[rsbrsvp]

Really excited to hear other people's impressions of these cables and PSMs as they burn in (but no rush, don't be me XD).

I took a couple of days off, as per @rsbrsvp 's suggestion (thank you, I will admit I don't know if I have the discipline for a whole week, but a couple of days has done wonders).

I decided I needed to tackle the elephant in the room for me which is that I changed my Computer PSU the same time I changed the cables and never liked my system as much after that. No matter how much burn in happened. I decided, yolo, I'll change my computer PSU back (OG: Seasonic Focus Gold 850, New: Be Quiet Dark Power 13 1000W) and recable everything. The difference was not subtle. The seasonic is Dark, with a recessed treble and less dynamics. However, it also has a lot of "color" like the darkness is nice. I think it may be something I prefer. Perhaps it's something I've gotten used to over the many years I've had it, or perhaps it's actually better tonally but watching youtube videos and my favorite creators just sounded more... like I thought they should. And with the recessed treble I felt like I could feel more body and soul. Like my ears weren't afraid to look around the sound stage as much because things were smooth. The Be Quiet, in contrast, was very much focused on the higher register. There was more detail, articulation and air, but I felt like everything just sounded "hot" as in "hot mic" louder, sharper. And from a color perspective, it was "brighter" and I didn't like it.

So this has led me to reevaluate things. Slow down, and assess again. Challenge some assumptions.

I will say, the Be Quiet, plus all the ultimate cables. Is the clearest I've ever heard anything in my life. The articulation feels like you can hear every syllable of every word anyone says. It's astonishing. It's like they don't have a microphone. Maybe that would be considered natural? It was almost unnerving to me.

Because, there is this sound, though, that I've become intimately familiar with that's just like the sound of someone's mic that YouTubers and streamers have that you get used to. It's like a honk that sits in front of every word. I can tell immediately which mic they are using (is it a Sure SM7b standard? Or are they using a more Radio Style Rode Procaster? A condenser getting a lot more of their room?). And I felt like with that removed I wasn't sure what to think.

Good luck everyone. I'll keep plugging over here. Take care of yourselves and wish me luck.

I have not been shy in the past to state my view that I like a darker, meatier sound and I have seen few reviews of the PSM156 or the Ultimate cables that make the claim that the sonics go in this direction- but I have read some. Steve Huff makes the claim clearly in his review, and some individuals in audiocircle and here have said things got a bit warmer as well.

So- ears, and systems are different.

Again- for me- I have the meat I need; I just dont want to loose it......

 

[phoneslave86]

I have not been shy in the past to state my view that I like a darker, meatier sound and I have seen few reviews of the PSM156 or the Ultimate cables that make the claim that the sonics go in this direction- but I have read some. Steve Huff makes the claim clearly in his review, and some individuals in audiocircle and here have said things got a bit warmer as well.

So- ears, and systems are different.

Again- for me- I have the meat I need; I just dont want to loose it......

PSM can be tuned in any direction. I've seen it fatiguing, not-fatiguing by a mile, soft, bright and dark. Interconnects, DACs, AMP, headphone choices, headphone pads lots of other things can tune it anywhere you need! A top notch conditioner can pass on the dynamics, detail and bass extension or at least restore the bulk of it. I'd say the PSM is highly resolving and detailed unlocking it to the max but you can determine what your needs are with the system.

 

[rsbrsvp]

I would add that every isolation transformer and conditioner I have tried makes the sound clearer and that clarity is understood by my brain as brighter as well.. I believe it is a result of EMI reduction and unavoidable. The Q is which ones do it in a way the is balanced, not overly sharp and maintain meat on the bones? There is positive brightness and negitive brightness. And, the really good ones make things subtly brighter while maintaining the dark character of the equipment if the equipment is indeed dark. I do think that ultra zippy and neutral equipment gets just too sharp with the Puratain for my ears- in my experience....

 

[rsbrsvp]

Today I tried my PSM1512 with all Ultimate cables in my system. Over three weeks burn-in.

