the magic of power cords

I is from a personal view. Nothing more....

Bo, me thinks "I" is your favorite vowel
What say U?

The best sound Always will win. It is more important than words ever will be! It is that simple....

+1 Swampwalker.

04-16-14: Bo1972
I hate everything what is fake!!

Oh boy.

I YI YI YI Y IIIII

I hate everything what is fake!!

In audio facts only count. It is only about the sound you hear.

Bo would make a great heel wrestler in WWE.

His gimmick: "I always know what is best for you so let me tell you something, brother...."

Seriously, Bo knows what he knows and is not afraid to say so. Good for him!

OTher than coming across like a heel wrestler, I have no qualms with most of what Bo says.

And that's the bottom line cause Mapman says so!

Bo, my recent comments were in jest. Even though you are constantly selling something I actually enjoy your contribution to this forum.

Bo172, nothing more to say, you are 200 % correct!

I said it many times and I repeat it again; it is not about me, and it never wil be about me. Even if I do it a lot different than other do. I love this work because I like to see people happy with there systems.

The reason why I can be hard and sarcastic is because I met too many people who have spend a lot of money on audio and still had a shitty sound. I have seen adult men crying. Because they were f...by shops who pretend they are good in audio. There hobby is making money.

Life is not about what you get, it is about what you give. I love to give people a stunning sound.

Even now for the first time I earn a lot of money with sound and vision I will not use it for myself. I will use it to create my own foundation.

This I will use for people who have nothing. To get there I still have a lot to do. That is the main thing for me in life. The highest thing you can achieve in life is to influence the life of those who have no possibilities to create a better life and human living.

Jmcgrogan - haha, probably need more mushrooms for a good Bo impersonation.

I rather suspect habitual use of recreational drugs (legal for public consumption in the streets of Amsterdam). Seems more consistent with the story of a successful, inherently good character who always wins against the big bad world. Just because he's different. An 007 of the audio.

I see... the I's have it. I was going to post more, but I have to go eat lunch. Then I have to stop by the Post office, I have some packages. I want to get some stamps too. I will listen some more when I get home. I love listening to the music I enjoy. I know others who love music as much as I do. I love freedom too, I also love myself. ;^)

I do consulting, because I love freedom. I worked also for over 6 years in a speciality shop in sound and vision. I also did run a shop in sound and vision for 2 years.

But I wanted to do it differently. Now I have more time for my clients. So I can deliver a higher endresult. That is what counts for me.

I spend a lot more time on individual customers than shops do. I also sometimes give presentations for some manufacturers. I do the things I love and I do it my way.

04-16-14: Cbozdog
Hi Bo, you're just telling stories about a fantastic character named "Bo" in Holland, aren't you?

He certainly can spin a story, can't he? He's obviously a dealer....and maybe a future politician???

Hi Bo, you're just telling stories about a fantastic character named "Bo" in Holland, aren't you?

No, for me audio is only about what you hear. I can become hard or sometimes sarcastic but I am very serious when it comes to the endresult in sound.

When you hear my system my words become a lot more clear than they do now. I understand that really well.

Everything is Always about facts and the truth. I hate all those people who are not able to give people what they promised them. When you visit people with extrem expensive highend sets and the end result is average or even poor you become more fanatic and motivated to do it right. I hate people who lie and tell other people bullshit stories.

In audio there are still too many people who are not able to sell the best quality for the money. In my country it becomes even worse. Distributers with good stuff loose a part of there market. Only because some shops become distributers of low quality stuff. That is a main reason why I hate all the low quality stuff on the market. Because these people sell it to people. And so you get a lot less for the money you spend.

Hi Bo,

I must admit: I now enjoy your answers much less. You're actually only a braggart, aren't you?

Thanks anyway.

When it comes to the thread, I forgot to say that gauge matters. :)

For amps it is very important how thick the cable is. More control and grip. Also more dynamics.

When I compared different cables with different gauge I also had big differences. When you have a highend digital source thick cables like Purist Audio matters a lot.

I compared powercables from Nordost with Purist Audio in the past and with poweramps the Purist were far superior. Also for digital sources the Limited outperformed the Valhalla with ease!!

04-16-14: Onhwy61
Bo knows

More directly relevant to audio, though: Bo knows.

