I never liked PS Audio products, I thought they could only be rated somwwhat as entry level. About over a year ago, I bought a PerfectWave AC-5 cord and it was pretty impressive, it had the hi-fi sound and could be the hi-end sound as well. After I sold it to move on to others bigger brands, I now realize that the PS PerfectWave AC-5 really is a very good contender. Like many other PS Audio products, the PW AC-5 won't be warm nor fully bodied. Mids are't so rich and full. Yet, its highs are very polite and addictive. If compared equally with other brands, new or used, I think the PS PW AC-5 is priced as a great bang for buck cord.
I posted a thread on 6-4-09. Hope that helps. |
I think the AC-12 and AC-10 with single crystal PCOCC solid core conductors are very good sounding and PS Audio's best power cords to date. |
i've got ac-3, ac-5's and ac-10's in my system and couldn't be happier. great line of pc's imho. i recommend giving them a listen. |
These are really fantastic cables, the Ac-10 in my system is just breath taking in it's presentation and i can't wait to try the Ac-12, as they seem to out do each other by good leaps and bounds. Those I've talked to to on other forums all seem to to confirm this. If it out does the Ac-10 you guys really need to try this Cable, yeah !! the the Ac-10 is that good! |
I have all Perfectwave AC-5s. I like them because they neutral, not adding to or taking anything away from the sound of my system components. They only conduct the supply of power. |
I just got the AC-12 for my Puccini player and it fleshes out instruments, adds heft and weight to the gestalt, highs become airier, and midrange more palpable. Very happy with it. Will probably replace my old Shunyatas with AC-12's for all other components as cost-performance ratio is way better with the AC-12.. I find that when plugged directly to my heavy-duty distributor cable instead of the Shunyata Hydras, dynamics take a big leap. |
I agree, it seems to free up the music on all levels not showing favortism to any one frequecy dynamics are great,it puts music into a prespective very differnt than what i was use to. |
Thanks for your input...I got the AC-5~ it's great cable for my mac!
thanks again. |
I just plugged in a brand new AC12 into my system last night. This cable runs between my Furutech wall outlet on a dedicated line 10awg cyro'd romex.
This replaced a DIY VH-Audio Flavor 4 (9awg) cyro'd cable with Furutech Gold connectors.
Even after all these years playing with cables, I cannot get over how different power cords sound.
Plugging in the AC12 from wall to Power plant Premier my system went from rather analytical and spacial to warm and rather full bodied. In fact to much so I thought. So I changed some tubes on my pre to some that dial up the spatial qualities and add a bit of leading edge transients and yes things got much better. Then the AC12's sound started changing. I mean it seemingly changed from cut to cut. We'd replay and scratch our heads not being able to understand what was going on. I should know better but I'm impatient and I also understand break in time but this wasn't subtle at all. The cable was continuously changing last night and by the end of the evening, I needed another tube change as the upper frequency spectrum really started to come around. I asked my wife to leave the system playing today and see if the AC12 doesn't settle down.
I've been listening to 2 particular cuts on Joan Osborne "Relish" St Teresa and Dracula Moon seems like forever. I've always felt that the engineer had miked her too close and her voice would get over-driven at times. That simply wasn't the case last night. We sort of were prepared for the cringe factor but it never happened. I was floored. The highs were there in all their glory but the hardness was gone.
This is not so much a review as it is an observation that I wished to share. The cable is not broken in so a review is sort of useless, just my 2 cents. I did audition the AC10 and AC5 and thought they were OK but not worth changing out my very good DIY'ers until I heard the AC12. Well I bought the AC12. I have NO experience with other high end power cables although I'd love to hear a Shunyata or a LessLoss in my system. Now more than ever as I continue to discover how much power cords play a role in a high end system. Now I need to look for a decent digital cable! |
Your dead on in your veiw of the cable changing right before your ears, My Ac-10 has 280hrs of play time but as soon as it hit 270 hrs something very spescial happened the sound stage became emence details that where buried deep where effortless and at 282 hrs its still giving up more unheard sound, I had thought the 300 hr breakin was to much , but its dead on, I may pick up a Ac-12 down the road but the Ac-10 once broken in is a hella good buy! |
i got my ac12 recently and plugging it from wall to my quintessence. huge different even right out of box. the bass is sometimes powerful(within 50 hours so it's changing). highs are smooth and the soundstage is unbelievably large. i really felt like i changed all my setup. can't wait to hear how it will sound like over 500 hours. |
This cable is driving me nuts. It went from smooth to harsh to bright sounding. Now I've got a soft tube setup, the filter on my DAC at 5 to deal with post and preringing and upsampling redbook to 96. It actually sounds quite good in this set. I would guess I'm past the 100 hour mark.