First issue: Brightness, sharpness, thinness---- NONE. Or at least no more than my Topaz isolation transformer. A bit thinner than direct from the wall- but that is a result of the clean up job which every filter or conditioner which is working will do.. So the entire purchase has passed the minimal first stage test of "do no harm".

Now- after spending around 8K on the 1512 and all ultimate cables (9 in total) is the sound any better than what I had before with my Topaz Isolation transformer ($300) and Ali Express $80 OCC copper shielded audio cables? Answer: Not convinced yet. There perhaps is a bit more detail and openness- and I mean a bit, but it sounds on first listen 95% the same. And the Topaz system had a bit more dark solidity which I like, but the PSM1512 is only subtly less dark. Sounds smooth, round (not sharp), clean, authoritive- everything good.... Ill give it a week or so --- but I'm not keeping close to 9K of equipment for a 5% change which I am not convinced is better. Ill call sonics a draw at this point. Not better or worse.

Honestly- I'm shocked. Double shocked. First shock- no objectionable unpleasant sharpness or brightness at all which I was expecting. Second- no improvement of any substance- rather a bit different. Lateral move rather than upwards.

My system is crazy transparent and reacts to every minor fuse, cable, and even isolation feet changes in a noticable way. Yet here- my system is remaining hush, certainly reletive to the investment output. My shock is how little it did to improve the sound. I really dont know what to do. I guess one week of ear burn in...

 

[rsbrsvp]

After around 5 hours I went back to listen again.

I made a few adjustments in other areas removing a passive filter on my internet connection and a tweak or two in my digital transport.

I'd say now it is equally as meaty and dark as before but cleaner and crisper without being sharp; retains roundness. It is better than before- but I guess there is a limit to how much things improve when I already have a top system.

Ill give it a week.....

 

[phoneslave86]

After around 5 hours I went back to listen again.

I made a few adjustments in other areas removing a passive filter on my internet connection and a tweak or two in my digital transport.

I'd say now it is equally as meaty and dark as before but cleaner and crisper without being sharp; retains roundness. It is better than before- but I guess there is a limit to how much things improve when I already have a top system.

Ill give it a week.....

Best of luck with the settling. That sounds like it's going pretty good and there is some type of improvement. At any high level that is something any improvement but 5 percent isn't worth it either!

If you feel like it's not rich enough or warm enough should try OCC cryo treated power cables with copper connectors. I love warm sound but also very revealing full lush mids. I think I'd feel it was too bright leaning without them maybe. Even a few gold connectors on power cables it's quite a bit more neutral than I'm used to. Copper connectors really warm it up. They can oxidize though and I like to coat them to protect them too. I see much more sculpted heavy/thick imaging in the low mids on my tube amp so far with IceAge vs Audio Envy Mega is much more neutral on my tube amp. I love drums and horns that really blast with some weight, starts feeling like the air is even moving around me like that.

IF you haven't tried dedicated 20A large gauge lines and you can it helps too. Worth it if it's possible for sure at a fraction of the cost. Better sub bass and bass and noticeably more stable. My system being 100 percent stable is a new thing to me. It was never 100 percent perfect besides morning/late night and sometimes randomly after it would rain and different times. Getting at least 50 percent more bass both in and out of the PSM1512.

*Edited* to get rid of confusing word jumble.

 

[iCoy]

Best of luck with the settling. That sounds like it's going pretty good and there is some type of improvement. At any high level that is something any improvement but 5 percent isn't worth it either!

If you feel like it's not rich enough or warm enough should try OCC cryo treated power cables with copper connectors. I love warm sound but also very revealing full lush mids. I think I'd feel it was too bright leaning without them maybe. Even a few gold connectors on power cables it's quite a bit more neutral than I'm used to. Copper connectors really warm it up. They can oxidize though and I like to coat them to protect them too. I see much more sculpted heavy/thick imaging in the low mids on my tube amp so far with IceAge vs Audio Envy Mega is much more neutral on my tube amp. I love drums and horns that really blast with some weight, starts feeling like the air is even moving around me like that.

