I recently got a Oyaide Black Mamba Sigma 2. Very nice cable for Source and lower power amps. This cable has a natural, organic character with nice bass snap to it and detail from top to bottom that is addicting. $210-250 new 1.8M. Don’t let the low price fool you, this is a great cable.
Organic Power Cord with Micro-Detail
Is it possible to have both good micro detail and an organic warm sounding power cable?
I’ve got an Audio Research Ls25 mk1 preamp; switching between a BMI Whale Elite and a Nordost Brahma power cords. Love all the micro detail the Brahma brings out, but wish it was warmer and not as fast. Piano sounds amazing and real with the Brahma, but it kills some of the soul and intimacy when listening to Sade. The BMI adds greatly to the soundstage, bass, punch, and warmth, but there’s also some detail loss and raises the noise floor I’ve found.
Just added a Shunyata Black Mamba CX to my phono preamp (allnic h1200) which dropped the noise floor significantly, added control, and some sweetness. Worked well on the LS25 as well but not quite what I want.
DCCA Ref One power cord on Audioprism Debut tubed amp, really like what it does. DCCA added detail, amazing clarity to vocals, and a bit of forwardness. Wonder if combining multiple DCCA cords will overly emphasize their house sound. I like having multiple flavors in my system. Variety’s the spice of life.
I’ve heard great things about ribbon power cords, Electraglide and Elrod. Would these steer me in the right direction? Looking to keep it under 500.00 if possible.
Sources are 80% vinyl and 20% Bluetooth streaming.
I’ve got an Audio Research Ls25 mk1 preamp; switching between a BMI Whale Elite and a Nordost Brahma power cords. Love all the micro detail the Brahma brings out, but wish it was warmer and not as fast. Piano sounds amazing and real with the Brahma, but it kills some of the soul and intimacy when listening to Sade. The BMI adds greatly to the soundstage, bass, punch, and warmth, but there’s also some detail loss and raises the noise floor I’ve found.
Just added a Shunyata Black Mamba CX to my phono preamp (allnic h1200) which dropped the noise floor significantly, added control, and some sweetness. Worked well on the LS25 as well but not quite what I want.
DCCA Ref One power cord on Audioprism Debut tubed amp, really like what it does. DCCA added detail, amazing clarity to vocals, and a bit of forwardness. Wonder if combining multiple DCCA cords will overly emphasize their house sound. I like having multiple flavors in my system. Variety’s the spice of life.
I’ve heard great things about ribbon power cords, Electraglide and Elrod. Would these steer me in the right direction? Looking to keep it under 500.00 if possible.
Sources are 80% vinyl and 20% Bluetooth streaming.
26 responses Add your response
+1 on the Oyaide Black Mamba V2, I have a full loom and also a Oyaide Tunami V2 PC; you have got to hear it to believe it... https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/oyaide-cables Wig |
LFD AC Mains Cable $395.00 https://generubinaudio.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Flfd-ac-mains-cable I have one- highly recommended Made in the UK 1.25 Meter Length (4 feet) LFD Audio AC Mains Cable ".... Like everything made by Richard Bews of LFD Audio, this AC cord is "mind blowing" for what an improvement it brings. Not only to LFD amplifiers, but to every amp I have tried it on! It makes a difference on digital sources as well..... If you do not love this cable, please return it for full refund...." |
@lowrider57 Not disagreeing with your suggestion about the Audience Powercord. I just wanted to share my experience. I have had the Powercord for over 15 years and Audience has been my go-to-cable company ever since. So recently I did upgrade the Powercord to the SEi version with my supplied Carbon Fiber Rhodium plugs. These are better plugs in my opinion to the Cardas that Audience offers The SEi is a nice upgrade compared to the original Powercord. As it should..Lower noise floor was apparent which created better separation of instruments. It also maintained its smooth and slightly warm character which I always loved about it. So I did a comparison to the Oyaide cable and I thought the Audience sounded artificial compared to the Oyaide. The Oyaide rendered instruments more realistically. In comparison the Audience rendered cymbals that sounded hazy, but smooth, midrange was fine and bass resolution was muddy. Vocals seem to emerge more from a black background with the Oyaide. The noise floor and detail was more obvious as well. This cable has this silky quality to it that is so pleasing to the ears. Bass was very easy to pick up and has great articulation. In the end, I still like the Audience but prefer the Oyaide in my system. More realistic and organic sounding. |
If your budget can run to $2k then I would highly recommend looking at a Sablon PC fitted with Furutech NCF connectors. These connectors are very good and if used with a good off the reel cable like Acrolink, Oyaide, or Furutech, they would make a good upgrade by themselves. Furutech Boosters also help. |
Although the HFC U power cord or UR or higher does sound very good as aniwolfe points out they do cost a huge bundle of money. I agree the Oyaide Black Mamba V2 and the Oyaide Tunami GPX-R V2 are good, especially for the price. I also place the DIY Furutech SO22N (14 gauge) power cord in the running. |
You have to pay good money for a power cable to have them trait's without Significant trade off’s, I would buy used, Tara Lab’s cobalt and higher like the omega evolution power cable’s are very good at extreme low noise floor, organic, detailed sound , another cable good at this is stage 3 concepts - the kracken and higher up the cable food chain of stage 3 concepts, high fidelity cable’s sound thin and smaller , 2 dimensional in comparison, I understand my power cable is about 4th in the current Tara Lab’s power cable line up, for what I use it for, so what, my cable is 1-meter long which by the way sound’s a lot better than the standard 6’ 6" cable that has the oyaida terminations that I have on my power cable which retail’s for $5,500.00, so you really cannot tell me it can’t be done, I paid $1,000.00 for my power cord 4 year’s ago with free shipping right here on audiogon, happy hunting, cheers🥃🍷🍸🍹🍺 |
I ordered my Oyaide power cords and speaker cable wire off of eBay from an audio store that has a large number of 99.5% rating or higher. The orders probably went to three different sellers over a two month period. All items I received were 100% with authentic paperwork, packaging, etc. Do a search on eBay and find the best place and price to buy from. |
@btw22 @electroslacker I would avoid buying cables from a seller based in China. These cables are made in Japan. So my advice would follow along with what Lak has mentioned to buy on ebay from Japan. The cables come with papers, manual and a nice box. Buy from someone with a 99% or better rating. These cables are really good. When in doubt buy from here: https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/chuya-online/item/92479/ |
Triode Wire Labs PCs get lots of positive comments and offer a good trial period I believe, so could be worth a shot. Also considering making my own Black Mambas so I'd be interested in what OP thinks of them. Not to hijack this thread, but I'm interested in the same PC characteristics as the OP and occasionally I bookmark offbeat cables I happen to find that look a little different and intriguing. I dug through my bookmarks and unearthed these two that I know nothing about but wondering if anyone here has experience with them and if they are worth exploring for purposes of this thread. Mad Scientist Audio Darwin Cable Company Thanks! |