:-)

Regards,
-- Al

I am not God, even not in audio. Bo knows a lot, but not everything.....

Bo knows.

The easy thing is that you can hear what is there and what is missing. That is Always clear and Obvious. Even if you do not know the equipment.

The first time I listend to clasical music in real I was stunned by the intimate sound of it. The voice of a female singer was very small and direct. With my eyes closed I used 2 fingers to make a proportion of her voice. That evening I changed the place were I sat. But the intimate sound of her voice stayed the same.

These days an intimate image and realistic proportion of instruments and voices are Always in every single set I sell or adapt. When voices and instruments become bigger the emotion is less involving. When I let people compare an intimate stage with a stage were instruments and voices are too big ( many f... idiots at shows do it. When I ask them how big you think an instrument or voice is in real? They say; we don't know) people prefer the intimate and reaistic image. Because the music pulls you into it. When the image is bigger the distance between you and the music gets bigger. And there is less emotion.

The other important part what influence our emotion in music is how deep the freq. response of an audio system goes. When it goes deeper there will be more emotion. I demo this by using a subwoofer and switching between on and off.

I am a big fan of the class A sound of Pass Labs. Why because it can let you hear the tmebre of a voice or even instrument much easier. This part is also very important for how much emotion people feel when you play there beloved music.

When there is a deeper and wider stage, voices and instruments become more loose from eachother. When I do a changement with cables and people hear it they often give a big smile. I Always say: smiles on people there faces and tapping with there feet during a show gives a good impression what they think about your demo.

The art of sound is what can make a system play emotion and give a sound to die for.

These days I can get a good endresult with Pro roomcorrection even in the worst rooms on this planet.

I Always try to find solutions for limitations in sound. I don't take no for an answer

^^^To make your long reply shorter Bobby, no, you would have no idea what was wrong either, just as I replied to this question on 4/7/14. Remember, Cbozdog wants to know if you walk into a unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar system if you can immediately determine what component needs to be upgraded. Yes, I'm sure you have heard a lot of gear and cables, as have I, but I'm also sure that there is much out there that you haven't heard. The key word here is "unfamiliar", which means that you have no history with the equipment or cables, or room for that matter.

Now let's simplify it for you. You walk into a strange room full of gear and cables that you've never heard before, could you guess the component that could be upgraded to give the best benefit? It's really a yes or no answer we're looking for here. I'll cheat and answer once again that no, in an unfamiliar room, with unfamiliar gear and cables, I couldn't identify the culprit.

I've been in this situation before several times, when going to audition a piece of gear that I'm interested in buying. I may have never heard the gear before, but I'll admit, if I don't like the sound of the system, I won't buy the piece of equipment/cable, even if that is not the culprit. On the other hand, I have been blown away by the sound of a system, bought the piece of gear, only to find that it didn't sound as good in my room. Synergy is critical, and that includes the room as well.

In a few seconds I know what is there and what is missing. In the past I thought other people do hear it as clear and fast as I do. But these days I know they don't.

What I said before; I can hear all parts which need to be there in a few seconds. Even at shows I can describe what is missing and what is good. I can describe it very well so every person understands what is good and what is missing.

I know from many brands of cables, amps, sources, conditioners and speakers what there properties are.

When you are not aware of these properties you don't know what you are doing. And how the sound you have is created. At many shows I am Always looking to the eyes of people who demo. When it is not good, I can see that they really don't f..know why it is not good. It often makes me smile, and I think what a f... idiots. And believe me at shows in my country there are many!!

I know in a very short time what is good and what is missing. When I am aware of the properties of the equipment, I know what the sound and image will be.

When you have a photographic memory you can compare different options in audio a lot more easy. In a few seconds I can describe what the difference is between them. And I can do this very precise.

When you use all the parts for what I call Total Sound in your system every person will enjoy the music. Because these parts influence the emotion of us people.

When parts are missing in a set, after time you will not be happy with it anymore. So you will listen less to your audio set. This is also very simple to explain.

I can create a much better sound in almost every system. Because seldom all parts are there which need to be there for what I call Total Sound. What is in my world the blueprint of the Absolute Sound.

Even if I listen to stuff I don't know, I still know which parts are there and which are missing. I understand the properties quite fast of new things. It is Always fun to listen to new stuff.

