Hi, some impressions on the Danacable Nirvana Force for High Powered Amps power cable (product link). Far, far from the final word on this cable, just some impressions for now. About 150 hours of burn-in. Comparing it directly to a Furutech DPS4.1 with FI-48 NCF Rhodium connectors.
I'm using it at the moment with the Bricasti M3h DAC with its headphone-out connected to an Abyss Phi TC. I love this combo at the moment for acoustic music. I don't think I've heard the TC sound as clean, detailed, and transparent as this particular combo, reminding me of a well-tuned Utopia system. For these reasons, this setup also makes it simpler to detect differences in power cables. Note that so far, I'm liking using beefy 'high current' cables into the DAC.
The TL/DR is that the DPS4.1 has a looser, free-er sound, while the Nirvana Force has a more controlled sound. I'm finding as I try out more expensive cables that they tend to gravitate towards one of these two poles (loose-and-free versus controlled).
Music used for this comparison is jazz piano trio stuff, which is basically half of everything I listen to.
Note that these observations are relative, not value judgements in and of themselves.
DPS 4.1 (FI-48 NCF Rh)
- More "open" sounding
- More decay on cymbals and put more emphasis on cymbals generally in the typical piano trio sound mix.
- More sense of sustain on piano
- More realistic timbre on both stand-up bass and piano due to evenness in tonality, IMO
Nirvana Force HC
- Darker, and slightly suppressed upper-mids; not a bad trait on a neutral solid state setup like the Bricasti M3h + Abyss TC.
- Stand-up bass sounds slightly muffled, especially immediately after hearing the DPS 4.1.
- More closed-sounding in relative terms compared to the Furutech. Less width.
- Sounds less loud, presumably due to tonal differences.
- A more controlled sound as mentioned; greater "black-background" effect
- A little more sense of macrodynamic contrast
- Sharper imaging, better separation, probably a little better sense of depth. These are probably its best traits.
Last thing I can say at this point is that I've tried a couple other phat power cables that are big on "cleaning up" the sound signature, having a blacker background, etc, but they've come with downsides that were dealbreakers for me. Namely, being too bright and compromising dynamics. I don't hear that with Nirvana Force. So far I'm finding the cable to be very interesting and a nice complement to my DPS 4.1 cables.
I may update this post as my impressions evolve. I kind of use the forum as a place to jot down my thoughts even while they're still in progress, lol. Anyways.
I'm using it at the moment with the Bricasti M3h DAC with its headphone-out connected to an Abyss Phi TC. I love this combo at the moment for acoustic music. I don't think I've heard the TC sound as clean, detailed, and transparent as this particular combo, reminding me of a well-tuned Utopia system. For these reasons, this setup also makes it simpler to detect differences in power cables. Note that so far, I'm liking using beefy 'high current' cables into the DAC.
The TL/DR is that the DPS4.1 has a looser, free-er sound, while the Nirvana Force has a more controlled sound. I'm finding as I try out more expensive cables that they tend to gravitate towards one of these two poles (loose-and-free versus controlled).
Music used for this comparison is jazz piano trio stuff, which is basically half of everything I listen to.
Note that these observations are relative, not value judgements in and of themselves.
DPS 4.1 (FI-48 NCF Rh)
- More "open" sounding
- More decay on cymbals and put more emphasis on cymbals generally in the typical piano trio sound mix.
- More sense of sustain on piano
- More realistic timbre on both stand-up bass and piano due to evenness in tonality, IMO
Nirvana Force HC
- Darker, and slightly suppressed upper-mids; not a bad trait on a neutral solid state setup like the Bricasti M3h + Abyss TC.
- Stand-up bass sounds slightly muffled, especially immediately after hearing the DPS 4.1.
- More closed-sounding in relative terms compared to the Furutech. Less width.
- Sounds less loud, presumably due to tonal differences.
- A more controlled sound as mentioned; greater "black-background" effect
- A little more sense of macrodynamic contrast
- Sharper imaging, better separation, probably a little better sense of depth. These are probably its best traits.
Last thing I can say at this point is that I've tried a couple other phat power cables that are big on "cleaning up" the sound signature, having a blacker background, etc, but they've come with downsides that were dealbreakers for me. Namely, being too bright and compromising dynamics. I don't hear that with Nirvana Force. So far I'm finding the cable to be very interesting and a nice complement to my DPS 4.1 cables.
I may update this post as my impressions evolve. I kind of use the forum as a place to jot down my thoughts even while they're still in progress, lol. Anyways.
Last edited:
