[chaZZZy007]

Using Puritan PSM156 on mine.Just like you.

Hey Mickey!
Hope you and all the Pathos family here is having a wonderful Christmas & New Year's season.

What differences were you able to hear when you made the switch to power conditioning?

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

With the benefit of very black background goes: more definition / clarity, richer, bigger, layered sound.

 

[TheR0v3r]

Today given the opportunity to try two different power cords from Furutech: FP-TCS21 and DPS-4.1. These are in different price ranges but jumped on the chance to try something new with the Inpol.

To keep it short, the FP-TCS21 didn’t impress me at all with the Pathos. Maybe it’s burn-in, connectors or whatever but I just can’t see it improving enought to pique my interest. Probably not helped (at all!) by the fact that the DPS-4.1 is good, as in really good!

After first having used fancy power cords with the Pathos I decided to sell them and instead have been using a simple (but good) power cord ever since. Today is the first time I’ve again tried something more expensive and I’m very impressed! I’ll report back in a week.

Happy New Year!

It’s actually really hard to write something ”definitive” about a power cord such as the Furutech DPS-4.1. You have the cable itself and then the connectors so you’ll end up commenting on what is essentialy the sum of those parts.

In my setup the Furutech DPS-4.1 with basic Furutech copper connectors ends up being too ”warm” connected to the Pathos. The cable itself is better than the attached connectors because I can hear that the cord covers the whole frequency range nicely with extended lows and highs, nice soundstaging etc. It’s just is too soft, holding back dynamics and with a bump in the bass giving it a ”softness” and ”warmth” that just isn’t for me. I like some punch!

I’ve talked to some people who use this cable and their feedback is that it excels with the more expensive Furutech connectors such as FI-50 in rhodium. With that combination it would probably be on par with even more expensive cables (like the Shunyata’s I used to have) so there is value here. All in all, a top notch cable that is held back by the connectors attached to it.

 

[xtr4]

It’s actually really hard to write something ”definitive” about a power cord such as the Furutech DPS-4.1. You have the cable itself and then the connectors so you’ll end up commenting on what is essentialy the sum of those parts.

In my setup the Furutech DPS-4.1 with basic Furutech copper connectors ends up being too ”warm” connected to the Pathos. The cable itself is better than the attached connectors because I can hear that the cord covers the whole frequency range nicely with extended lows and highs, nice soundstaging etc. It’s just is too soft, holding back dynamics and with a bump in the bass giving it a ”softness” and ”warmth” that just isn’t for me. I like some punch!

I’ve talked to some people who use this cable and their feedback is that it excels with the more expensive Furutech connectors such as FI-50 in rhodium. With that combination it would probably be on par with even more expensive cables (like the Shunyata’s I used to have) so there is value here. All in all, a top notch cable that is held back by the connectors attached to it.

I actually own the DPS4.1 with FI-50 Rhodium + FI-UK NCF + Synergistic Research Orange fuse. It is an excellent cable pairing to the Pathos BUT it is DAMN heavy and unwieldy.
I used to use the MCRU Ultimate Power Cord on it but this is so much better. Apparently the MCRU no.77 power cord is the exact same material build but with some extra tweaks from the guys at MCRU. I actually have to use a small puck stand to prop it up to reduce the tension on the IEC port.

 

[TheR0v3r]

I actually own the DPS4.1 with FI-50 Rhodium + FI-UK NCF + Synergistic Research Orange fuse. It is an excellent cable pairing to the Pathos BUT it is DAMN heavy and unwieldy.
I used to use the MCRU Ultimate Power Cord on it but this is so much better. Apparently the MCRU no.77 power cord is the exact same material build but with some extra tweaks from the guys at MCRU. I actually have to use a small puck stand to prop it up to reduce the tension on the IEC port.

Brilliant, probably as good as it gets

Agree that it’s a heavy and ”slightly” unwieldly cable but hard to fault it with that performance. I’m curious, how your connecting it to power?

 

[xtr4]

Brilliant, probably as good as it gets

Agree that it’s a heavy and ”slightly” unwieldly cable but hard to fault it with that performance. I’m curious, how your connecting it to power?

When I got the Pathos, I already had the Puritan PSM156. I haven't tried any others though I was tempted by the Denali, but couldn't due to cost reasons. And the Denali with UK outlets are really expensive locally.

