Another cable question


Please don’t respond to this if you are a non believer. Just wanted to know if anyone has had a good experience with silver or silver/ copper blend out from they’ve Dac. Currently using older Acustic Zen absolute copper. There has been a number of members saying good things about silver for digital front ends and I think I,d like to give it a try. Streamer is Aurender N200 using DH labs mirage two feeding Pontus two. Budget is $700 max and it’s seems there are a number of cables in that range, thx in advance and happy New Year!

bikeboy52

Showing 3 responses by audphile1

@bikeboy52 I use AZ Absolute Copper between DAC / preamp and preamp /amp. Fantastic cables!
I have tried AZ Absolute Silver as well as AZ Silver Ref II in place of one of the Absolute Coppers and preferred Absolute Copper every time. I have also tried other similarly priced copper cables and the AZ couldn’t be beat.
In my opinion, to my ears and in my system the AZ power cords and speaker cables are the weakest in their cable line but their interconnects are outstanding.

I looked at your system and I see you’re using AZ Tsunami power cord. I find their power cables to sound dark (I owned latest Krakatoa and Gargantua recently and had the Tsunami a while ago). I would explore upgrading the power cables before swapping the AZ Absolute Coppers.

@bikeboy52 yup. Ever since I put an AQ Hurricane on my Puritan PSM156 power conditioner I’ve become a huge fan. Next I bought an AQ Tornado for the amp (plugged into wall) that I just recently moved to my Bricasti DAC when I bought a Hurricane for the amp.
 

A word of caution with The Cable Company…if borrowing cables ask for the latest version. When I borrowed they sent me an older Hurricane (red jacket, braided). It does not sound as good as the latest Hurricane.
Your other option would be to buy from TMR with a return policy. They have used and open box deals. Once you try the Hurricane on your power conditioner I doubt it will be going back. 

 

Does your power conditioner use 15a or 20a cable? If 15, you can experiment between it and the amp. It’s really tough to say where it will make the most difference but what’s certain is it will be a significant improvement over the AZ Tsunami. You have a very nice system by the way. You should easily hear the benefits of a power cord upgrade. 

@bikeboy52 one more thought based on my personal experience…making vinyl and digital sound the same…do not chase that. Acknowledge the fact that the vinyl will most likely sound different. If you do get your vinyl and digital to sound the same, you will most likely be discouraged from playing records because why would you, with the associated maintenance and care plus inconvenience to get up and flip the record when you just barely relaxed and got the whole soundstage thing going, bother with vinyl if both types of media sounded equally good? Another aspect of trying to achieve the same level of performance from vinyl and digital is you’re going to end up neither here nor there unless you have more or less unlimited funds.
Just something to think about. I know the thoughts to focus one a single type of media/technology, in my case it’s the streaming, crosses my mind very frequently.