I’ve been using a Dmitri for 4-5 years on a music system. This replaced a Haley which I had been using since 2007ish until an outlet failed. I finally replaced that as reported in another A’gon thread; the Haley is alive and kicking again. But, I recently got a great deal on a second Dmitri, this time for surround system upstairs.
Power cords in the music system have been exclusively Dream State (DS) since 2006-2007. I had read about the Craig Hampel HZ Crown Jewel (CJ) cord but this was next to impossible to find. On another thread here, Craig writes that there are 30 or so CJ cords out there. The other RSA cord option years ago, the Cardas “Mongoose”, did not appeal to me after much experience with other Cardas cables. I ran with the DS cables and tried various Silent Source (SS) and Stealth variants in these years. Nothing displaced the DS. The SS cables are nicely refined but just too mellow for me at this point.
Two years ago, a CJ became available. I was slowly updating the system with Craig’s X20 IC’s & Spkr cables….and I had one X20 power cord for the preamp. First thing was to replace the DS into the Dmitri with the CJ. Tonal coherency was unchanged except for a slightly more extended lower bass. But wow, the boost in dynamic contrasts. This is a signature result every time I drop in one of Craig’s cables. And then the clarity. The DS had been my reference cord in this regard into the Dmitri, but the CJ brought on another level of clarity. There was no change in tonality, “warmth”, prat (whatever that is), blah blah blah.
For the next several days and weeks, I tried many combinations. I put the DS into the preamp so that I could free up the X20 cord. The DS is a great cable, but taking out the X20 made me aware of its magical properties here, the bass, clarity and dynamics (BCD). This triplet of refinement repeats itself with every new CJ or X20 insertion into the system …… except one place!
I danced the X20 cord around the front-end components. Each time the X20’s refinements over the DS were observed. I then replaced the CJ with the X20 into the Dmitri. This did not go well. I tried a few tracks but the X20 was just not a good fit here. A return to the CJ into the Dmitri and all was smooth and natural again. I put the X20 back into the preamp. Out of curiosity, I plugged that X20 directly to the wall. The result was a major collapse of the dimensionality vs. driving the preamp from the Dmitri.
A couple of takeaways here:
1) Some people here have written that Craig has told them to plug his cables directly into the wall and not into a power device. I’ve had many communications with Craig, and he never told me to do or not do one thing or the other. My experiences here made it very clear the significant benefit of having the preamp (with the X20) plugged into the Dmitri.
2) There is discussion that the Dmitri results in a lean outcome. With the fully tubed system, preamp, DAC, phono and Rogue Audio Apollo or the Symphonic Line (SL) Kraft amp, this system has harmonic structure, decays and dimensionality in spades.
A couple months after this, I got an RSA Duke and another CJ cord. I changed the SL amp from directly into the wall to the Duke. With the CJ into the Duke, and wow wow, there’s that BCD again. The greater dynamic contrasts are immediate And this is after the constant commentary in these forums that claim power devices reduce dynamics when used with amplifiers. Well, not here.
A few more X20 cords have arrived since, each time adding the same refinements that I have not experienced before from one cord change after another after another. The comments about the X20 by @tjassoc match with mine. Moving from the DS to the X20 is an easy change as both have an incredible neutral tonal coherency. There is no need to have one product with one set of tonal issues to “match” with another product with complimentary tonal issues to achieve “synergy”. This easily allows for evaluating the RSA products which also do not alter the tonality of the system, I.e., no added “warmth” or artificial treble detail. I would love to dance one or two X30 cords around my system to hear the effects, but they are way way way outside of my affordability.
I have been using the RSA Haley into the surround system for the last few years: Classe 800 processor, Symphonic Line amp, Oppo 203 player, rebuilt Duntech Sovereigns, X20 ICs and spkr cables, DS cords to processor, amp and player. I started with the DS, then the CJ and then the X20 cords into the Haley. I struggled to hear a difference between the 3 cords. I then switched out the Haley to the second Dmitri. I re-ran the 3 cords through this. The CJ over the DS was a mighty nice refinement. Not so much the dynamics, but the extended bass and clarity were evident. The Dmitri showed up this difference that the Haley could not. I then changed from the CJ to the X20 into the Dmitri, expecting a not so good result as I had with the X20 / Dmitri in the music system. But this time, the X20 quite handily outperformed the CJ. There was much more detail and energy in the trebles. I went back to the CJ; too much detail and clarity was lost with this change. The X20 into the Dmitri was the clear winner in this link in the surround system.
Having many X20s and the DS’s in the two systems greatly helps to hear such significant benefits of the RSA products. Considering that the Dmitri is in the $1000-1400 range these days, it is an absolute steal. With the performance that these devices provide, I just don’t have the itch to try out newer products, especially if I have to pay $5-10k to get any significant improvement. I had the $5500 retail Sound Application device before I tried the Haley, and the Haley tore up the SA and the Audio Magic Eclipse too, So I have no interest to try another SA device. Long live the Dmitri!
John