I decided to take Michael up on his 3 week home audition offer. Glad I did. I'm the Audio forum moderator and Reviewer over on the Home Theater Talk website; below are my evaluation and review posts from the thread I started on Home Theater Talk.
First off I want to thank Michael Wolff, the designer of the Carbon Ribbon Power cord, for the opportunity to evaluate his product.
This review/audition thread will be done in stages. The first stage is the initial impression portion, which I've gotten a handle on tonight. This first stage is a direct comparison to the product that the Carbon Ribbon cord is in competition with for a permanent home in my rig. It's a bit unfair since what the ribbon cord is up against is more than just another power cord. For the first week I'll be doing a/b comparisons between Michael's cord and a combination of two VansEvers power cords and the Model 85 power conditioner. 3 to 1 advantage there for the VansEvers power solution So who won the first round? It was a draw, with the judges torn between two unique presentations, both worthy of merit. With both cords being switched out on different songs mulitple times, this on my SACD player, the following impressions were had by the Beav.
The VansEvers combo was very lush sounding, with some impressive dynamics, however what the Carbon Ribbon Power cord offered was also very appealing. Crisp life-like images of various instruments and vocals, also lush, but not the over riding impression as with the VansEvers presentation. Here things were more etched in definition, best term I can think of to describe it. The instruments took on a more vivid presence in the soundstage, especially the cymbals which had a sparkling zing to them. In all I'd say at this point the evaluation results are not about better, but preferences in sonic properties. This may and probably will change over the next 3 weeks as the ribbon cord breaks in. I've seen some pretty dramatic sonic changes with my Sahuaro cords over time, so I know this initial impressions comparison is just an appetizer for more meaty things to come.
There will be another match up in the last week of the audition period, this a direct head to head with the Sahuaro cord, which I will take from the pre-amp and move to the SACD player. The heavy weight match on the card more to come...
Post 2
Round 2
After a good nights sleep, feeling fully rested and eager to continue the evaluation process, I cued up Laurence Juber "The Collection". This is solo acoustic guitar, reference level recording. I'm in trouble Me thinks Michael is a crafty little audio devil, offering you his apple for a free test ride, knowing that once you take that free bite he's got your soul
I don't know what was going on with my listening skills last night, perhaps I was just too tired; whether it's 24 hours of burn in or just a fresh set of ears, the a/b comparison this morning revealed much more than last night. Quite simply, the word for the day is muddy. The Vansevers cord and power conditioner, compared to the ribbon cord, on this CD, revealed a muddy and recessed sonic portrait. The contrast was not subtle. I am actually a bit amazed again, as I fully expected last night's session to be the flavor for the entire evaluation period, slight sonic character differences....not this "trouble" Michael's got me in now. The problem you see, with putting something in your rig that creates a significantly positive contrast to what you have is, it's really tough to go back, to not purchase the "gear" that has brought about a significant sonic quality increase. And the fact that this is a power cord, which up till last year I wouldn't have considered such an item as a significant player in a rigs sound quality. And it does boggle my mind that these cords contribute as much as they do to the processing of an audio signal. Especially since we don't really have a solid scientific reason for the level of audio quality boost these PCs are exhibiting...at least in my system, with my listening skills.
Now, I haven't totally surrendered to this apple, though I think the competition between the Vansevers combo is pretty much decided. I'm going to listen to the ribbon cord exclusively now for the rest of the week, getting myself as familiar with its contribution to the sound as I can. Then it will be on to the main event. Sahuaro vs. Carbon Ribbon.
Post 3
It looks like the same deal that applies to Sahuaro power cords also applies to the Carbon Ribbon cord. Power Conditioners be bad for performance. After taking the ribbon cord off the wall outlet and plugging it into the Model 85 I began my listening session, and sure enough, the dynamics, detail, soundstage and instrument and vocal definition suffered, and suffered greatly. It didn't take more than a few cuts off of my reference CDs to determine that power conditioners were a very bad idea. Once the cord was plugged back into the wall everything returned to it's previous highly detailed musical state. And in that state, more changes have occured, detail has continued to increase, but what has really opened up is soundstage, both side stage and front and back. This cord continues to impress me greatly. It's a fairly done deal, based upon the performance increase over the stock cords and the Vansevers PC + Conditioner combo. The $650 asked for this product is quite a bargain when measured against the performance increase I'm getting. The only remaining factor is how it will fare in direct competition with the Sahuaro cord. I expect this comparison to be much closer, but who knows, this cord is proving to be one dynamic performer.