I was, or rather, tried to play Aerosmith "Pump" but it was unlistenable. Just way to aggressive. Just down the list from Aerosmith was Al Dimeola. Now that was amazing. Then I cued up Jennifer Warnes, Blue Coat CD - remastered. With my critical ear the highs are still a bit lacking in texture. The mids lack some in the warmth department as well but at the same time giving great clarity.
I made a change on my 7 nines silver XLR interconnect pair going from Vampire XLR's to the much higher quality Furutech Rhodium's. This seemed to provide a bit more richness for lack of better term and a bit more air but it's difficult to tell honestly as it took me a few hours to perform that change.
Having the AC12 in the system I decided to sink a ground rod in our groundless rental (that didn't prevent "others" from thinking this service is grounded finding ground wires attached to a groundless pipe)and put my dedicated circuits ground to a proper ground. I can't say I noticed any difference (aural memory being what it is) but at least I feel better ;-)
I'll continue to monitor this AC12 and report back. At some point I'll pull it from the system and return my Flavor 4 for comparison. |
It's going to take at least 270hrs to bloom and it will, leave it untouched try not to move it! I know what your saying my AC-10 had some fits aruond this point as well at 150hrs it should snap out of it, about 170hrs new details should start to emerge and from there it will continue to amaze! |
Last night was a revealation - pun intended. Mid bass came back and the air around instruments took on a 3 dimensional quality I haven't heard in a while. I'm probably at about 175 hrs. Soundstage is growing, Let it Grow as Clapton would sing.
This is exciting. The wife unit just started warming up the stereo and will report back on her classical offerings. She was having a hard time with this cable not wanting to listen to music but now she's all ears. She doesn't understand the "cable sound" but she's learning fast. "Honey, what if we change the power cable betweeen the DAC and the PPP?"
Scary huh?
You're right on Jdub, I gotta be patient. |
Glad to hear it Desalvo55,from hear on out it will just keep on rewarding you, until your past your personal knowledge of what your system is capable of, as you can tell I really love my AC-10, and salavate at the thought of my next upgrade to the Ac-12 and PPP! p.s keep me posted on the continual revelation. |
Some time ago, maybe 5 weeks now I had ordered a Porter Port receptacle. Folks on this forum raved about em' and I thought after some frustration with my Furutech outlet, I'd give the Porter port a try. Well it finally showed up (first one was lost I guess).
So what do you do when you have a new piece of audio gear? You install it. So I did. So what was the change?
Probably another case of too soon to comment but here's my initial impression.
I noticed a softening across the entire dynamic range. Best to describe as there was less snap or a diminished quality to the leading edge transients. The upper frequency range seemed a bit rolled off. This affected the sound-stage and the tight focus of instruments was somewhat lessoned. Decay seemed to suffer as well. I spun some Radiohead "In Rainbows" Nude was first up. There is a great amount of decay in Tom Yorke's voice that usually trails off for a long time and gives you great sense of the size of the room he's singing in. This was a bit closed in with the Porter Port. I spun Paranoid Android from OK Computer a very rough number that will generally test your ability to stay in the room if your system has issues. I found this cut easy to listen too and sounding quite good. Nothing jumped out and bit you but rather played in a relaxed fashion. But this isn't a relaxed song. Moving to 3 Guitars, a 96kbps Cd now down-sampled to 48, (Squeezebox 3 digital coax to PWD dammit) the transients again were slightly diminished compared to the Furutech outlet. My wife likes the outlet but admits something is missing in a holographic sense compared to the Furutech.
I think I just hijacked this thread.?
Bottom line, this outlet needs more time. I'm moving it to where my sub outlet resides and returning the magic of the Furutech outlet. So far as I can tell, the Furutech and the AC12 are making magic.
This magic came through late the night before with a play of Sarah Mclachlan Surfacing CD playing Sweet Surrender - there was a true Goose-Bump factor going on. She was solidly standing in front of us as a 3 dimensional image and the sound stage around her went well beyond the speakers. Frickin amazing. I've heard this cut a million times but never, ever this good. It's why we do this, why we spend WAY too much money, and way too much time.
