r3cc0s
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2001
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As of the last few days, I've managed to acquire a few line conditioners & cords to test in my system which comproises of:
Jolida JD100A w/ 12AX7's electro harmonix gold pin
Totem Arros
Grant Fidelity A88 KT-88 Tube amplifier (65wpc UL 32 Triode)
Using Tara Labs RSC Prime 1000 Bi-wired
Eichman eXpress 6 series 2 IC's
Grant Fidelity PC 1.5 power cord
So far my system has been operating great, but I've always been a skeptic of power conditioners
I've heard systems been hampered by some poor power cables & line conditioners (such as Monster AV)
Well anyways, this past weekend, I've manged to try out 2 lines of power conditioners from Grant Fidelity, & have scored myself a PS Audio Juice Bar
Also I managed to grab a few Cardas, Nordst and Blacksands cables for the weekend
Everything but the Grant Fidelity power boxes and one of the Ian's PC 1.5's has had hours on it.
My impressions are as the following:
All the power cords that I have tried, appear to do things differently.
To me, that doesn't mean anything is "wrong" but different and I feel is subjected to the listeners opinions and musical tastes.
For me the most noticable differences in the "straight" wire to wire battle were on the Source (My Jolida JD100A)
The AMP, being a "tube" amp... I think is less finicky or so it appears to the differences in the cables, as long as they are good quality filtered cables.
Differences ranged from soundstage width, depth, separation & vocal richness (female vocals in particular)
However, to me... it's hard to declare a Winner, with the exception that I am very particular to the Grant Fidelity PC 1.5 and that the Blacksands Violet exert the same qualities, but with slight variations in brightness in certain instruments.
@ 150 CAD, the Grant Fidelity cable to me is a "bargin" and I haven't been convinced by any of the tested cables to upgrade
Now, let me tell you about my power setup..
I live in a townhome of which I have alot of shared recepitcles on the same circuit.
Now this will "bold' issues if there are inconsitant power draw.. but I've been good with keeping only the things I need plugged in.
I've upped the breaker to a hospital grade 30A and upgraded my Hi-Fi recepitcle with a Cooper hospital grade (brass connectors)
This upgrade was an immediate upgrade, as everything seemed "cleaned-up"
In fact to the point where... I've not heard my source sound quite as good, as compared to the out of the wall recepticle
Also my old DLP rear projection w/ Motorola HD box is giving me the most grain free & best black contrasting picture.
However knowing the sensitivity of "tube" amps I decided that I needed "surge" protection & or filtering (if the cable isn't enough) -- maybe conditioning
Well from trying out the PS Audio Juicebox and comparing them to 2 "new power products" from Grant Fidelity.. I was sold on the GF "better" box.
This box offered the most "transparent" power signal, yeilding the same quality of picture on my HDTV and Amplifier
However when it comes down to the source... it only "slightly" compresses the width of the soundstage
Lucky for me, I have a Volex 17504 unshielded/unfiltered power cord available, as again that was another noticable improvement to the power box.
I noticed this... when high quality "filtered" power cables, i.e. GF 1.5, Nordst, Blacksands, etc.. are plugged in series...
meaning pluged into the box, then into the equipment
There were serious detriments to the sound..
Usually collapsed soundstage width, less depth and too much bass being excentuated.
So anyways...
The only couple things on my mind are whether I should be running my source directly from the power recepticle or through the conditioner?
The sound is very simular, but the width is definately larger and I do like it, but I really don't want to risk damaging my equipment.
Any reasons why running high quality power cords in series results in the symptoms I'm hearing?
Jolida JD100A w/ 12AX7's electro harmonix gold pin
Totem Arros
Grant Fidelity A88 KT-88 Tube amplifier (65wpc UL 32 Triode)
Using Tara Labs RSC Prime 1000 Bi-wired
Eichman eXpress 6 series 2 IC's
Grant Fidelity PC 1.5 power cord
So far my system has been operating great, but I've always been a skeptic of power conditioners
I've heard systems been hampered by some poor power cables & line conditioners (such as Monster AV)
Well anyways, this past weekend, I've manged to try out 2 lines of power conditioners from Grant Fidelity, & have scored myself a PS Audio Juice Bar
Also I managed to grab a few Cardas, Nordst and Blacksands cables for the weekend
Everything but the Grant Fidelity power boxes and one of the Ian's PC 1.5's has had hours on it.
My impressions are as the following:
All the power cords that I have tried, appear to do things differently.
To me, that doesn't mean anything is "wrong" but different and I feel is subjected to the listeners opinions and musical tastes.
For me the most noticable differences in the "straight" wire to wire battle were on the Source (My Jolida JD100A)
The AMP, being a "tube" amp... I think is less finicky or so it appears to the differences in the cables, as long as they are good quality filtered cables.
Differences ranged from soundstage width, depth, separation & vocal richness (female vocals in particular)
However, to me... it's hard to declare a Winner, with the exception that I am very particular to the Grant Fidelity PC 1.5 and that the Blacksands Violet exert the same qualities, but with slight variations in brightness in certain instruments.
@ 150 CAD, the Grant Fidelity cable to me is a "bargin" and I haven't been convinced by any of the tested cables to upgrade
Now, let me tell you about my power setup..
I live in a townhome of which I have alot of shared recepitcles on the same circuit.
Now this will "bold' issues if there are inconsitant power draw.. but I've been good with keeping only the things I need plugged in.
I've upped the breaker to a hospital grade 30A and upgraded my Hi-Fi recepitcle with a Cooper hospital grade (brass connectors)
This upgrade was an immediate upgrade, as everything seemed "cleaned-up"
In fact to the point where... I've not heard my source sound quite as good, as compared to the out of the wall recepticle
Also my old DLP rear projection w/ Motorola HD box is giving me the most grain free & best black contrasting picture.
However knowing the sensitivity of "tube" amps I decided that I needed "surge" protection & or filtering (if the cable isn't enough) -- maybe conditioning
Well from trying out the PS Audio Juicebox and comparing them to 2 "new power products" from Grant Fidelity.. I was sold on the GF "better" box.
This box offered the most "transparent" power signal, yeilding the same quality of picture on my HDTV and Amplifier
However when it comes down to the source... it only "slightly" compresses the width of the soundstage
Lucky for me, I have a Volex 17504 unshielded/unfiltered power cord available, as again that was another noticable improvement to the power box.
I noticed this... when high quality "filtered" power cables, i.e. GF 1.5, Nordst, Blacksands, etc.. are plugged in series...
meaning pluged into the box, then into the equipment
There were serious detriments to the sound..
Usually collapsed soundstage width, less depth and too much bass being excentuated.
So anyways...
The only couple things on my mind are whether I should be running my source directly from the power recepticle or through the conditioner?
The sound is very simular, but the width is definately larger and I do like it, but I really don't want to risk damaging my equipment.
Any reasons why running high quality power cords in series results in the symptoms I'm hearing?