IF you haven't tried dedicated 20A large gauge lines and you can it helps too. Worth it if it's possible for sure at a fraction of the cost. Better sub bass and bass and noticeably more stable. My system being 100 percent stable is a new thing to me. It was never 100 percent perfect besides morning/late night and sometimes randomly after it would rain and different times. Getting at least 50 percent more bass both in and out of the PSM1512.

*Edited* to get rid of confusing word jumble.

Got any "OCC cryo treated power cables with copper connectors" to recommend?

 

[rsbrsvp]

I am continuously amazed as to how NON-sharp, NON-bright, and round the sound is from the PSM1512 plus all Ultimate power chords.

I tried this same setup with a different system and all solidity was lost, it was bright, sharp and every bad word that audiophiles use. There is one small difference in my conditioner which is that Mike Lester upgraded the caps in the unit to Rifa capacitors over the standard... as he felt thus was a valuable upgrade.

I had some communication with Mike Lester and he explained to me the quandary of any filter, conditioner, or regenerator. He said that ANYTHING that is between the wall outlet and our equipment has a starting point in the negative- simply because it increases resistance or impedance. In order to make any conditioner of value, one needs to bring more benefits than one starts off with by increasing impedance due to having a piece of equipment between the wall and the equipment. He told me he could have easily removed much more EMI, and easily have improved isolation even more from a technological standpoint- but it would result in increased impedance and a net loss in sonic goodness. He said he experimented with hundreds of pieces of equipment both digital and analogue (including class A, B, and D amps at many different loads) and hundreds of combination systems in order to determine the magical balance between removing EMI, increasing isolation, and not raising resistance by too much.

I think there are so many combinations of equipment that it may have been impossible for Mike to assure that every combination would result in great sound and it does indeed seem like around 10% or so of people complain about this brightness and thinness and sharpness. It does seem to help with 90% or so of systems. I did many hours of research on Audiocircle, here, Audiogon, and other forums and this is approximately the ratio of positive to negative.

I do not think this 10% negative is a reflection of people with bad ears nor a fault with Puritan equipment but rather a reality that not every system is 100% compatible with the PSM and chords;- simply because it is impossible- as there are so many variables, and compatibility cannot be 100% universal. Having experienced both outcomes- I cannot get over this reality.

It is miraculous how well Mike Lester hit the magical balance point considering the hundreds of variables and realities of so many different systems.

 

[phoneslave86]

Got any "OCC cryo treated power cables with copper connectors" to recommend?

IceAge OFC series (original is cryo treated non-occ) is a heck of a cable for the money if it's what your looking for. If you want warm, grande, type of sound, open alive, adding energy vs low grade stuff. I would say it was like a $3000-$5000 upgrade on my tube amp and it cost $260 on special. I ran around for a month with a smile after it. It was also a really nice upgrade on my Jot 2. I already had cryo treated cables on there too. Nice upgrade on my clocks which seem to like straight max power or something from it, everything else the value has been less. I noticed my masterclock settled faster, tested it 4-5 times since I had to unplug it. Day 1-3 already well on down the road to some extent. Bunches of these add lots of warmth added up. They are not neutral if you want that. Audio Envy is more neutral from what I can tell and I like those too and will get a few more to keep my balancing options available.

DC cables I like audio sensibility statement and add oyaide connectors and signature OCC silver. These are cryo treated. Real top level true OCC silver is completely at zero fatigue to me so far. These beat my Ghent Audio Oyaide UltraPro DC. Same type of sound with other OCC and OCC cryo treated power cables on average in the back of my system, more transparency, more energy and more alive sounding in a way, lower noise floor ect. I think all of this stuff is solid core. Grounds flow out like crazy these days I am not getting any benefit from routemaster or groundmaster anymore. I've been trying them for 2 weeks and it just does nothing. I think this must be due to the OCC cables plus separating my equipment better to where it is happier with less conflict. That's all I can think of why this is. I've used the GM/RM a ton and it worked for sure at times doing some nice things but it does zero now.

 

[Jake2]

Haven’t watched this yet but a skim of the comments suggests they may not have used fully burned in PSMs or the Ultimate Cable. Still, those Alpha Audio guys are well intentioned and go to a lot of trouble to do even handed comparisons with HQ recordings so I have a lot of time for their comparative test vids.

 

[iCoy]

I am continuously amazed as to how NON-sharp, NON-bright, and round the sound is from the PSM1512 plus all Ultimate power chords.

I tried this same setup with a different system and all solidity was lost, it was bright, sharp and every bad word that audiophiles use. There is one small difference in my conditioner which is that Mike Lester upgraded the caps in the unit to Rifa capacitors over the standard... as he felt thus was a valuable upgrade.

I had some communication with Mike Lester and he explained to me the quandary of any filter, conditioner, or regenerator. He said that ANYTHING that is between the wall outlet and our equipment has a starting point in the negative- simply because it increases resistance or impedance. In order to make any conditioner of value, one needs to bring more benefits than one starts off with by increasing impedance due to having a piece of equipment between the wall and the equipment. He told me he could have easily removed much more EMI, and easily have improved isolation even more from a technological standpoint- but it would result in increased impedance and a net loss in sonic goodness. He said he experimented with hundreds of pieces of equipment both digital and analogue (including class A, B, and D amps at many different loads) and hundreds of combination systems in order to determine the magical balance between removing EMI, increasing isolation, and not raising resistance by too much.

I think there are so many combinations of equipment that it may have been impossible for Mike to assure that every combination would result in great sound and it does indeed seem like around 10% or so of people complain about this brightness and thinness and sharpness. It does seem to help with 90% or so of systems. I did many hours of research on Audiocircle, here, Audiogon, and other forums and this is approximately the ratio of positive to negative.

I do not think this 10% negative is a reflection of people with bad ears nor a fault with Puritan equipment but rather a reality that not every system is 100% compatible with the PSM and chords;- simply because it is impossible- as there are so many variables, and compatibility cannot be 100% universal. Having experienced both outcomes- I cannot get over this reality.

It is miraculous how well Mike Lester hit the magical balance point considering the hundreds of variables and realities of so many different systems.

Thank you so much for these impressions. And also thank you for pointing out those who find the cables sharp aren't losing their minds or have bad ears. I appreciate that kindness, I've def been losing my mind a little over the past month or so. What you describe is what I heard when I first put the PSM in with the initial Ultimate cable. It wasn't bright, it wasn't sharp. Things were lovely. Since I've put more Ultimates in though, I just can't get over the fact I don't enjoy the sound as much in my system. And that's totally ok. I'm not saying anyone here is wrong, I actually think it's much more either a "my system" thing or a "my preference" thing. And I'm committed to slowly but surely circling my bases to find out what's going on.

I've gone ahead and done some research and ended up ordering some Ice Age Audio Copper Power Cables (Franken Cables) thanks to @phoneslave86 . Thank you so much for that recommendation I've never heard of them before and it looks like just something that might be perfect for me (plus if it's good and to my liking, I could retrofit my whole setup with speaker cables, interconnects etc for very relatively cheap. So that's hype).

With those copper cables, I'm sorta connecting prior understanding of material -> sound preference, that I came to learn with headphone cables, that I just hadn't thought might apply to power cables. I like copper. I find it romantic and entrancing. And while Silver can "sound better" in a high fi way, it never "feels better" to me. I wonder if I feel that same way about gold? I hadn't really put it together that Power Cables may actually follow the same material principle as everything else does, but it kinda makes sense. So I'm really looking forward to testing that and seeing if that's what my system/soul needs.


