Electraglide Epiphany vs Kubala-Ssna vs....

Sispeedy. I am a restless soul, and found I could not tame the residual glare and harndess of the Berning, so I spent some time reading, and found that the Verity people (who make my speaker) use the Nagra VPA's to show off this speaker. I already had (and loved the little Nagra PLL), so it was worht a shot. The glare is gone, I love the VPA's in my system.

Finally, I got a good deal on both the sale of my AA and the acquisition of the Reimyo, so again I went for it.

Wow, I just discovered this thread. Cave man here indeed. And the issue of tubes; I have become quite a fond follower of Telefunkens. I guess this makes me a TeleTubey!

I am definitely guilty of living on the warm side of the fence but with the help of JD and Art, I am working my way slowly to center. This is rather fitting as I am quite a moderate by nature anyway. The CAT amps were really the first product I have purchased in a long long time that did not emphasize the warm side of things but rather brought on a level of resolution and dynamics that has to be heard to be believed. And this along with the full bodied nature of the Aestheix Jupiter models is a match made in heaven for me.

As JD pointed out, I have been running with NBS Statement cables for a long long time. These are an awesome match with the 80s-90s ARC gear to tame the forwardness of this product line and also retain the 3-dimensionality within it. But with the latest changes to my system, it was clear that I was long overdue to focus again on my system's cables.

In the end of the power cord shootout, I too had to give the nod to the Epiphany X in the context of dynamics and resolution. But there was something about the tonality of Kubala-Sosna that just did it for me. Perhaps it was simply that the K-S was not calling attention to itself....everything was just naturally enjoyable and therefore less focus on the listening to the sound and more so to the music. I really liked this cable. The remaining cables did absolutely nothing for me. I had heard none of these in my system and had no prior knowledge or experience with these.

One bias that I did have going into this shootout was the degree of difference the power cords would make. As JD wrote, the AM Power Conditioner is wonderful. I suspect without this, the power cord differences would not have been anywhere as significant.

One thing we all noticed was how much more significant the difference was with the power cords into the AM were than elsewhere in the system. The Manley DAC benefitted from the more resolving cables but it was really the Callisto where the biggest gains were achieved on a single system component. And at a far distance, the CAT amps had a very subtle improvement. There was definitely a pecking order in power cords. We did not spin LPs so the jury is out on the gains with the Io.

One thing JD pointed out, that I agreed with, was that the single K-S IC (DAC to Callisto) we had tried in my system vs. the NBS 2 months ago had a more significant improvement in resolution and noise level than my system fully loaded with ALL of the Electraglide and K-S power cords. So here again, there was a definite priority as to where to put the resources into system cables. And my experience with IC's from line stage to amp is that this link is even greater than the other IC links in the system. So this really is where my focus needs to be before I drop a fortune on power cords. And for JD and Art, I have a little surprise here. Stay tuned.

I have much appreciation to JD and Art for teaching me a lot about the importance of power conditioning and various system changes to bring on a level of resolution that has been hiding in my system since I did a major overhaul to it earlier this year.

John

Yes, Grasshopper - the cords matter!

Hi Tele-tubey, first off where the &%#* have you been on this thread. You do need to pay better attention when Art and I are talking behind your back. Secondly, I would like you to change your moniker to Tele-tubey, It's perfect!

OK John, you can go back into your cave while I talk to the other folks here...

...Is he gone yet?

Good, now what John doesn't know is the next addenda item is his digital front end. I will need the support of others here, but the Manely DAC and Whatever Lens and a Best Buy transport really must go. We tried the DAC at my house and it lost so much of everything, that I know for a fact a new single box digital is in John's future!

Now we need to keep this secret from John for awhile longer, too much advancement into the 21st century is dangerous for some. So for now, not a word...

...poor John, he was far better off when I was not comfortable teasing him. Oh well, it's a two sided relationship. He could boot me any time now, so those of you who believe in John's potential for change may need to take over.

For now,

JD

Oh yes, don't tell TeleTuby I will be trying to convince him to get the single-box Teac Esoteric X-01 like the one I am breaking in right now. At the 80 hrs mark, even through the admittedly crappy AudioQuest Quartz RCA into my senescing ARC LS2B and a stock chord on X-01 to boot, I am already drunk with sound!