Warm sounding power cord for for CD player to suppress digital glare on vocals.
melbguy11,201 posts12-08-2015 11:57pm
According to member "Wig", exotic fuses influence his Vitus RI-100 Integrated amp. I believe he finally settled on AH fuses. Somebody is skipping classes again?? |
Listen Please, first and most importantly if you have a Dac I can for sure solve your problem . I have listened in my system to the best from Wireworld,Plat-7,as well as AQ Diamond the New Kid on the block Curious from Australia. Finally Analog sound , from HD sane cable applies the glare is Gone!! Also USB regen , if CD based the $200 Silnote cable is very good OFC Copper . also you guys should mention what your system is made up of.cables,electronics. i have worked in audio for 40 years and system synergy comes way before cost . Best of luck. |
Harry Pierson had an interesting observation years ago. He said that if you really wanted to enjoy digital, stop listening to your records. Here's a move that will bring your CD playback up to a point where it's really worthwhile ... replace all of the fuses in your electronics (and speakers (if applicable) with the SR Red fuses. I'm in awe over the major improvement in my CD playback with these little critters. |
I feel your pain. Sadly my solution is I've stopped listening to poorly mastered CDs and have found enough well recorded music that I can live with it. Anything I did to make inferior recordings sound better had negative consequences on better recordings that I couldn't accept. If I listened to a lot of older red book CDs I'd seriously consider switching to vinyl. Best of luck. |
Thanks Rgs. With that budget, I would recommend a 1.5 mtr Jorma Unity pc. Unity is on the warm side & like other Jorma cables, sounds natural and harmonically rich which is a good match with a cd player like Emm Labs. The Cable Co list the cable at $2225.00. Here is a link to further info: http://www.jormadesign.com/products/unitypower.htm http://www.thecableco.com/Product/Unity-Power |
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I listen to older CDs (and the Bealtes) and there is definitely some glare in vocals on many of these recordings " ...:Powercord?? Is that too much of a whole bunch to ask just from powercord? How powercord even $$$$ can fix THAT? I've just imagined anyone casual reading that LOL. For older CDs all you need is tube buffer such as Musical Fidelity that will cost substantially lower than so mentioned powercord. |
Listening to the White Album now...good luck trying to tame bad recordings like that. Some Mullard tube saturation in the preamp was the only thing that made things like that more tolerable for me. The Beatles seemed to have wanted their recordings to sound like that. Imagine hearing hearing that stuff on the Altec monitors at EMI.... |
Well now that I know you have such a fine CD player, the glare you speak of is coming from the mastering of the CDs, and not player related. I can understand your search for a PC now, since I have noticed how they can have an effect on certain frequencies when used in a digital chain. It’s a lot of trial and error as you know. |
I'm the OP here. Budget would be around $1500 hopefully, new or used. (But if something is really special, I could save up for a while or sell something to do it.) About 10 years ago, after trying a number of cords, I found the old Shunyata Anaconda VX to be best and have stayed with it. Each time I tried others over the years. (Purist, Telwire, Stealth Digital, Kimber PK-10, TG audio, and some others), the VX won out. A close second is the Shunyata Anaconda Alpha. I have an EMM XDS1/V2 (upgraded from the V1). I find the power cord has a very large impact on digital sound, especially EMM gear I have had over the past decade, which is very revealing, for better or worse. I have not tried much recently so I just thought some people would have experience with newer power cords for digital sources. Thanks to everyone for the advice and comments. |
John (Jmcgrogan2), yes, as you indicated we rarely disagree, and I always view your experience and your posts with great respect. And my perception has been that what you’ve said in your post above represents a belief that is shared by many and perhaps the majority of audiophiles. Nevertheless, as I see it an expectation that a given power cord design will result in effects on the sound that are consistent and predictable when used to power a variety of components that may be completely different designs in just about every conceivably relevant respect, that are being powered by AC having unpredictable and widely varying voltage and noise characteristics, that are being used in conjunction with other components that can be assumed to have widely differing sensitivities to digital (or other) noise that may be coupled into them, that are being used in conjunction with other components and interconnect configurations that can be assumed to have widely differing susceptibility to ground loop-related issues, that may draw vastly differing amounts of current and have vastly different fluctuations in that draw, and that may even be performing completely different functions, is fundamentally irreconcilable with an understanding of how this stuff works. And IMO is therefore a misconception, probably resulting in most cases from extrapolating too broadly from personal experience, and reinforced by marketing hyperbole and popular mythology. FWIW, though, aside from the reference to power cords being tone controls, I would agree with **everything** in your post if the word “signature” were changed to the word “effect.” Especially when it comes to power cords. Best regards, --Al |
I have found PCs such as Audience and Cardas provide a warm sonic signature, but I don't think changing a PC to prevent glare is the way to proceed. I don't know if a PC will even remove glare from a digital device. Digital "glare" or harshness (if that's what you mean), comes from poor jitter control in the digital chain. Changing IC's may tame the offending frequencies, so can an EQ, but in the end, it's the source that needs to be addressed. |
Rarely do I disagree with Al, but I believe that power cords, like cables, ARE tone controls, whether folks like to admit it or not. I think in the long run many of us like a somewhat similar sound. However, many approach this similar result via different paths. Yes, some like extreme detail, and some overly lush, but for the most part we are looking for a balance of warmth and detail. How we approach this balance can be done many different ways. I have seen many use warmer cables with more revealing components and vice versa. There is no such thing as a power cord, cable, capacitor, tube, etc., with no sonic signature of it's own. Whether one wishes to pair warmer tubes with revealing cables, or warmer cables with revealing speakers, it really a personal choice. There's more than one way to skin a cat. IMHO. YMMV. Cheers, John |
I had a similar problem with a pair of custom speakers using Eton metal dome mids and tweeters. The detail was fantastic but too many cd's had that upper midrange glare you're referring to. I would probably have just sold the speakers but they were way too big to ship so I tried several amps, tubes to hybrids to solid state, numerous interconnects and even more power cords. It was always a balancing act that eventually frustrated me. I began to experiment with various wire and AC plugs and found a power cord that tames that upper midrange glare but is a higer rez and not soft sounding cord. I purchased a 10 M run of the Mundorf 1mm solid core silver/gold wire (found on Ebay out of Taiwan), some teflon tubing, and a pair of the Iego 8095 rhodium over silver AC plugs (see acoustic-fun.com to acquire these). I cut the wire into 8 1M runs, ran 4 wires per pole and just used some cheapo radio shack lamp cord as the ground and WOW! The detail and air was still there, the soundstage was expansive with good image outlines, but the glare was gone, really gone. Using 2 of these cords made things even smoother but I felt that the image outlines weren't as sharp as I like but YMMV. Anyway, you're looking at about a $400 investment for a single cord but it most likely will cure your glare problem and not compromise your system. Good luck! |
I would look elsewhere in your system for a solution. Power cords are not tone controls. And whatever effects they may have on tonality will be dependent on a complex and essentially unpredictable set of interactions between the technical characteristics of the particular cord, the design and technical characteristics of the specific component that is being powered, the characteristics of the incoming AC, whatever ground loop conditions may exist between the component it is powering and the other component(s) it is connected to, how that cord is physically routed in relation to the physical routing of other cables and cords in the system, the sensitivity of other components in the system to the specific characteristics of whatever digital noise may be coupled into the AC wiring from that specific component, etc. etc. I suspect that Peter was thinking along the same lines when he made his joking suggestion :-) IMO, FWIW. Regards, -- Al |
http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Heavy-Duty-IEC-320-C13-P007-006/dp/B0027JRMD0/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&a... Above should do the trick :-) Good Listening Peter |