In 1998 I started to give tools ( cables, sources, amps, conditioners and speakers etc) properties. Because I understood they had different properties when you compare them. I still do it this way.

You need to keep things simple as possible. For comparing audio only use a few numbers you know very well. Do this over and over again.

In the past I hated those brands which give a very average or even poor sound. These days I still hate it. I am still surprised how much shit there is on the audio market.

That is why I wanted to to it differently. My goal is to create the best sound for every single person.

I am a perfectionist and only interested in the best. I almost only wear Italian cloths. In every single thing I buy it need to be the best. For my clients I have the same level to perfection. Why? Because every single person deserves the best sound for the money they spend.

I work with the same dedication for people who spend 1000 dollar and those who spend 10.000 dollar. There is no difference in approach. For me all people are equal.

My focus is on the endresult of every single system. Even when I sell new speakers, I make people aware they still need an amp to create a 3 dimensional sound. I understand that many people buy audio in parts. These clients now are saving money to buy a 3 dimensional amp. I am Always doing a quality check at all my clients.

I Phone the older clients if everything is still working. I told them all that they can contact me every single day till 2 a.m. Then I go to bed.

My approach and my world is a lot different compared to others. It is as it is because the low level in endresult many audio companies give irritates me so much.

I want to increase the quality and pleasure for all people to be happy with there beloved music.

Bobby

Hi Bobby (Bo), I enjoy your posts very much. You seem to have a good skill for listening.

Can you maybe explain - how do you listen to a new, unknown system to guess what is the component that can be upgraded to give best benefit? Without swapping components and comparing? I still feel that this might be possible for the best trained ear like yours.

My focus is Always on how I can achieve the best endresult with the money they want to spend.

The result ( what you hear) is that what counts. That is why I say; hearing is believing.

I have said it many times; it is easier to achieve a higher endresult with a source/amp of about 2000 dollar with a powercable of 2500 dollar. Than with a poweramp of 4500 dollar with a powercable of 100 dollar. I have done these comparison blind for clients. Normally they think the more expensive poweramp/source will be the one they prefer.
Almost all of them prefered the less expensive poweramp/source with the expensive powercable.

Hearing is believing. That is what counts. I am only interested to create the best sound for an amount people want to spend. You can spend your money in an audio system differently. If you are a perfectionist like me it needs to be the best possible. That is Always the goal.

In the past I did send many clients to other shops even if they already wanted to order it. Why? Because I wanted them to hear how big the difference is for the other options. For me it is always about convincing and honesty. If you can get a better sound at a competitor you should choose for this. I would do the same.

In 16 years of time I met several people with extreme expensive highend sets with not a lot of own music.

I would hope that you would refuse to sell these people $3,000 power cords no matter how much they pleaded and begged. It would be the honorable thing to do.

Music is the essential of audio. It always will be the main thing. My biggest hobby is music. I buy a lot of music every week. Without music you never can enjoy your audio system. In 16 years of time I met several people with extreme expensive highend sets with not a lot of own music. I told these people that it is impossible to become happy with there set. It is all about music!

Well, I'm a music dealer. CDs Vinyls(mostly), cassettes, R2R etc... Feel free to find hidden treasures among my vinyls http://www.discogs.com/seller/Iriedog
Different music always good to explore and it always sound different.
Why not spending more time for record shopping instead of auditioning aftermarket powercords?

I never heard a component with a stunning powercord like the best Purist Audio makes.

Can you give me a name of a component with a stock powercable who has the same level like e Purist Audio Limited edition.

If you never have heard this cable or compared it with a stocj cable you really don't know where you are talking about. it is that simple! Audio is Always about facts. What you hear is what you get!

If component sounds already good with stock powercord, it will be very hard to hear differences. With aftermarket one it will also sound good.

That is why sound counts at the end. It is that simple!

I sell a 3 dimensional sound. My way of roomacoustic measurement is a very important part in the succes.

Onkyo is the most cheap brand who can give a deep and wide stage in the lower price tag. I sold brands like: Marantz, Denon, Cambridge, NAD, Arcam for many years. Those ar what I call 2 dimensional brands. When you use these with speakers who can give a deep and wide stage there is almost no depth compared to Onkyo ( Integra)

I only work with Onkyo, Primare and Pass Labs.

cables: only Audioquest, Kimber and Purist Audio

Same story for Monitor Audio. Compare these speakers with Kef, Dynaudio, B&W, Focal etc in the lower price range and you will hear the same difference in depth and wide when you use a 3 Dimensional amp. Stage is also superior in sharpness for individual focus.