Post 4
Patricia Barber "Verse"
Carbon Ribbon cord vs stock cord
Song 6
First up the Ribbon cord. Stunning realism is my first impression, cymbals have a vivid livliness, horns come across smooth and tonally accurate, vocal presence is unreal, with some very pure transparency, bass is hitting very hard. Soundstage is dimensionally active and expansive, everything is reeking of vibrancy. Cool stuff, wonder how much of that is the cord's doing?
Stock cord, decent looking, solid shielding, not your average stock cord.
Song 6
Oh my! Realism is severly diminished, sounds likes your basic stereo again with a pretty flat presentation, with a loss of transparency from before. Cymbals sputter and click, no realism there, and I'm not hearing the tonal qualities I was so impressed with, with the carbon cord. Brush strokes on drum and cymbal hits are thin and not life-like, vocal presence is ok, but it doesn't have that certain something that I heard before. Horns are screechy, not tonally accurate like before, bass is still hard hitting, but it's more mushy, less tight. Damned if the cord isn't a big percentage of what I was hearing.
OK so there's no competition with a stock cord, I expected that, though not quite to the level I just heard. I'm going to hold off doing the Sahuaro comparison till the weekend. I want some really dedicated time for that comparison. Again though, I'm markedly impressed by this power cord in and of itself.
Final post
The Gold Medal round.
Carbon Ribbon power cord vs. Sahuaro Prethrilla power cord.
Joe Satriani "Strange Beautiful Music" SACD
I had planned on waiting till Saturday for the big face off, but since I got home early today and had a few hours to myself I decided to have the showdown.
For this phase of the evaluation, in order to be able to a/b the two contenders, I used the Vansevers power cord on the pre-amp. Once that was set up it was Sahuaro time with the SACD player. I had just finished listening to the Satriani album with the carbon cord doing the duties, and had a clear picture of the sonic qualities I'd just experienced. I used track 8 which I'd just finished listening to with the carbon cord. It didn't take long to list the drop offs in audio quality, the guitar which had been diamond clean and fiery, with a defined and potent center stage presence, dropped down, literally to a lower level of the soundstage, and it didn't have the definition nor that hard to define quality called musicality which was so apparent before. Then the drums came in and what had been a powerfully deep and rich sound, became less focused more muddy in it's impact. The presentation of the instruments in the soundstage which had been laser perfect, became less focused in comparison, more of a wall of sound then the layered precision I was used to with the other cord on line. For the next 2 hours I switched in and out with the two cords and my initial impressions became solidified. The carbon cord was showing it's true metal against what I felt would be a very close call with the Sahuaro, but again as with the stock cord, the clear winner was the carbon ribbon cord. To be fair to the Sahuaro cord, once it was back on the pre-amp, the already impressive carbon cord sonics on the SACD player went up a notch in all the areas I was finding so impressive.
Are these impressions faulty, based on long-term memory limitations, am I just entranced by a new component? Who knows, I can only go by what I hear, and what I hear is a clear improvement in the performance of my rig when I use this cord. This improvement is not subtle; it's distinctly impactful to my senses. So where does that leave me in regards to this audition. The balance sheet has nothing but check marks on the Carbon cord side, and all in the strong improvement column. $650 does seem like a lot for a length of wire, but when you put it into perspective, looking at the evaluation balance sheet, it doesn't look like the ratings for a 5 foot power cord, it looks like the comparison sheet for a new amp or source component, with all baseline areas of musical performance peaking up. So what am I going to do you ask Write Michael a check of course. I really appreciate the opportunity he gave me to audition the cord, I never would have gotten exposed to this innovative design otherwise. I'm not going to address all of the technical issues brought up in the other thread, they are good for the intellectual appetite, and learning more about the science of it all, but they do not relate to my skill area. My skill area is critical listening, and those skills that I've honed over the years are telling me I've got a very special component here. It does put me in a quandary though, knowing what this carbon cord technology can do; I look at all my Sahuaro power cords and wonder....what if it were all carbon cord....I knew I was in trouble when I first heard this cord now I'm in deeper than hot fudge poured over vanilla ice cream.