I think the cable is breaking in. |
Desalvo55, WOW! I was more impressed that you played some of my favorite songs from Radiohead. I suggest you try PS Audio's Premier outlet or even better the Synergistic Research Teslaplex outlet. The Teslaplex is the very best I ever tried. It beat out Oyaide R1 and Furutech in my system. The Cable COmpany can set you up a demo, try before you buy. |
I'll second the PS Audio Power Port Premier,it's Sheer bliss, for even better sound dove tail your PPP with the Soloist Premier if its in your buget. |
Looks like I got some receptacles to review. the Teslaplex has been on my radar as I already enyoy the Tesla speaker cables (and I got 1 for sale on AG ;-)
Think I'll gice the CableCo a call.
Thanks for the suggestions. |
I have now clocked 300 hours on the AC-12 power cord to the dCS Puccini player and here's my 2 cents' worth. The AC-12 as it sounds now is indeed a most extraordinary power cord. I never expected that my system could improve so much with just one power cord to the source.
The soundstage is deep, wide and layered in a most natural way in that there are spatial cues at every point in the soundstage which seems to fill up with music all over the place. Bass is deep and powerful with excellent pitch and definition. Listening to double basses is revelatory in that every player with his instrument is discernible within the soundstage. Midrange is silky, solid and vocals image so well that it isn't just the sensation that she is in the room but that you can tell if her head is moving ever so slightly to the right or left of the microphone. Highs are airy and extended, with very good decay of notes. Listening to the piano and all the notes from the lows to the highs is an experience that is jaw-dropping and exhilirating, connecting you to the music and the intent of the performer in every way.
Of course, part of all this observation can be attributed to the source and the synergy with the rest of the system. What this goes to show is that the AC-12 is in great synergy with the source, and so is the source to the rest of the system.
System :
1. Puccini player with AC-12 PC
2. U-clock with MIT PC
3. Kimber Select interconnects directly to
4. 28B SST monoblocks(with Shunyata Python PC's)
5. Tara Labs Air 2 Series 2 speaker cables
6. Vienna Acoustics The Music
7. Harmonix footers for all components |
I dont think people know how good these are, I look forward to placing one on my power conditioning and source for now it's wonderous on my Amp, funny how at 300 hrs it just settles into place my Ac-10 still improved up to 350hrs of play time, if you decided to change your othter PC's Keep us posted on the results I've heard the results from doing so is beyond belief as they work in tandum! |
Jon2020:
What PC were you using on your source before the PS AC-12?
|
Barrelchief,
It is an MIT whose model name I can't remember at this moment but it is a skinny cord with that little black box. I am using it now for the U-clock and might upgrade this to another AC-12 for the U-clock. It goes to show that whatever they designed into that little box, you still need high quality heavy duty conductors for performance and my belief is that the AC-12 is superior in every way because of its gauge 8 pure crystal copper conductors. Cheers! |
Since there are a bunch of AC12's being sold on ebay at the moment is there any concern for knockoffs? Any serial numbers or markings on the PS Audio AC cords? I am considering buying one that is listed here and the price is well below retail. |
Jpl208,
My local PS authorised dealer warned me that there are a lot of knock-offs in the market and I would suggest that you get only from an authorised dealer in your country. You can look for your local dealer or distributor at the PS Audio website. Yes, each cable comes with a serial number. You should never ever buy from ebay. |
Thanks Jon.
JP, Beware! I beleive that several months ago, I did read on PS Audio's website that there are some non-legitimate cables being sold on the web.
They are up there with customer service and may be willing to guide you, if you give them a call. |
no need for e-bay. drop Ron at Liquid hi-fi an email. he's always posting here on agon and is a real stand-up guy to boot. he'll hook you up with the real deal at a very reasonable price. i'm in no way affiliated with Liquid or Ron. just a VERY happy customer. have purchased all my psa gear from him.
e-prey from asia is not the best place to buy ic's, pc's or name brand anything for that matter. fakes everywhere. just look at their watch section. have been a watch collector for 20+ years and e-prey's watch section scares the hell out me. if "they" can build fake watches, ic's and pc's would be a piece a cake. |
I haven't tried the new PS Audio Perfect Wave power cords yet, but I'm impressed that they could get five patents on the design. It was a smart move to get away from the ferrite impregnation on the previous Extreme cords. |
Jon2020, the AC12 has a long barrel and the AC10 on down has the short barrel. I was told no serial numbers on the cords The census is that if you have an AC12 with a short barrel like the AC10 then it is a fake. I purhcased mine from a member here but I have no idea if it had the short barrel or long barrel. The ad was taken down immediately after the purchase. The ones on ebay look like short barrels. |
The serial number is on the packaging and will be written down by your local authorised PS dealer on the sales receipt - always keep that receipt or the packaging for future reference. Yes, my AC-12 has the long barrel and that is the real deal. |
Desalvo55, don't even bother with the Lessloss cord. I have the Lessloss DFPC non signature and some Morrow Audio MAP3's. I just recieved the AC12 and it has been in the system for 24 hours and I have not experienced another power cord that is close to this one. MAP3 is lean compared to the AC12 and the Lessloss sounds muffled to me.
