Power Cord Possibilities

[prepress]

Originally Posted by Rick721

Verastarr Grand Statement 3 power cables are some of the best money can buy !

https://www.verastarr.com/praise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=capquaKHOJg&t


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82DjJW22www&t

Wow, for that price they'd better be.

[PeterMusic]

Originally Posted by prepress

MAYBE I think about the IC move from Plus to Super, but I'm not sure I need to do that.

I went from Transparent Plus to Super ICs a year or two ago. It was a dramatic improvement.

[prepress]

Originally Posted by PeterMusic

I went from Transparent Plus to Super ICs a year or two ago. It was a dramatic improvement.

I was afraid of that. What type of improvement did you notice?

[PeterMusic]

Originally Posted by prepress

I was afraid of that. What type of improvement did you notice?

It was a while ago, and at approximately the same time as I added power conditioning, so I may be getting the specifics of each confused, but the Supers lowered the noise floor floor and improved detail. I also remember that the improvement was greater than adding multiple high end power cords. (So I added only one PC, from the QBase to the wall)

If it makes you feel any better, I could not discern a difference between the Supers and Ultras, or between the single-ended Supers and the balanced Supers. So I stopped just one step up from you, and I think I got a trade in allowance on the Pluses.

[prepress]

Originally Posted by PeterMusic

It was a while ago, and at approximately the same time as I added power conditioning, so I may be getting the specifics of each confused, but the Supers lowered the noise floor floor and improved detail. I also remember that the improvement was greater than adding multiple high end power cords. (So I added only one PC, from the QBase to the wall)

If it makes you feel any better, I could not discern a difference between the Supers and Ultras, or between the single-ended Supers and the balanced Supers. So I stopped just one step up from you, and I think I got a trade in allowance on the Pluses.

I'm sure you did get a trade-in, if you used Transparent's upgrade program. Glad the improvement was worth it. I might reach out to them to get an idea of what the trade-up value would be for my Plus ICs but only for my two main sources, my SACD and BD players.

[prepress]

I'm thinking about one last (I hope) change to the system. There are several possibilities, but only one, if any, would get done. I got it into my head to explore Transparent speaker cable (PLUS), but am questioning that after playing my Hans Zimmer BD recently. I have an audition scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but maybe the attention is now shifted to the Shunyata Venom HCs on my Furman SPR-20i and IT-Reference 15i; the Reference is chained to the SPR.

The addition of Transparent Premium PCs on my sources improved detail, as I discovered on the Hans Zimmer BD, and left me wondering if there's more improvement to be had. Line noise isn't an audible issue, but could it be an improvement to put a Venom V10 NR on the SPR, since it goes to the wall, or should I put one on both conditioners? Decisions, decisions.

As for Tuesday, maybe I should take some ICs and a Premium PC along with my Kimber 12TC speaker cable for alternative comparisons.

[prepress]

Ok, just ordered two Shunyata Venom V10 NR cords from Ivan for my two Furman units, the SPR-20i voltage regulator and IT-Reference 15i line conditioner, which is chained to the SPR. The IT-Ref is 15A, but I got a V10 for it because the V10 filters more noise than the v12 does, as I understand it. That the V10 carries more current is less of an issue in my mind because the IT-Ref has 4A continuous current and 55A instantaneous; my MC501s are plugged into the IT-Ref's high-current plugs and loaf all the time anyway.

This doesn't mean I'm down on my Transparent Premiums. They've improved the system, notably with increased detail, and I have no complaints about what I hear now. The V10s replace Venom HCs and are "insurance," if you like—they'll clean up the power before it even gets to the SPR and the rest of the gear.

[prepress]

^ ^ ^
And they're here, as of about 10 minutes ago.

[Audiofan1]

Looking forward to your impressions.

Congrats!

[prepress]

Originally Posted by Audiofan1

Looking forward to your impressions.

Congrats!

Well, on Saturday I played a familiar track, "I'd Rather Go Blind" from a live BD of Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa, and noted the top end and maybe the upper midrange were more open, and with more detail. The same with another JB track, "Woke up Dreaming" from Joe's Carnegie Hall BD. Instruments had just a touch more realism in their sound. And on my Hans Zimmer Live in Prague BD, the bass solo in "Rainman" exhibited more detail than before. But I don't know what produced that, exactly. The Saturday before the Venoms' arrival, new speaker cables showed up (Transparent Plus) and I'd been putting some hours on them with the tuner, hoping to break them in a bit before company comes this Saturday (10/9). That continued once the V10s were in place. I'd also switched my BD player out for a Pioneer Elite 88FD, with its ESS DAC set to 24/96, replacing a Pioneer Elite 09 with Wolfson 24/48 DACs. The BD tracks mentioned above were the first familiar material I'd played with the new stuff in place.

One thing I will say is I'm impressed by the flexibility of the Venoms; the Transparent Premiums are quite stiff in comparison.

I'm quite busy trying to get my place together for company, but perhaps once things settle down I'll go back and see if I can determine what's responsible for what I heard this past weekend. I still have the Venom HCs the V10s replaced and would start there.