This is simple. ARC almost always use Shunyata at Shows. Find a nice used Shunyata cable and be happy.
Power cord choice?
Hoping to change (or upgrade) my current PC in use with my ARC CD3 Mk2. Currently I'm using a Locus Designs Polestar and setting a limit $600 max. I'd like to find a cord that can get more micro details from the ARC yet, I'd like to retain the smoothness but, try to open the sound stage and get a little more bottom in doing so. I listen to Alt rock (Sir Sly, The Killers, Gargage), rock, blues using Classe CAP 151 integrated and Apogee Slant 6s. I know this is subjective but, I'm also doing my best to work with my budget constraints and I'm not going to change if the improvement would just be slightly incremental. I'd like suggestions to consider, please.
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Well it looks like everyone missed the most important fact . Those are some REALLY NICE FISH ! My system is low powered tubes , Richard Gray conditioner, Morrow cords . After that was well listened to, I switched my 15 amp outlets to 20 amp medical grade and switched my cord on the Gray to a 20 amp Shunyata Venom HC . That made a noticeable difference . And I bet a really nice bamboo rod would make your system sound considerably better ! I’m so envious! Regards , Mike B . |
@buellrider97 Have you ever considered, or are able, to have an electrician install a 20A dedicated line(10 or 12 guage wire) from your breaker box directly to your 20A receptacle? Makes a big difference in decreasing noise with more and cleaner current. P.S. I had a Gray 1200 Custom since 2009. Great unit. Though I just upgraded to a PI Audio UberBuss. No MOV’s or surge suppression. Moved that to the breaker box.... |
Dynamic Design. Lotus AE15. Trasparent, 3-D (layered and wide) big, quiet, easy detail, neutral, etc. etc. There's one for sale on USAudioMart that would fit your budget. The different will be notable. I'm using the bigger brother Titania and have heard the Lotus. Less tonal density, but that's just being picaune and not true compared to other pc's in the same range. I wouldn't fault that at all - not really noticeable without a/b comparison tp the Tiatnia - you don't miss your water 'til it's gone kind of thing. |
@rsjm80: You will get many, many responses but you will never know what's right for you and your system until you actually demo some cables. Use YOUR own ears! There are cable manufacturers that sell direct with risk-free home trials. Another option: The Cable Company's "cable lending library". One advantage to the latter is the cables will most likely already be burned in. There are extensive cable shoot-outs on the Audio Bacon site which might or might not be helpful. |
What if measurements don’t actually capture everything about how a cable sounds? To the folks that say that you have miles of electrical cable that run to your outlet, what if a power cable has the effect of filtering out EMI/RFI? I’ve had a limited amount of experience with power cables but even those sound different. One cable that clearly sounded better on one DAC sounded worse on another DAC. Can anyone explain how psychoacoustic factors would yield that result? My contribution to this thread: Use the recommendations from others as a starting point only. I suggest trying whatever power cable you are considering in your own system. I would not underestimate the impact of system synergy on what cable works best with your existing components. |
Here's what an electrical engineer who designs audio equipment for PS Audio has to say about why cables sound different. He's got better credentials than any of you. Commentary starts at 55 minutes into the podcast: https://www.thehifipodcast.net/episodes/episode-54-shielding-grounding-draining-isolation |
If you want to claim that the engineer in the podcast I’ve posted above doesn’t know about cables since he designs amplifiers, this series of articles might be more to your liking: https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-1/ https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-2/ https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-3/ https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-speaker-cable-design-part-1/ https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-speaker-cable-design-part-2/ https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-rca-interconnects/ https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-xlr-interconnect-design/ https://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/iconoclastintro.htm https://www.iconoclastcable.com/story/ https://forum.psaudio.com/t/belden-iconoclast-interconnects-and-speaker-cabling/2038/3087 For those of you that think that "science" proves that cables can’t sound different, please review the podcast and these articles and report back with the ways in which these articles are wrong. THAT would be a post that I would be interested in reading. |