Depending upon budget, you might consider David Elrod's latest offering of the Master Series Gold Statement power cord. I have a few now and love them on my gear (faster than the old Gold Statement, and great resolution - - like the focus sharpened up on the music and the transients, while keeping the musical and harmonic naturalness of the originals).
Zephyr24069
here on the Gon posted about these cords, and that got my attention to try them. He started out on an Esoteric A02 amp, and was bowled over, so I'm guessing it may well translate to the A03?
Esoteric A-03 power amp - suggestions on a power cord.
The Esoteric A-03 is a 50 watt Class A 90 pound beast and need some ideas on a power cord that will handle that current / drive and not limit the amp's capabilities. I would like to hear from owner's of this amp or other members who have Class A amps. Purist Design who makes wonderful cables and run by a great guy ; Jim Aud need not apply as to my ears they made the sound too thick and slow. ( to me ) So look forward to some seasoned responses.
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@garebear - 50 watt class A is not really a current sucking beast, so you will probably need a power cable no heavier than 10 gauge. Add to that the heft of the amp suggests a more than competent power supply - and on looking at photos it sports a dual toroid power supply that appears to be extremely capable. However, what is more important with an amp such as this is to find a cable that is capable of handling extremely fast dynamic transients to achieve that all-important clarity and crispness that is part of the live music experience.. To achieve this you need a cable that uses an advanced cable geometry i.e. where the conductors are not simply placed side by side inside the outer sleeve. Braiding is one geometry that is quite good, but a helix geometry is perhaps the most beneficial of all. From that perspective, for commercially available products, I would probably take a look at upper end Nordost products. They provide exceptional dynamics in their upper end cables and one of a very small few that wowed me in an A/B comparison at an audio show, which is far from an ideal setting, so they must be pretty special to achieve this. Another company to take a look at is KLE Innovations. Their products are very good, but for this amp I would only consider their top of the line product. Lastly - if you are capable of DIY take a look at... http://image99.net/blog/files/be8de0c383c5434907610d6b55049e69-75.html This is the fastest cable I have tried to date and perhaps the quietest - and it competes with some extremely good commercially available products - including Nordost, but that only applies if you use the conductors specified in the link (or better) Having said that - an amp with a power supply of this quality will perform extremely well with its stock cable (which is probably quite a good cable), but if you are looking a squeezing every last ounce of performance out of it - the cables mentioned above will do the job. The thing with amps that have high quality power supplies such as this - you may not initially hear too much of an improvement, especially in it’s dynamic performance because the power supply will take care of that. But listen for the subtleties in the music, such as - improved micro details - better defined venue acoustics (i.e. specifically reverberations and reflections) - improved clarity - a larger more 3D image with laser-like placement of performers - improved separation between performers in the image. Hope that helps Regards - Steve |