Also... I ordered a Optimo 3 Duo, because, let's be honest. That's pretty hype. And I've been thinking my system overall is too "bland" and I'd like to add some romance/darkness. Plus @Tubewin has one in his setup and that's been on my mind since they mentioned it. I think I'll keep my Ultimate cables until doing a final shootout when that thing arrives. Maybe the combination of the two is a best of both worlds sorta thing? I think it's possible as I've been wondering if that is part of why his setup likes the ultimate cables so much.

Who can know just yet, but steps are being made. Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and help. Onward and upwards boys.

 

[Tubewin]

Haven’t watched this yet but a skim of the comments suggests they may not have used fully burned in PSMs or the Ultimate Cable. Still, those Alpha Audio guys are well intentioned and go to a lot of trouble to do even handed comparisons with HQ recordings so I have a lot of time for their comparative test vids.

Yeah, they didn't have the ultimate cable in hand to do a comparison. Their initial reaction was that it was overly smooth and warm and I believe it's because of the stock cable.

 

[Tubewin]

Thank you so much for these impressions. And also thank you for pointing out those who find the cables sharp aren't losing their minds or have bad ears. I appreciate that kindness, I've def been losing my mind a little over the past month or so. What you describe is what I heard when I first put the PSM in with the initial Ultimate cable. It wasn't bright, it wasn't sharp. Things were lovely. Since I've put more Ultimates in though, I just can't get over the fact I don't enjoy the sound as much in my system. And that's totally ok. I'm not saying anyone here is wrong, I actually think it's much more either a "my system" thing or a "my preference" thing. And I'm committed to slowly but surely circling my bases to find out what's going on.

I've gone ahead and done some research and ended up ordering some Ice Age Audio Copper Power Cables (Franken Cables) thanks to @phoneslave86 . Thank you so much for that recommendation I've never heard of them before and it looks like just something that might be perfect for me (plus if it's good and to my liking, I could retrofit my whole setup with speaker cables, interconnects etc for very relatively cheap. So that's hype).

With those copper cables, I'm sorta connecting prior understanding of material -> sound preference, that I came to learn with headphone cables, that I just hadn't thought might apply to power cables. I like copper. I find it romantic and entrancing. And while Silver can "sound better" in a high fi way, it never "feels better" to me. I wonder if I feel that same way about gold? I hadn't really put it together that Power Cables may actually follow the same material principle as everything else does, but it kinda makes sense. So I'm really looking forward to testing that and seeing if that's what my system/soul needs.


Also... I ordered a Optimo 3 Duo, because, let's be honest. That's pretty hype. And I've been thinking my system overall is too "bland" and I'd like to add some romance/darkness. Plus @Tubewin has one in his setup and that's been on my mind since they mentioned it. I think I'll keep my Ultimate cables until doing a final shootout when that thing arrives. Maybe the combination of the two is a best of both worlds sorta thing? I think it's possible as I've been wondering if that is part of why his setup likes the ultimate cables so much.

Who can know just yet, but steps are being made. Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and help. Onward and upwards boys.

You may need more burn in on some of your cables it seems like. Maybe there isn't enough draw from some of your components to burn some of the cables in properly, like you mentioned before. I've had the same issue with a power cord on my ferrum hypsos lps. The power cord sounded completely different to a identical cord that was plugged into my amplifier. I had that power cord connected to the hypsos for months... You can see the amperage draw of the Hypsos to the device and it was only 0.5A being supplied to the device.

Those franken cables do look interesting.

 

[Mr X]

So what is the recommended burn in time for Ultimate cables, assuming there is one?

 

[Solasuke]

I’ve heard people mention a 200 hours. I have 2 ultimate cables and they are sounding more burned in after being hooked up to holo May/holo Red for a week or so. I’ve never been a burn in believer one way or the other, but I could definitely hear a very sharp bright sound when using the Ultimate cables brand new in my tube amp and headphone amp. Now however the tube amp has lost all the brightness when using that cable, and only the improvements in clarity remain.