I would say the AC12 has an excellent full body midrandge with good inner detailing and the top end is nice and open. I bought this used and was told that it had a couple hundred of hours on it. Very nice power cord! |
Now that my AC12 is fully broken in I find my system in a most amazing place. I'm constantly surprised at how much the incoming AC affects the sound.
I had the AC10 on loan and liked it a lot but wouldn't pull the trigger until I heard the AC12. The AC12 proves to be a winner in my system. Additionally, I have a Furutech receptacle which I've been enjoying then recently picked up a Porter Port receptacle since so much positive feedback was written about this low cost alternative. I really didn't warm up to it. It seemed to rob my system of its snap and focus. I may not have been patient enough to leave it in the system so now it's burning in on my sub circuit. Discovering that these damn receptacles have such a significant sound of their own I bought a Tesla Plex.
Wo-ah!
It was almost spooky how it further unraveled the musical event what I thought was already considerably unraveled. More 3 dimensionality, more air, and the soundstage moved forward which on my MBL's I would have thought impossible. Not just that but the definition of the bass which has been a bit of an issue did indeed improve.
With regards to AC I think have a winning combination.
Dedicated circuit;
20amp breaker
10awg cryo'd romex
Dedicated ground
Tesla Plex
PS Audio AC12
Power Plant Premier |
|
I am going through the burn-in of the AC 12, On my amp it sounds fine but switch it to the source CD or Preamp and like all the above comments the sounds is just weird, mid bass missing, highs sizzle, mids thin and grainy.
I have about 30 hours on the cord. I may switch it to the Plasma TV for burn-in or just leave it on my amp for a few months.
300 hours is a long time for me.
I love my Lessloss Signatures, sounded good right away and got better in a few weeks. I will see on the AC-12 progresses.
I like to use it on my preamp with the Lessloss on the CD/SACD player and the other on the amp. |
right now i've got lessloss on my intergrated and entry level ps audio on my cdp, which sounds pretty good, and now thinking about upgrading to perfect wave, just which one is good for cdp? my cdp is esoteric, with my cheap xstream punch, it kind of takes off the nasty glare of the treble(it replaced audience power chord e), hence considering higher PS Audio PC, my other question is, are high end PA PC like AC10 and AC12 flexible? My hi-fi rack has about 3ft clearance to the wall, so i worry about not able to keep it securely plugged in or damaged the cord with too much bending. |
have been playing around with my ps audio pc's since reading some of the replies above. had been using my 2 ac-10's to power a quintet from a dedicated 20a line and my amp. had 2 ac-5's hooked up to my pwt/pwd.
decided to switch the pc's around. tried both ac-10's on the pwt/pwd to see if it made a difference. as hard as i tried...i couldn't hear any difference what so ever. maybe a more resolving system would show an improvement?. or maybe using ac-10's all the way around (instead of using my ac-5's for the quintet and amp) would have made a difference as well. thinking the ac-5's mixed in there could be the limiting factor??
might try to find some 2nd hand ac-10's or ac-12's down the road and give it another try. |
Thought I'd chime in again. Now I've logged a goodly number of hours on the AC12. Unfortunately, to the folks who are looking at the AC12, I had added the Teslaplex outlet which would skew my observations.
This cord seemed to change a lot during breaking. I might have 4 weeks on it now which in this house is a LOT of hours. It has really become a lot warmer than what I would have expected. What this meant in my system is that for the first time, my tube preamp is no longer adding to the musicality, subjective of course. For our ears it's too warm. With the PS Audio PW DAC feeding the Pass 350.5 directly through the Power Plant Premier I'll say this. Glare, stridency, fatigue, gripping the remote, being fidgety, lowering the volume, are no longer in the sonic picture. The more I turn up the volume , the better it sounds. And it sounds amazing. Not the last word in transparency. Soundstage as good as I've heard in my room to be sure. How much the AC12 sets the stage on this is unknown until I further study with another really good cable. Anyone want to drop by with a Shunyata Python? |
Just part of the breakin now your almost home,what i like to do at this point is to listen to favorite tracks. From now till the end it will begin to open up and transparency is not the word, details will fill out and nuaunce as well and over all stability post back to update us and if you can calculate the hours its been in your system, it was a minimum of 270-300 for mine to breakin but at 270 it made me sit up and take notice that something was special about this cable. What piece of gear is it on? |
I have a dedicated 20amp cyro'd line feeding a Teslaplex outlet for which the AC12 takes power to the Power plant Premier. The Pass gets fed a VH-Audio flavor 4 with Furutech connectors.
