About 8 months ago after reading some positive customer reviews, I ordered a short umbilical cord for my solid state pre. The customer service was courteius and prompt as was delivery. I received the cord and was immediately pleased with the positive difference it made in the system. The sound was more dimensional, and timbres seemed more authentic. I am very pleased and consider it well worth the $250 that I paid. I will also add that it is beautifully made.
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!
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I purchased a Revelation Audio Labs Passage Cryo Silver Reference umbilical through Brad's ebay listings. I required a custom length for my Supratek Cabernet and Brad added a new listing on ebay for my specific purchase. All done very promptly and shipped to Canada arriving well before the estimated delivery date. The cords are burned in prior to purchase but they suggest that additional burn in time in your system will occur. Upon inserting into my system there was a noticeable improvement from the stock umbilical. Vocals were more present and 3 dimensional, bass was tighter and textured, treble had a little more sparkle and there was an overall smoothing of the sound without losing detail. In fact there was more clarity and detail. My 23 year old son who listens with me regularly said it was like hearing music for the first time again. All due to this short umbilical. I now want to try out the Precept II power cord. |
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! |
I also read the bad press about significant delays in Revelation Audio cables which gave me pause. I contacted them a few months back asking about an umbilical for my Supratek Chenin, wheter they still made them. Next thing I get an email invoice for the umbilical when I never got close to ordering anything. Then I got a second invoice email making me think the shyster reports on the Gon were accurate. Hoping some more will chime in with positive transactions to make me comfortable with doing business. |
On a whim went to Ebay to view feedback. 240 positive transactions. When I dug into these, only 2 seemed to be from cable buyers. The rest from sellers to him and seems he's also selling magazines and cars. Puzzling Ebay feedback and nothing that calmed my sense of 'summin aint right'.. I'm sensitive to how difficult things can be for a self employed cable maker, but reputation is everything. ebay user=bradlvojte |
@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). |
Why don’t these companies give data, active material, research, with facts, to back up their claims ? I know…. Can’t be done !! You’re holding a well made pretty, mucho cable that was insanely priced.. of course it’s going to sound better. Then the sales lore, $500 is good $1000 is better. Heck spend more than the equipment cost.. da that makes sense. Doesn’t matter how old or young your ears are you’ve got to hear the improvement.. you’ve been Told. |
It's pretty simple. If you don't like it or don't believe it, don't buy it! Nobody is twisting your arm. I bought it and I clearly heard the improvement. I don't need scientific studies to confirm it. That's what I paid the designer for. As far as the experience of dealing with him, he was very responsive, and even emailed me to ask if I was satisfied with the cable.
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@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. |
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I confess it was me that pulled the response. Was going to edit the draft then the interest fizzled out. Lastly @roxy54 there is no arm twisting, simply my observations and opinion. Say a designer creates a beautiful wooden box filling it with magic beans and a responsive polite story that’s good enough for… Sorry the majority needs more ! |
@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 . . . |
Certainly @roxy54 no need to knot up the panties, I made no comment on your ‘Seemingly’ better timbre purchase. Perhaps a tally of the people that have bought into the power cable market is in order. Again is it too much to ask for some (any) technical reasoning on any audio product ? |
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No, there's no problem in asking anything, but not everyone needs a white sheet with facts and figures like you apparently do. If I read a number of recommendations by satisfied users, that is enough for me to take the chance on something if it is in an affordable range for me. I just find it tiresome when someone like yourself makes disparaging comments about something you don't own and know nothing about. |
@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! |
@moto_man I don’t think he’s disparaging this particular product, I think he’s making a critical comment on something he he has not used. |
I think people are running with the aggressive ball a bit, S… all that was asked for is some technical information. Didn’t specify a product or poo on any individuals decisions or purchase. In short I’d like some detail for ME. If you’ve designed, built, possibly sell cables some of us would like details, specs. No law against it heck add a buck or go to the cost if needed. Now that we’ve cleared that up perhaps people can move on and enjoy what they have or haven’t bought.. Cheers |
Not the majority. Far from it. But certainly the most noisy ones bunch
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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? |
I recently got the cryo silver reference umbilical’s for my Musical Fidelity NuVista M3 and the difference over the stock umbilical’s were huge. Over the course of about a week of 24/7 run it they became more refined yet still very detailed like a first heard when I installed them. Measurements be damned anyone who doesn’t hear a before and after difference would have to be def . |
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. |
@roxy54 Yep doesn’t take science to hear the difference. Now for curiosity sake sure people can measure away but I’m not in this hobby to measure I’m in it to listen to music. |
@moto_man My system was calibrated using REW, a good friend of mine did the whole thing and got my system dialed in. Like I said above I’m not in this hobby to ponder over measurements I’m in it to listen , I spent 20 plus years in the Army in communication’s having to do measurements etc so now it’s time to just relax and listen. Sometimes I think people get this hobby confused with the science guys and loose sight of what it is all about and that’s enjoying the music |