetened and mellowed out the presentation to the degree I couldn’t live with it. I tried their Ultimate cable and didn’t like it - brittle up top, thinner sounding although with higher res than the Classic. Running amps into Puritan was garbage. Even the dac and preamp sounded pinched. I’m exaggerating for illustration purposes but you get the idea. I sold it and don’t miss it one bit. Direct on dedicated line now. Some people love this power conditioner, I didn’t.
Second part…the loud sub. That’s potentially the culprit. Bass that’s overpowering is going to overwhelm the entire presentation. I would be testing every change in the system with the sub off. But it’s your system you do what you like. However, like I said, sub will null subtle changes. You’re going to probably tell me I’m looking for way to justify hearing the change but that’s how it is.
The fact that both of you heard power cables make a difference is cool. And that again comes down to the degree of improvement, if any. Is it worth it to you? Going back to original configuration, you would know if you can’t live without that cable you just heard. If this feeling isn’t there, move on.
That’s my take on it. And I’m looking to hear @mclinnguythoughts on what he heard.
@mclinnguyread your thoughts on the comparison. The UHQR are very nice. I have Steely Dan and Miles Davis. The sounded superb when I had the table.
My room is a challenge as well. It’s not square but not too far from it. I struggled with bass overpowering everything else and I have no sub. Just my Wilson Sabrina and Pass X260.8 mono amps. Once you tune the room and system the difference becomes apparent. I still suspect the sub is a possible culprit. Also, the 4” thick GIK bass traps will suck up some of the mids and highs as well. I switched to limited range tri traps behind the speakers and the results are excellent.
When I read you heard sibilance with mogami xlr vs Absolute Copper that’s exactly one of the biggest differences I heard in my system when switching between Mogami studio gold and AZ Absolute Copper. So I don’t think you imagined it. In any case, it is what it is.
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