New BMI Whale Elite Power Cord

Let me start out by saying I have little experience with this cable. I've owned it for about 3 weeks and have been running it in for about 150-200 hours, but my system has been changing recently. What I can tell you is its the best PC I've tried(MIT z cord I & II, Tara RSC, Delta Labs power pro, BMI Eel & Majik). Huge soundstage, lots of depth, black background, big bottom end, refined but detailed. Not as laid back as Eel, and more transparent. It's frustrating having it on only one component at a time; I can hear the other cables "messing" things up. I'll try the Whale in two other systems and let you know.

Thanks guys- appreciate the responses. Hey Bruce- great to hear from you! Long time no speak. Glad ot hear the FIM is working out well. Haven't been able to audition it- as I may have told you, up here in Canada, we don't have such luxuries, and often have to committ to a cord from the U.S. WITHOUT EVEN HEARING IT FIRST (like I did with current Black Mamba). That is why I am still trying to gather as much info as I can from Audiogon posts, etc. Yah- it kinda sucks, esoecially when you;re putting out the kinda payola $$ these things cost. What do you think, for $400 U.S. (3 ft model), should I take a chance on the BMI Whale??

Hello all -

I took a chance on a Whale Elite - 6 foot - after a recommendation from another audiophile - TomP - on this site (he bought some IC cables from an ad I posted). TomP was very enthusiastic, and, when the time came, i bid and won an audiogon auction for about 425. + ship (intro price) about a month ago. The service from Brian at BMI was quick, and enthusiastic. The cable I rec'd was obviously carefully crafted and packaged.

***A note: though I have a high-end system, I've never spent over $200. on a power cable before (and given the time-frame I had to buy this time, I couldn't perform any comparisons to other more expensive PC's I've never owned e.g. to the Electraglides, etc. ).***

I used the BMI to replace my API ($175.00) PC to my pre-amp. The API was excellent for the money, but un-forgiving if any thing feeding my accurate all-tube VTL system was even slightly bright (I had a list of things I actually wrote down to check if i wasn't getting into the music (including speaker wires off floor, etc - that's how sensitive my system seemed to me). I find VTL eqpt can be lush, but never euphonic if tubed correctly.

OK, took a chance based on TomP's and my several conversations, won auction, sent $, rec'd cable promptly, and stuck it on pre-amp, and burned it in for 24 hours and decided to wait one month to submit a review.

I found this cable immediately added more detail to the upper regions (fleshed out considerably more subtle detail than the API) - sounding extremely detailed and more open than i'd experienced up to that time, yet creamy smooth, but not boring (like some cables i've matched with my Yamamura IC's). Base lept up a big notch - was deeper, tighter with a firm grip on sub-woofers. Ever since I noticed bad amp input tubes last year that distorted my Bass - i noticed an interesting phenomenon - bass from my subs could not go anywhere as deep as possible because of the rumbling of the woofers as they fought the distortion - much wasted energy. The cleaner and highest quality natual signal, the better. And that's what the Whale has provided me, envigorating the subs, allowing the preamp to provide a cleaner, deeper, more realistic signal for bass (and everything else) than they'd ever had. More mid-base info as well. Everything sounded more natural - 'live'.

I'm a rocker and listen to jazz and some classical as well. The whale PC improved the natural nature of my system - moving the bar forward in timbral accuracy, lower sound floor, etc (I can actually hear a little more tube buzz with all the new info coming through - time to check them).

Though cliche - I'd have to say that I now understand why people pay over $500 and on up for what we all used to think of as merely powercords. And, though i can't say, i'll bet these compete well at their retail price of $1200+.

Note: I found the Wattagate outlets from The Cable Co. also moved my system a huge notch forward when i upgraded my outlets last year.

I always been of the synergy camp - stretch and buy the best quality and best matched system I can afford, then tweak/upgrade the HELL out of it! ( and in the margins, this includes IC and PC cables as new, less expensive technology comes out). For every medium and high-current draw device I have, I'll buy a Whale (but CD player, DVD, etc. remain with the MIT Z-Cord II's PC's - great value $175.new, $85-90 used, great digital filtering. I've always loved MIT for their great value, ever since someone threw in some PC-squared's with my first (used) high - end speaker purchase).

Anyway, I have to say the BMI Whales get my highest recommendation - some of the other PC's i've used also include the original Marigo RMX Gen 2's on my amps - have been great, but am looking to now replace with the Whales.

As a bonus, I'd have to say I do love buying high-quality eqpt. from anyone who is as friendly and enthusiastic about their business as Brian at BMI. TomP, I thank ye.

I recommend auditioning these against other PC's up to at least 1500.00 (it'd be great if someone gets this chance and can post).

I agree with you Gregdavis. I am a Whale(s) owner and can give a very high recommendation. I placed mine on my Krell
KSA-250 amp and the other on KBL preamp. Everything was improved accross the board. Tighter bass, detail, imaging, soundstage and natural sound of the recording. I'd like to get two more for my digital front end in the near future. That's if I get the approval from Judge Wife.

Update to my previous post -GregDavis

Hello All -

After purchasing two more Whale Elite PC's for my VTL amps, I have to say I'm even further impressed by these well made power cords. Out came my old Marigo PC's - very respectable - and in went the Whales, and though i heard immediate benefits, I always like to wait a month or so to review for complete burn-in.

First - astonishing thing - to me this time around - my amps stopped buzzing - light humming i could hear even after warm up(i kept thinking that the amps were burning up signal tubes very quickly or some such thing before this upgrade, though VTLs are notoriously quiet for tube amps). I thought this low level humming was just something i had to live with (rarely got in the way of the music, but still...), but no. No humming, yet more detail retrieval and information from my system.

The system's noise floor dropped again, and more transparency and detail throughout all the frequency ranges (more of what was revealed using a Whale on my pre-amp - see prev post).

These PC's truly set a solid foundation for the rest of your system's cabling allowing the synergy (or not - if you find you have to make adjustments in other areas) to shine through. My next venture in cabling will probably be to audition recent speaker cabling designs for a possible upgrade.

Again, service from Brian at BMI was impeccable, and quality of the cables is evident immediately upon un-packing them.

Tremendous value, my hat's off.