Same story about cables.

In the last 6 months I sold about 70% of all the stock of the distributer for Olive in my country. They had very low prices. So I did win every single battle against other streamers of other shops.

Always create a higher level in endresult compared to my competitors. That is how I work. I always want to win. Hearing is believing. That is why sound counts at the end. It is that simple!

I have to admit that the knowledge and insight of other people who work in this business is a lot lower compared to mine. This makes it a lot easier. I am Always testing and improving my knowledge and insight in sound. I test new systems etc. Most people are very lazy in my country, they do nothing to improve there knowledge anymore.

04-15-14: Bo1972
That is the reason I only sell the best in every single price tag.

Wow, how rare is that? A dealer who sells only the best at every single price point.....hmmmmmm. ;^)

When you use the best brands on the market and you use it right. Cables are very convincing. The problem is that far over 95% what is on the market is average or even poor. There is more shit on the market and that is what it makes it less convincing. That is the reason I only sell the best in every single price tag. It is that simple! So keep it simple and clear!

You r right.. Power cords r magic--thank goodness ..

You Judge sound for more different parts. You need to understand all these parts. In 16 years of time I have done thousends of test with cables, sources, amps, speakers, conditioners etc.

I can hear all these parts in a few seconds with my own music. Most people can only focus on a few of the parts to Judge for.

So what I do for these people is to explain what the difference is. I do one part at a time. So it becomes a lot more easier also for those who have less experience.

When you do it right, it is even for people who have not a lot of knowledge very clear. You only need a normal working hearing.

When people say: I don't hear the difference. At a show I don't think it is that good. Often it is not that good in real.

My experience is that when all parts are there in a set it is convincing for every person. When a part is missing. At shows many people make mistakes ( they don't know what the f.. they are doing0) or what I said parts are missing.

When is sound convincing for every single person?

when all these parts are in a set.....

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1393266431

read my story about total sound

One person's "0.2%" increase in performance is another person's "night and day". I never understood how people could quantify differences anyway.

I either think it sounds better or worse. Then there are varying degrees of better or worse. How can anyone say this power cord offers a 3.14159265359% better performance over that power cord???

Dog, I think you catch my drift. however, diminishing returns applies, and each has to determine for himself where to draw the line. I think the way this thread has turned shows that it is devilishly hard to quantify improvements once a system attains a pretty high level of performance.

I can't tell Onhwy he is wrong in pointing out that the differences one might expect from a PC swap is something short of "transformational." In the first place, I didn't not hear what he didn't hear, and he didn't hear what I heard. Even if we had heard or not heard what the other did or didn't hear, we might very well value the difference heard differently.

Im swapping out PCs, I have at least achieved the same level of improvement, maybe more, that I have achieved by tube rolling. Maybe I've evaluated the wrong tubes or someone else hasn't found the PC that makes things work for them with their equipment. Who can say with certainty?

... and conversely, if my system is at 60% (my "zero"), Brownsfan improvement of 0.9% (a petty 2.3% in my frame of reference) would make no financial sense to me whatsoever. I'd have to take my system to 80% to perceive the same audible benefit he's getting from his upgrade.

(taking Brownsfan's example as an example, of course).

A bit further on the dynamic ranges... for some of us perhaps "zero" is the current level of the system - whatever that is - and "hundred" would be the live unamplified performance etc..

In one previous post (Brownsfan), going from 98.3% to 99.2% might seem like a petty sub-1% improvement, but if his 98.3% is his "zero" then the improvement is a whooping 52% on the way to perfection.

It is a personal experience. However, if we call "zero" the level where there is some loud music coming out of the speakers and "hundred" the live, unamplified symphony orchestra or chamber group then we have a lot of dynamic range to assign percentages.

However, I'm not that subtle myself. I can only distinguish binary (e.g "night and day") between listening for the umpteenth time to a program that I already know by heart (night), and hearing it again in a better way (well... "day"). Yes, after many enjoyable additional listens post-upgrade, the previous "day" might slowly turn into dusk... and that's when the itch needs scratching again.