It would be interesting to hear a high end commercial grade cable such as another AC12 or Shunyata series cable to feed the Pass. But then again I haven't any complaints with what I'm hearing.
I'm due the PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport today. I had it for 1.5 days before it decided it didn't like a disc it was fed and kept it. No way to get it out that I knew at the time nor did PS Audio have an answer. So off it went for repair for a faulty display and a unresponsive remote. Here's the really disturbing part. The PS Audio techs fix for not ejecting the disc was "don't feed it offending discs". "you must be one of those guys with multi media formats".
My head is still spinning from that conversation. |
that is strange Desalvo?. until i learned how to download/rip hi-res dvd's (yes...i'm a computer idiot), i musta shoved a dozen bad/unreadable disc's into my pwt. never a problem getting them to eject though. "don't use offending disc's" sounds crazy to me as well..... like you're doing it on purpose or something?. |
Gotta admit that's a good one, out of curiosity have you ran a reverse configuration with the Flavor 4 and the AC-12? |
Is the PW AC12 the real deal (sota) or merely superb for the price? I've got two brand new units on loan, undergoing the usual fits of breaking-in at the moment, plugged them in for 3 days now. Decided to give them a go due to positive comments in this thread (thanks!), currently happily running two PSA power products (synergy) and thought them to be quite reasonably priced by today's cable standard.
Marked improvements are noted in ways that have already been mentioned above. As well expected, as outgoing cables replaced were the PS LAB (to PPP) and original supplied (to Soulution). Question is, has anybody actually compared them to other top tiers AC cords? Nordost Odin, Argento FMR, Siltech Ruby Mountain came to mind. I will probably keep one running from wall to PPP, but still undecisive as to what's best for amp.
Also, has anybody heard that their 1,5m, 3m and its folds for some technical reasons are better sounding than the other lengths? I wanted the 2m ones but suggested against by my dealer as informed by the factory. |
I just added another 1.5m AC-12 to my system for the U-clock and it is just unbelievable that the U-clock can benefit so much from just a PC upgrade (from an old MIT model). With the dcs Puccini and U-clock powered by the AC-12, the sound of my system takes on another new level of clarity, resolution, transparency, soundstaging and separation of instruments. Tone and timbre of instruments are more natural and analog-like. The music gestalt is presented with greater ease - organic and liquid. Of course, the musicality factor is improved by leaps and bounds, meaning I am leaping and bounding a lot in my room to the music! |
Funny thing just happened in regards to the serial numbers listed on the PS Audio boxes. I just bought another AC-12 from a member here and made sure there was a serial number on the box. When it arrived I notice the serial number was one number off from one I bought a couple of months ago from a different member and I thought this was very ironic. Since I was curious I decided to go back to ebay and look at some of the cables there and found an ad that had a box and serial number. I found a 2 meter cable with the exact same serial number as I have here now and they are both 2 meter. The one on ebay comes out of Hong Kong and all 3 of my boxes say made in China. Serial numbers on the box means squat. Look at the bottom of your box and see if Made in China appears. |
I had recently bought two PW AC-12 from the PS Audio importer for my country. I believe they are all manufactured/made in China (designed by PSA USA), hence printed so. And that the identical series at bottom of their boxes appears to me more the 'product's code' NOT serial numbers. Different coding for different lengths I suppose. |
Bvdiman, I guess I was mis-informed here about these power cords having their own serial numbers. I think you are right about the product code on the bottom of the box. |
Bvdiman, I also think these cords are superb for the money.
They are by far the best I have tried. One downside is the stiffness. |
Jp1208,
Yes I agree, after their ups and downs within the two months of breaking in, these turned out to be surprisingly very good pc, let alone for the money. I had originally planned only to buy one for use into my PPP, but they sounded better with my amp than another dealer loaner, a highly touted pc at almost three times their rrp, that it was a no brainer for me to keep both. Will be expecting a few more loaner to test, will report here if anything better comes along. Although, I'm pretty sure at much higher cost if/when that happens. Am in no hurry for now. ;) Cheers.. |
Sorry guys, my bad, I guess I was misinformed too. |
You guys find the 12 is better on amp or ok on front end? I have some Statements that seem to be great on my amp, but really dampen the dynamics of my right if I pop 'em on my pre or cd player.
Thoughts?
Ferrite? |