I live in Malaysia, so all my outlets are UK. I started my journey with UK plugs, so it kinda stuck. I have a friend running US plugs, to the extent that he even refurbished his outlets to Furutech hahaha of course he has more disposable income that I do, so there's that.

 

[TheR0v3r]

There are ALOT of things Pathos have got right with the InPol Ear - it’s a wonderful headphone amp. And we seem all to have tinkered in tube rolling and power cables to increase it’s performance even further.

There is one area where I noticed obvious room for improvement in the design and construction: the handling of unwanted resonances. There seems to be small, if any, attempts made by Pathos to manage these. Only with minor tweaks (isolaton feet and shelf) have I been able to improve the sound further: sharper musical definition and more articulate bass lines. This is in stark contrast to my DAC where tweaks only lead to minor gains.

What’s your experience?

 

[chaZZZy007]

There are ALOT of things Pathos have got right with the InPol Ear - it’s a wonderful headphone amp. And we seem all to have tinkered in tube rolling and power cables to increase it’s performance even further.

There is one area where I noticed obvious room for improvement in the design and construction: the handling of unwanted resonances. There seems to be small, if any, attempts made by Pathos to manage these. Only with minor tweaks (isolaton feet and shelf) have I been able to improve the sound further: sharper musical definition and more articulate bass lines. This is in stark contrast to my DAC where tweaks only lead to minor gains.

What’s your experience?

Please tell us more (if you can) specifically about your isolation Tweaks and the differences you've heard.

 

[TheR0v3r]

Please tell us more (if you can) specifically about your isolation Tweaks and the differences you've heard.

Sure!

First of all I don’t have my gear in a rack, just on an ordinary TV cabinet. So the first thing I needed to do was to ”replicate” a rack by placing all gear on support platforms (using Avid’s support platform). After that I’ve added isolation feets under the Pathos to minimize vibrations (using IsoAcoustic’s OREA). As a last step I use a damping plate on the Pathos to minimize resonances from the chassis (using HRS Damping Plates).

The end result is greater clarity and focus.

P.S. In comparision my DAC is only placed on a support platform. The other tweaks mentioned have not made any (positive) difference.

 

[LanceSaintPaul]

+1 for Iso-Acoustics under any tubed gear (and SS too).
Last year I made a complete transition from the Tip-Toe style of footing - mechanical grounding - (Nordost Pulsar Points) to isolation style with Iso-Acoustics Orea under every piece of gear. Remarkable. Lower noise floor, expansion of soundstage in volume, inner detail, tonal colors all increased.

 

[TheR0v3r]

+1 for Iso-Acoustics under any tubed gear (and SS too).
Last year I made a complete transition from the Tip-Toe style of footing - mechanical grounding - (Nordost Pulsar Points) to isolation style with Iso-Acoustics Orea under every piece of gear. Remarkable. Lower noise floor, expansion of soundstage in volume, inner detail, tonal colors all increased.

Well put

 

[chaZZZy007]

Sure!

First of all I don’t have my gear in a rack, just on an ordinary TV cabinet. So the first thing I needed to do was to ”replicate” a rack by placing all gear on support platforms (using Avid’s support platform). After that I’ve added isolation feets under the Pathos to minimize vibrations (using IsoAcoustic’s OREA). As a last step I use a damping plate on the Pathos to minimize resonances from the chassis (using HRS Damping Plates).

The end result is greater clarity and focus.

P.S. In comparision my DAC is only placed on a support platform. The other tweaks mentioned have not made any (positive) difference.

Thanks bud.
Thanks to you and Lance these are on my radar now.

Question for you and Lance. What series did you purchase, Bronze or Indigo???

 

[TheR0v3r]

Thanks bud.
Thanks to you and Lance these are on my radar now.

Question for you and Lance. What series did you purchase, Bronze or Indigo???

My pleasure

I use 4x Bronze.

 

[LanceSaintPaul]

I use x3 under (hey I'm cheap, well there is an advantage to a tripod...) use the Iso-Acoustics calculator at their website or their estimated weight capacity to pick the size. Use the least that still fits - you need to know the weight of your gear.

 

[chaZZZy007]

My pleasure

I use 4x Bronze.

Thanks Rover!