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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Whoooosh!...Right over my head! :) A question or two... posted by willkayakforfood on December 9, 2010 at 14:43:12:
Power cords can make a substantial improvement, but they have their greates impact on power amps and CD players; much less so on preamps. I know that this is true in my system, and someone else made the same observation, so it's true for at least two people that I am aware of. If you want to hear what a good power cord can do, try one on your amplifier. Its impact can be anywhere from "Gee, I think I may have heard something" to A Really Big Wow, and it all depends on the power cord in question. Electraglide is much less visible than it used to be, but I've had great results with them. Elrods have a powerful influence too, but in my system, which already has a lot of jump, they were just too much. When I used one on my power amp, drum thwacks would send me running out of the room in terror. VH cords get a lot of positive comments on AA, but not from me. Too much there there, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein. Cardas gives a nice clean relaxed sound, but doesn't have anywhere near the wow factor of some other cords. In some systems this could be ideal, but not in mine.
Power outlets can also have a beneficial influece on sound, or they can really be objectionable. Oyaide outlets have a sort of cult following, but they make my system too analytical and forward, i.e. they just don't cut it. Maybe you could use analysis, or forwardness. In a slowish system I'm sure that they're the cat's pajamas. Not in mine. I like Porter Ports which are available on Audiogon. I've also been using a Maestro Outlet recently and it sounds just peachy.
About black gates. I have them in my preamp, phono pre, and CD player where they are part of completely rebuilt power supplies. I'm not sure they will be worthwhile without upgrading some other components. There's no harm in trying, but they do take 500+ hours to break in, so you have to wait a while to hear the difference.
Regarding other capacitors: In my phono pre, I replaced the coupling caps with V-caps. They didn't sound very good at all. Pristine, but rather etched. So I sent the preamp to Great Northern Sound for one of their comprehensive upgrades. He put in new rectifiers, power supply caps (black gates and Russian teflons), newer V-caps where I had put mine, vibration damping, and no doubt other things that escaped me. After this, the phono preamp was substantially improved. I'm not saying this to discourage you from trying part substitutions, but just to let share some of my experiences.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Power Cords - Paul_A 13:08:49 12/11/10 (0)
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