Look into the Iron Lung cable ($29).
Iron Lung Jellyfish
Should mate well with your Jolida gear/Arro's.
Iron Lung Jellyfish
Should mate well with your Jolida gear/Arro's.
Power Cord for $50 or less?
I have a Jolida 707a Tube Amp and Jolida 100A Tube CD player. I have been told that it's a good idea to upgrade the power cords on these two units. I don't have a lot of money to spend. Probably somewhere around $100 for both cables. I looked into the Absolute Power Cord, but those are backordered until January. Is there any other brand(s) that fit what I need that are worth looking into?
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The Pangeas are good, but another option is to go to Zu Cable's closeout page and order a couple of the Birth cables. You have a 60-day return period. These are nice power cables, especially at that price, and are much more flexible and easy to use than the Pangeas, good as those are. After ordering both brands I sent back the Pangeas and got more Zu's in favor of the easier handling. Plus those Zu's sound really good. |
While I do have a few audiophile grade power cords for source components and a sub-woofer, what about just simply purchasing a length of say 8, 10 or 12 gauge 2 or 3 conductor brand new soft copper wire at Home Depot (i.e. Southwire brand) and make your own connections with some high quality plugs? Wouldn't this be accomplishing the same thing as investing in these higher end power cables? All you're trying to accomplish is maximizing the amount of electrical current flowing from the wall outlet to your component, right?? |
DH Labs Power Plus cable can be purchased in bulk for $6 a foot and Marinco male and IEC can be done for about another $25-$30 so you are just slightly higher than $50. A very good cord (and gets much better if cryoed and burned in properly which need not cost a lot more and can be done later) which has been compared favorably with much more expensive cords. On the "slightly warm" side of neutral, it is my cord of choice (I have 4 in use). In the past I've owned Cardas Golden, Blue Circle, LAT, XLO, the Asylum cord (Belden 19364) and others. The DIY DH Labs is a very good cord. The commercial version at $200+ has some very good reviews online. |
This may be long but please read: I bought some DH Labs last week from Sonic Craft, terminated it with Furutech FI-11Cu Male and Ag IEC. Nice cable, but not broken in yet. I own 3 VH Audio Flavor 4's with FI-25 gold on both ends, and a Flavor 1 with FI-25 Gold on both ends. XLO Ultra Type X with F-11Cu male and Ag IEC (very good cable by the way). I have some decent mid grade pc's. I had the Wattgate original IEC left from the XLO re-termination, and several Hubbell hospital grade males laying around. Today I pasted an electrical supply store during work. I stopped in looking to see if they had any Belden wire, they did not. All they had was the Carol 12/3 SJOOW wire @ .84/ft. And some CCI (Coleman). Thought what the hey, I'll take 4ft of the Carol. $3.36 total (no taxes), and I'll throw the Wattgate IEC & Hubbell on it. Could NOT believe my ears! Not even broken in yet, this is very good sounding cable! Off the spool, it sounds good (it is not shielded). This cable has some depth, detail, refined highs, and good bass (hoping it gets better with break in). I read the reviews @ Parts Express on this cable and I can see what these people are talking about now for myself. Its not a giant killer, but is really unbelievable performance for $3.36 (minus connectors). Bought some CCI Seoprene 10/3 (.99/ft.) while I was there, but have not tried it yet. If you are looking for a cheap way out, the Carol would be a good choice. I have seen companies offering $60 cables w/Marinco/Wattgate connectors lately. They specify 99.9% copper cable. The Carol cable is 99.9% copper! Coincidence? |
In an earlier post I recommended the Volex 17604. Here's a relevant review in regard to the Volex as well as the iron lung jellyfish. This is a direct cut and paste from a "shoot-out" of PCs made in 5/19/2006 by Steve Hoffman. The number 15 refers to number 15 of 16 PCs addressed in the review. It's called Power Cord Shoot-out: 16 Power Cords Reviewed. Something to think about. >>15. Volex 17604 Pricing (6 ft. cord): $8-$12.00 Review In other threads on this site, this cheap Volex cord has been compared favorably to cables costing 30X its price. The 17604 is the shielded version of Volex's basic cable which features wire made by Belden. How does it stack up for this reviewer among all the various cables I've had so far? Surprisingly well. Let me amend that-- shockingly well (qualifier-- given the price). I can say that this power cord easily and handily beats out several of the much more expensive cables I've reviewed so far. To put that statement in perspective, though, as you've read, there are a number of fancy power cords I didn't care for at all, so it's in that context that this cheap Volex stands out ahead of them. But saying the Volex is better than cables I really detested is not the same as saying it compares favorably with the really good aftermarket cables. A better, more fair and interesting comparison is against another mass-produced budget cable I think very highly of-- the Iron Lung Jellyfish. I was quite surprised at the difference between these two budget cables. I suspected they would sound quite similar, but they don't. The unshielded Jellyfish is much more extended at both ends-- there's clearly more treble and much more bass. The Jellyfish is more "hi-fi" sounding, where the Volex is more "natural" and warm. The Volex has the "tone" thing down. It *harmonizes* very well. It sounds very "real" and natural. In contrast, the Jellyfish has more "glare" than the Volex, sounds are more "recorded" than real, yielding an artifically sweetened sound. Tonally, Volex focuses more on the mid-range, Jellyfish more on the lows and the highs. Neither one is completely right; one has a smiley-face EQ (Jellyfish), the other a frowny-face EQ (Volex). Overall, the Volex is easier on the ears, the sound is "thicker", and less "exciting". If you want to relax into the sound, the Volex would be a better choice, but if you want to be a participant, rather than just an observer, the Jellyfish makes more sense. The Jellyfish definitely is superior to the Volex in terms of PRAT and sheer slam. It's a much more forceful, impacting and energetic cable. In terms of soundstaging, the Volex is smaller, moving you back a couple rows. The Volex has less "air" and dimesionality than the Jellyfish, making it seem somewhat 2-dimensional and flat. They are roughly equal in terms of detail/resolution. I estimated I switched out these two budget cables at least 30 times doing this comparison. This was a royal pain in the butt. It took quite a while to decide which one I preferred, it was not clear-cut. Overall, these are both terrific budget cables with different strengths and weaknesses, I think it comes down to where you are more willing to compromise. I can live without the extended highs of the Jellyfish (which can sound somewhat artificial), but the deal-breaker for me on the Volex is its pretty severely rolled bass response. I need every last drop of bass I can get, and the Volex withholds a little too much to overlook. And that's a shame because it's so tonally attractive and natural, very "musical" and quite enjoyable. Flexibility: 9 Build quality: 5 Tonality: 9 Soundstaging/imaging: 5 PRAT/dynamics/speed: 5 Resolution/detail/transparency: 7 Value: 8 Overall Performance: 7.5<< :) listening, Ed |