I guess my 65 year old ears weren't fooling! Both @rrboogie @roxy54 heard the same thing as I did. Trying to describe these improvements gives me some new respect for reviewers who try to describe such improvements. Would I say that it was like "hearing music for the first time again?" For me, it was not that pronounced, but there was an unmistakable improvement just as both described. As I said, very happy with the result, and given what I have spent on Shunyata cables, these were a startlingly good value. Let's put it this way: going from the Morrow MA7 XLRs to the Shunyata XLR was a much more subtle improvement than from the MSB stock umbilicals to the Revelation Audio umbilicals. For the price that MSB charges for DAC's, these should be included!
Short Review of Revelation Audio Passage Cryo-Silver™ Reference umbilical power cable
First, my system: I have an ARC REF6, a Pass Labs 250.8 amp, Wilson Audio Sabrina X speakers, and since I am fully digital, an MSB Discrete DAC with a Premier Power Base. I stream from a dedicated music server to the DAC. I had upgraded all of my cables to Shunyata Alpha’s. They are excellent cables by the way. The only thing left were two skinny stock power umbilical from the Premier Power Base to the Discrete DAC. After reading about these Revelation Audio Power cables specifically for the MSB power supply to the DAC, and a 30 day money-back guarantee, at $689 shipped, it seemed like a fairly inexpensive tweak. I couldn’t imagine how or why replacing these power cables between the DAC and power supply would make any real difference at all, but I decided to try them. From Order to receipt was five days. Hooked them up and let them run for 24 hours. I am not one to gush, especially over cables, but I have to admit that somehow, for some reason, these made a noticeable positive difference in my system.
First, and most noticeable to me, the soundstage had more depth, more 3 dimensionality. That alone was worth it because I felt that the soundstage had lacked depth. Now it has more. The second thing that I noticed was that the instruments had more defined placement in the soundstage, against a blacker background. On music that I knew intimately and routinely use as test music, such as Patricia Barber’s excellent Companion XRCD, Dark Side of the Moon, Gary Burton/Ralph Towner’s Matchbook, both of these improvements were immediately noticeable. Third, the instruments themselves had better tone, especially the cymbals and bass, and sounded "smoother" but still detailed. Now, I have no idea why these cables work, or what’s in them. I do know that if you are using MSB stock umbilicals, you will love these cables. For $689, it is a very cheap upgrade!
One word about Brad and Revelation Audio. There are several mostly old threads discussing customer service problems, long shipping delays and lack of response. When I first emailed him, I raised these issues and said that I wanted to pay for them COD. No problem. Brad was very responsive, they shipped immediately and even confirmed that they had arrived and that I was happy with them. So whatever problems there may (or may not) have been in 2010-2017, when most of the bad experiences apparently occurred, that is apparently in the past. Brad was a pleasure to deal with, and the product is high quality. In short, I highly recommend these umbilicals!
Showing 7 responses by moto_man
@richmon, I hear you. I read the same stuff, most of it years ago. All I can tell you is that Brad was a perfect seller with me, and the cables really are excellent and an excellent value. If you are really interested, just mention the issues and say you would like to pay for them COD. I am very pleased with mine, and even seemed to open up more last night (with about 60 hours on them since I got them). |
@1971gto455ho , I don’t want this to turn into a cables do/dont make any audible difference discussion, but I agree with you that logically, if something sounds different, there should be a way to measure that difference, either with REW and a high quality mic, or some other way. I figure that if it’s audible, it should be measurable too. But I am open to the possibility that perhaps a deeper soundstage or a better timbre is not measurable in terms of frequency response or by oscilloscope because the frequency response is still the same. I still think that the gold standard is being able to switch back and forth in an A/B test, but barring that, if it sounds better to ME, even if it is confirmation bias, it still sounds better to ME. I am not saying that cable differences are placebo effect, but the placebo effect is a real medical phenomenon. But I also agree that spending stupid money on cables does not necessarily get better sound. I find it hard to believe that a $30K cable costs more than $1k to make (just guessing). That all being said, these cables are $689 shipped. That is not a “break the bank” expense. If they make an audible improvement and have a 30 day money back guarantee, try them and see. |
@roxy54, I think that he was bemoaning the fact that so many expensive cables are sold on sizzle and no actual objective empirical data to back that sizzle up. I too wonder why improvements in sound by cables cannot be objectively measured, or at a minimum, measure differently in some fashion. That doesn't mean that cable X does not do anything more than generic cable, and I certainly hear audible differences. But as I observed above, I would think that if there is an audible difference, there should be a measurable difference as well. There must be some measurable difference between these Revelation umbilicals and the stock ones. Logic would dictate that some measurements must be different, right? Inductance, capacitance, the silver 5N wire instead of copper, something must be measurably different . . . |
@roxy54, I don’t think that he is actually disparaging this particular product so much as disparaging the high end cable industry, for their lack of objectively verifiable evidence to support their sales pitches. Like you. I read a number of recommendations by satisfied users, and the cost was "reasonable," as far as cables go, I suppose. I can only pronounce myself pleased with the results of replacing the stock umbilicals with these. With a couple of the power cords, I struggled to hear any real difference, especially when replacing one higher end power cord with an even higher end one, but over stock, this was a nice step up. Similarly, when I replaced the stock power cord on my ARC REF6 with a Shunyata Alpha v2, the difference was startlingly audible, so I do think that power cords make a difference . . . Why, I have no clue! |
I am hijacking my own thread. Doesn't it make sense that if cables sound different, they should measure different, or the sound coming out of the speakers can be measured as being different? I definitely have heard audible improvements with different cables. Many others here have as well. Some seem to exaggerate the improvements that they have heard "blow me away," "like a new system" and other such hyperbole. Maybe they're hearing so so finely tuned that it does sound like a new system . . . I don't know. But shouldn't there be some sort of way of objectively measuring that difference besides a listener saying that it sounds better? |
As I observed initially, the improvement in sound quality was surprisingly noticeable considering that these are short cables in between the power supply and the DAC. Nonetheless, the improvement was audible and when the cost is considered, a great value. I still wonder why the changes in sound quality can't be measured in some way, even if its using (or especially when using) REW. But I am a happy camper. |