Canuck Audio Mart

So I finally ventured out and bought a decent power cord. Several of you had commented that you were amazed that I hadn't gone that route considering I had a $25k system. I bought the Grant Fidelity PC 1.5 and placed it on my CD player.

I have always been skeptical of what difference a power cord could make - if it is supplying power, it has done its job and can't affect how the equipment performs. How wrong I was !!

I decided to play it cautious and bought just one of these cords since it was not a huge outlay ( imagine paying $11k for something like a Nordost Odin Power Cord ) and I would not be that much out of pocket if it did nothing to the sound.

When I settled back to listen to some Vangelis, Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, Chris Botti, Ikuko Kawai etc., I was blown away.
The bass had tightened ( less bloom ), the higher frequencies were silkier and less grainy, vocals lost their shoutiness. Overall the sound was more relaxed yet still had its punch and attack. In addition, more complex pieces such as Vangelis' 1492 had greater cohesion ( I noticed that the sound didn't break up like it used to ) and clarity with individual instruments and sounds revealing themselves separately.

What a revelation. I am posting this to let everyone know that if you can't afford expensive cords, try the PC 1.5 from Grant Fidelity. You will be amazed. I don't know how much better more expensive cords would be but this is affordable and is definitely good bang for the buck. Go for it.

Keith

Now I have to figure out how to change the cords on my pre and power amps. They are exposures with built in power cords( non- replaceable with no IEC connections on the back ). I would need to have the female end of the power cord left bare so that I could open up my pre-amp and monoblocks and connect them directly.

I wonder if Grant Fidelity could accommodate here or are there other solutions. Ian sent me a PM once talking about placing ferrite chokes over the male ends of the built in cords as RF filters. I did this using the snap-on varieties but it didn't seem to make any difference to the sound.

Any thoughts on this ?

just thought I would suggest that you also try your system again without the fancy AC cord to see if the difference is still there. I have a feeling you will be suprised with the results and will save your money. I have done this many times only to find the difference I thought I heard was now gone and must of been the result of wishful thinking. I once had 2 Wireworld power cords on long term loan from a friend, I swore they made a big difference to the sound, but when I finally removed them, there was no change to the sound. I then replaced them and again no difference. Unfortunatly there is a lot of missinformation in this hobby. Some people truly believe in what can best be described as snake oil. People tend to hear an improvement based on how much money they have just spent, and because they think everyone else hears it so why can't they. I have seen people who paint blue goo on all the circuit boards in a $200 home theater reciever, and now they think it sounds better then the top of the line amp from Boulder or Audio Research, and they think the people who paid the big money for the amps are the crazy ones.

All I can say is if you have enjoyed your $25k system without AC cords, why bother to change things now. I can say that your original thoughts on AC cords were correct. If your equipment sounds better with a fancy power cord, you should buy better equipment as there is something wrong with the design. If noise is making it through your power supply and it is solved by a fancy piece of wire I would be amazed and so would anyone who has even a basic understanding of electronics, or even a little common sense. Please save your money for something else.

Just wanted to jump in about the large differences I also experienced but I had already had much more expensive power cords on my systems and the 3 Grant Fidelity 1.5 cords I bought replaced 3 power cords that were almost 1500.00 total.
The power cords they replaced were wonderful sounding cords.

P/S craig 420. You sound like 90% of all the electrical engineers I've ever talked to.
There is no end to this conversation not all things in this life are all math and just because your ears were fooled doesn't mean everyone else's are. And yes sometimes 10,000.00 pieces of equipt are effected by filtered cables and power conditioners.

Hi lesjames,

yes, I base my findings on what I hear, along with the findings of the majority of people. Not based on the experience of a couple of guys on the internet. I work in the audio business professionally which allows me to play with and try way more gear then the average audiophile, and in my experience power cords do nothing. Most people I have met who buy into the whole power cable nonsense, have spent more money on their cables then their equipment, which I will never understand. They believe in magical wire that somehow makes things sound better, and doesn't just pass along the signal from the component it is connected to in the most faithful way. Unfortunately in the real world that cannot happen. I actually listen to things before I make my decisions, that way I will spend my money on what makes the most difference. I am completely non-biased and have tried anything that I can get my hands on to improve my system, but I prefer to spend my money on actual improvements. I never mentioned math, all I said was I have never heard an improvement and either have the many people I know in and around the business. I have performed many blind tests and the results are always the same. I have left many power cord fans reaching for excuses on why they couldn't hear the difference they swear is there.

If you have to try to hear the difference in something, then the difference probably isn't there.

P.S. try using some punctuation. It makes it a lot easier to understand what you are trying to say. I had to read you comment a couple times for it to make sense.

Craig420,
I assume you were able to read the OP's post with clarity?
He is posting that the cord made a very large difference in the sound of his very nice hifi.

You are esentially saying that it did not.

I also had to reread your post to clarify that you are telling this man his hearing is not accurate.

Wow!

Congratulations on discovering a great sounding power cord. Ignore the naysayers and continue to trust what you hear.

Your built in cords can likely be replaced with an IEC by someone like Lawrence at Excel or Dan Santoni for about $!00-150, maybe less.

for any who are interested, here is a link to a paper done at UofT (by an Engineer/MSc) regarding power cords and their effects on noise levels...

https://www.virtualdynamics.ca/uploads/ ... ed2007.pdf

food for thought.
b

OK, I am an electrical engineer and I have to say that a BENG doesn't go nearly in depth enough to cover PCs. I learned how they worked post degree to out of curiousity as I have access to all the equipment to do so. The input inpedance looking in to your component is not constant, it varies with the frequency of the music. A good PC acts to impedance match with the component and what is coming out the wall. That and some filtering and shielding.

I tried the GF cords because of this board and now my system is all GF cords. They replaced more expensive cords.

Just a thought on the OPs equipment. Isn't exposure similar in design and phylosophy to Naim? I would contact exposure before you made any modifications to that equipment as you might find that it already has decent PCs built in and may sound worse if you change what is there. My previous set up was Naim which really didn't like non naim cabling and my evans phono stage doesn't have an iec because the designer doesn't want you to change it.

Humble and polite too.

Craig420 hits on a very valid point and something I always suggest when someone is looking to spend money on tweaks. After a week of listening to what you just paid for, replace it with what you had before and pretend that is the 'paid for' tweak. It is human nature to think that a 'paid for' difference is better, sometimes that difference results in going in the wrong direction. This is also why most 'tweak' type offerings come with a trial period. Use the trial period wisely and if in doubt, save your money and ship it back.

scipro, probably the filter isn't strong enough to get thru the jacketing or is too loose on the jacket or it might need to be on the other end, it was a lot of trial and error to get the right combinations. I'm not overly keen on hacking equipment to get a power cable installed. A good power conditioner is likely a better route if you haven't gone that route already.

Thanks for the feedback !!

Cheers,
Ian

Hi Omclive,

Thanks for your input. I think you are right. They have the same type of sound as a Naim and are in the same vein of dark, laid back sound. I should investigate this further before I start butchering the cords.

Keith

Thanks for your input. The chokes fit on quite snugly. I will listen to it for about a week and then change the chokes to the other end or even take them off to see if I hear any difference.

As for the PC 1.5 power cord, I will take up your suggestion. However, I heard a significant enough difference to feel I wasn't imagining it.

Keep producing products that provide excellent sound and value for money. I would like to try a tube pre and power amp
from you guys. It has to be separates since I have a Vandersteen sub that requires the crossover to be connected to the pre-amp out ( unless an integrated amplifier has preamp out sockets ). The other consideration is that it must be able to drive Maggie 1.6's.

Thanks

Keith