[jeffro]

Has anyone upgraded their power cord for the Phillips 963sa? I have looked around but can't seem to find a cord that will fit without modding the IEC.

If you did upgrade, did the tweak improve sound?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Gopher]

Any IEC power cord will work fine with the 963SA. The units lack of ground is inconsequential.

FYI I used the Acoustic Zen Tsunami Plus with my 963 and the difference was not subtle.

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffro Has anyone upgraded their power cord for the Phillips 963sa? I have looked around but can't seem to find a cord that will fit without modding the IEC. If you did upgrade, did the tweak improve sound? Thanks in advance.

I tried several cords on the 963sa and the one I liked best was a (Lat International) LAT AC-2. You can pick these up used for $75-100. It smooths the sound and reduces brightness from my experiences.

 

[Jester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover I tried several cords on the 963sa and the one I liked best was a (Lat International) LAT AC-2. You can pick these up used for $75-100. It smooths the sound and reduces brightness from my experiences.

Any recommendations on where I could pick this power cord up from?

 

[Gopher]

http://www.audiogon.com/

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester Any recommendations on where I could pick this power cord up from?

Audiogon is where I got mine.

 

[Anders]

I have some experience of 963SA with different power line conditions. Some months ago, I begun to work in another city and stay over night a few days most weeks. I bought a 963SA to have there. I was never satisfied with the sound and the bass was ugly, woolish and hollow. A power cable helped a little but not enough. Then I took it home over the weekend and hooked it up to a PS Audio P300 power regenerator and then it sounded quite decent.

I have bought an Ultimate Outlet to have at the other location, but yet only tested it at home. I set up the 963SA and a Corda Prehead with stock powercords directly to the wall outlet and then put in the UO between. There was not much of a difference direct out of the box, but when it had played on repeat for 24 hours, there was indeed! The sound was more clear and detailed with improved rythm and pace, and returned to the old when I removed UO. The bass was a little too soft also with UO, ut acceptable. In all, sound moved from boring to quite engaging.

So in my experience, it is better with an UO and stock powercords, than powercords only. The result could vary according to powerline contamination. I have not yet tested this at the other location where I think that the power is dirtier. Theoretically, it should have even greater effect there and less effect if you get clean power from the wall (does anyone?).
Next step will be to add power cords and check the additional effect.

Another option could be SacdMods modification with increased filtering in the powersupply of 963SA.

I don't think 963SA is the only cheap CDP that is very sensitive to powerline noise.

 

[Jester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover Audiogon is where I got mine.

Thanks to both you and Gopher for passing this info along.

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester Thanks to both you and Gopher for passing this info along.

I have mine(LAT AC-2) on an ultimate outlet as well. The question was which power cord so I didnt add that info when I probably should have. The UO definitely helps more than the power cord alone. I have the sacdmods player and the mods make for a huge improvement over the stock player.

Best sound improvement IMO with 963sa: 1) sacdmods upgrades, 2) PS Audio UO, 3) good power cord.

 

[tortie]

I upgraded my Philips 963SA with a couple of cords. (PS audio microlab & Absolute Power cable). I seems like it gave a subtle improvement in the bass area. Give it a try, but if your thinking of going with a powercord which costs more than $100, your better off spending that money in upgrading the power supply of your 963SA instead.

I have a few powercords which im not using now, if you want to try out one, PM me and I'll lend you one.

 

[jeffro]

Thanks you all for the great responses. It appears to me a new power cord is a final 5-10% tweak. Maybe I should look at modding or a power conditioner first.

 

[Gopher]

jeff,

check out the monster PC1000 someone posted at buy.com as cheap and identical to the HTS 1000. I've been using it with my Meridian for a couple of weeks and its level 2 filtration did more for my system then the Acoustic Zen Tsunami plus it's also using. Dramatic drop in noise floor--my dad walked into the listening room, and within 20 seconds asked me "what did you buy!?" as the difference was that apparant.

 

[mrwinick]

Can anyone explain why/how a power cord affects the quality of the sound?

 

[Anders]

The performance of audio compenents is negatively affected by noise as EMI and RFI, the first is low frequency and for example coming from power cords and power supplies while the later is high frequency and coming from computers and radio transmissions. Both of these exist on power lines and are also spread by air.

Power cords can have positive effects by:
1. Shielding of the power cord results in less pick up of radiation, an maybe more importantly, that the power cord radiates much less noise to interconnects and components in the system. The difference between a standard and a shielded power cord is easy to measure by a cheap detector, I think Radio Shack has one for about $10.
2. Some powercords also contain components that filter RFI, it can be ferrite rings or wires embedded in a ferrite compound, or a capacitor. This is some kind of hybrid between power cord and conditioner, although a good conditioner is more effective.
3. The controversial aspect is how the quality and topology of the wire can affect sound. Low impedance seems to be important, especially for power amps. However, this is a subject that is above my knowledge, and the knowledge about these phenomena seems to be limited.

The most important aspect is what audible difference a power cord or conditioner makes in my own system, and if the change is worth the money.

 

[Reader]

Are 14 AWG cord good for CDP and Headphone amp? Or I need soemthing like 10-12 AWG?