Review: Michael Wolff power cords Carbon Gain Power cord

You did, and apology accepted. My apologies to Mattend and the other respondents if I distracted in any way from the main thrust of your review comments. Everyone please carry on with the MW PC lovefest. (I will be emailing MW privately with my concerns about why I suspect this little episode may have occurred in the first place.)

Mattend, I do not have a fraction of the powercord experience you do, but I am curious: Although based on my own testing I do agree that powercord changes can seem to cause shifts in tonal balance and soundstaging, among other areas, your statement about how most upgrade PC's "destroy...the authenticity of the artist's expression" through these shifts raises questions. Do you therefore think most upgrade PC's sound worse than stock cords? Because one could read that implication into your statement.

But don't think I'm dismissing that sentiment ; I've long suspected there may be a legit reason to feel exactly that way, in least to a degree. It's this: Components are presumably voiced by their makers while being fed from their stock OEM cords. So in theory it may not be so surprising if upgrading cords - while usually offering improvements in many areas such as transparency and transient response - still seems a crapshoot when it comes to tonal balances and soundstaging (which is affected by tonal balance). That could be because the intended voicing is subtly altered, and that most gear would sound best if it could somehow be voiced using the particular upgrade PC with which it will be ultimately be run.

If my supposition is at all true, then one implication will be that there probably never can exist just one ultimate, superior upgrade PC for all gear, but that different PC's may work best with different gear, and that is of course what many of us observe, myself included. Still, I usually do think that with most gear, most upgrade PC's will represent an overall improvement, even if perfect synergy is not achieved (is it ever?). As I say, I haven't tried the number you have, or gone to the expense level you have in the ones I have tried, but I've also never felt any of them 'destroyed' what I was hearing vs. the stock cord (even the one [which is on your list] I didn't prefer for any of my gear and subsequently sold).

Anyway, it's interesting to read about another cable using carbon - I'm currently getting into some VDH IC's employing carbon, the cable use of which I believe they pioneered, although I haven't yet tried their PC's. Enjoy your new cords!

Michael: I haven't checked into your product or its construction specifics yet, but I will add in response to your statement that in VDH's all-carbon IC (The First Ultimate), they do not claim that the 6-layer woven carbon outer surrounding the 12,000-strand carbon core can act as a perfect shield, and also offer The First Metal Shield (and the two-conductor The Second) for applications requiring better isolation from radiated fields, and those models employ more conventional woven-metal or metal-foil outer layers. In my own tests with The First Ultimate and The Second, I have gotten results in this area consistent with VDH's position. However, I don't believe that these considerations necessarily translate directly to PC applications, which can generally be viewed as being more akin to SC's, and indeed some makers of PC's advocate using no shielding at all, like on SC (not that I've tried any of them, as I tend to think that shielding is mostly beneficial on a PC). If you would care to address the topic, I believe VDH's main reservation about constructing an all-carbon (or even just carbon-condutor) PC has to do with carbon's higher resistance, a concern that in their all-carbon Revelation SC apparently mandated highly massive and expensive construction in order to overcome. But I am really liking the 'sound' of carbon in my IC's (or maybe the lack of metal 'sound'), and am interested in finding out more about what you offer - could you give us your website URL or a link?

I too have often found that ultimately beneficial system changes can sometimes fool you at first into thinking that you're 'losing something', which upon extended listening actually turns out to have been spurious artifacts.

Changing tubes can make as big or bigger a difference than the power cord. And - although this is not a cure for 'dark' tonal balance per se - I would also recommend trying some sort of dampers on the preamp tubes (if you don't already have them), such as Herbie's Audio Labs or the silicone ring types. This can bring a calming stability to the soundstage and reduce glare and definition loss on transients.

Michael, you are becoming tediously persistent in your determination to subvert my intent here. One might think, from your defensive and somewhat accusatory responses to my posts, that I am naysaying your product or something. On the contrary, I have been trying to say that I have reasons to find the idea of your product personally intriguing.

If you go back and carefully reread what Comchenry wrote, and my reaction to it, I believe you will find it is more yourself who is having difficulty with "misinterpretation". I think you especially should reread the opening sentence of my last post, the true meaning of which seems to have totally eluded you in your zeal. (Hint: It is entirely supportive of where someone in your business is presumably - or ought to be - coming from. Are you familiar with the concept of 'less is more'?) If you need me to spell it out for you further, please let me know by email and I will gladly oblige.

Beyond that, I was otherwise responding to a part of his post having little directly to do with his experience with your powercord, and my following remarks did not concern this factor, other than to state that he could expect changes of at least similar magnitude when changing tubes as with power cords, an issue I believe was implicitly raised. My words were written to him, in support of his efforts, and do not to me require you to come anyone's defense, be it his or yours.