Yesterday I visited a client of mine. We did a few different tests. I also had 2 Purist Audio Limited editions with me. For his Wadia 7si and Spectral poweramp it made a huge improvement. We are not talking about a few %, a very big improvement. We also did compare his MIT interconnect with the brand new Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder. This is a big improvement over MIT as well. But.....the improvement of the Purist limited edition was even bigger.

Since this date I have not tested any powercable brand which can make this level in improvement. The level in black is stunning. Also instruments and voices become more intimate. MIT would wish they could achieve this. I owned there best powercables. Those are inferior to Purist Audio powercables. Also the decay in the right and left side behind the speakers is a lot bigger. The level in 3 dimensional image between MIT and Purist Audio is big as well.

I Always say: voices become more round. This means there is more space around them and they are less flat.

instruments and voices are so much better separated than MIT powercables can ever create.

Another example; percussion, you hear the difference in height with a Purist Audio powercable.

Purist Audio is superior in what I call individual focus of instruments and voices compared to MIT.

In one year of time I beat all MIT cables with ease at different clients. Purist Audio and Audioquest makes it very easy to win from many other brands. I say; I love'm!

Without denying that cables, IC's, and PC can, and do, make a difference, although PC's differences are very subtle and I think are really most audible in highly resolving systems, when it comes to 'tuning' a system I'd rather spend my disposable income on tubes where the differences are more easily discerned and leaves a lot more time for listening to music. :-)

On hyway, I do understand the point you are making, and it has some merit. I think our disagreement is more a matter of language than substance.

I don't know anyone who went from a from a 0.5K mini to a $30K system in a single upgrade. Permit me a bit more hyperbole here, but that like asking what kind of language would have been appropriate for Orville and Wilbur to have gone from Kitty Hawk to Apollo 11 in a day. There is no point in reserving superlatives for scenarios outside of human experience.

More common is a situation where one slowly builds a system, then plateaus at a fairly high level, struggling to achieve anything further. Then, one finds something that really does make a difference. This difference could be described as trivial, or even imperceptible, to 99.9% of the population. But in our circles, one's experience of that difference can be substantial. The two observers have a decidedly different frame of reference.

Brownsfan, I completely agree with your first paragraph. Maximizing performance can be very expensive. But if you're going to describe a .5% increase in performance as transformational, then what language is left to describe going from a system built around a good $500 mini-monitor to a full range, well chosen $30,000 system? If someone spent $100,000 for upgrades I can understand the emotional need to overstate the improved sound quality. Saying it's tranformational, night and day, blows aways, I could never go back, etc. sounds better than "it's a very small change, but musically satisfying and overall worthwhile".

Onhyway, this is an area where diminishing returns is thrown out the window. One can get 90% for 1K, 95% for 3K, but that last 5% can cost you 100K.

If you have been stuck at 98.3% for 10 years, a change that gets you to 99.2% is for that person a substantial improvement, perhaps transformational.

Perhaps people who use terms such as "night and day" to describe sonic differences in audiophile equipment are using hyperbole. I don't take their words literally, but I wonder why they are being so dramatic in describing what are essentially subtle sonic differences.

I n practice, I make a simple judgement when listening to whatever. It either sounds good or bad. The difference between the two might be called night and day, but in fact could be relatively minor. I either enjoy what I am hearing or not.

On that track, since I listen to my main hifi setup the most, I set the bar highest there. IT has to sound good all the time, allowing for variations/deficiencies recording to recording. So there is a lot more that goes into that than other cases.

I also listen to a second system, headphones, table radios, etc. in my house. Not to mention car stereo. Each of these fits the bill although to a less "perfect" extent when I listen.

Its all a matter of what a person finds satisfying to meet the need case by case.

It can't all sound perfect all the time. Expecxting that is the certain path to audiophile hell.

Oh - just a note regarding "night and day"...

People who use these words to describe changes in the sound of their system might have experienced it on both ends: a system that delivers "transistor radio" music vs one that is conveying the nuanced differences between instruments, sound decays, atmosphere, etc..

Perhaps people who cannot relate did not experience both: either their system is always perfect (perfect AC, top gear, perfect room isolation) or they never got to the next step?

I'm just saying.