My advice would be to buy used and purchase the best of the prior Element series you can afford. The benefit of this would be that you can then further tweak by adjusting the tuning bullets, investing in better power for the active shielding (Galileo MPCs or Michael Spallone mods or a Transporter) and get more out of your investment. While the Atmosphere cables might outperform the older models at list price I’m not sure you can beat used prices, avoid the need for painful break in, avoid immediate loss of resale value from buying new and also have the ability to further improve the sound of the cables you have bought. Anyway just my 2cents and for reference the majority of my SR cables are Galileo LE (I only have one Element Tungsten on my transporter)
Synergistic Research Atmosphere Power Cords.
For those who have been following the SR Red and Black fuse thread in the Amp & Preamp forum, it goes without saying that I loved the way they transitioned my audio system. What I thought was a highly resolving system has been transformed into a system that has been improved in every way ... drastically. For many of us, me included, our music collection and the playback system is a labor of love. I've been working on mine for over 40 years now.
After I got into the SR fuses, I started watching SR's youtube video demos. In watching the videos and reading their literature, I discovered that their new power cords used the same technology as their fuses. That got me to thinking ... if a one and a quarter inch fuse could make such an improvement in the system, what could a five-foot power cord do? I decided to find out.
Four of the new Synergistic Atmosphere Series level 3 AC cords arrived at the house.
http://www.synergisticresearch.com/new-atmosphere-series-ac-power-cords/
When they arrived, I unpacked them right away and was totally impressed with the build quality and materials used. More beautiful than the pictures depict. A shame no one is going to see them because they are behind my equipment rack out of sight. But it sure is an indication of the builder/designer's pride of workmanship. My first thought was ... Wow, if they sound half as good as they look, they should be great. With most things in this hobby, I've acquired a wait and see attitude.
I removed my old PCs and installed the SR's right away (of course). They were replacing two different brands of custom PCs. I had found through the years that this combination of PCs to beat anything else I tried, especially in terms of musicality and digging down into the organic sound of real instruments. Two were built by the Music Advancement Company (MAC) in Oregon. The other two were custom built by David Magnan, a very respectable cable builder and a fine gentleman. Those who know Dave's cables know what I mean. Throughout the years, I've had the privilege of using most of Magnan's work from his speaker cables, ICs and PC's. They are exceptional. So, this gives you an idea of what I'm comparing these new SR cables to.
After installation, I warmed the system up, adjusted the bias on the amp and sat down for an initial evaluation. What I heard right off the bat was an overall improvement in the areas we really like ... bigger , wider, deeper soundstage. More transparency. Far less grain .. in what I thought was a grain-less system. I thought the SR fuses had finally bought me to a grain free audio Utopia. Ha ... silly me. That's the good part.
Now, for the rub: The SR PC's, right out of the box, were doing exactly what the SR Black fuses did and that was to introduce a hard edge, especially on strings. There was an overall degradation in musicality and emotional connection to the music as a result. The reason? The PCs , like the fuses, need at least 100 hours of break-in before they really come to life. Like the fuses, I could hear the promise of these PCs right off, but man, new out of the box, again like the fuses, things just weren't "right." It reminded me of when I first fired up the new ARC REF-75se. It took 500 hours for the caps in that amp to finally come around full tilt.
So, as these new SR PCs break in, I'm going to chronicle the experience in this thread all the way from new to tatal break-in. From what I've heard so far, they offer great promise, trouncing my old PCs in so many ways. Now let's see what they can do musically as they break in.
Stay tuned ...
Showing 6 responses by folkfreak
Ok, up until the latest generation of cables (the Atmosphere series) all SR cables have a seperate active shield that requires its own power supply. As standard the cables come with a simple "wall wart" power supply called an MPC (Master Power Coupler). Upgrading this MPC to a fancier one from SR (called a Galileo MPC) or to a special box just for powering cables (a Transporter) will improve the sound. Michael Spallone is an Audiogon member who for modest cost will upgrade an MPC so it sounds better than a Galileo - search for his name to get more details on the thread dedicated to his work. Hope this helps |
Just had a chance to try the L3 Atmosphere on my SR Transporter replacing the Element Tungsten (silver bullets, powered by the transporter) that I had in place -- the transporter itself recently gained 3 black fuses which was a nice upgrade At first listen changing to the Atmosphere I lost all sense of scale, dynamics were reduced, treble was muted -- all around not a good result at all. I'm going to give this 4 days or so to see if it breaks in at all while I'm on the road and the cable can stay powering the various pieces attached to the transporter but unless it really opens up I'll be sending it back. It's a right pain when manufacturers sell stuff not burned in that needs long burn in times, more dealers should offer burn in services (remember the Nordost Vidar system?) -- another reason to always buy power cords used if you can! |
For those SR fans out there or others interested in the graphene technology I just posted about my experiences with the new Powercell 12UEFs -- another great application of this technology I think |