Bah to you sceptics my ears dont lie

[True Blue]

Well, regular readers will no doubt be aware of my search for audio heaven, recently culminating in the purchase of my Rega Saturn (black), thought all was fantastic, no way was I going to improve the dynamics, soundstaging, imaging and clarity without a possible upgrade to my speakers.

Well I have just made the most pound for pound best upgrade to this system I have made. Dynamics are unbelievable accross the range, my speakers are now projecting a much fuller and wider soundstage, instruments are now even clearer and my system has now reached yet another level all for less than £80.

The product.............................an ex dem Chord Power Chord (the orange one) fitted to my CDP..........cor

 

[lordmortlock]

Ready... set... GO!!!!

 

[RodhasGibson]

Cool, but only some of us will believe you

Good deal that.

 

[True Blue]

Next month I will be running a seperate ring circuit and circuit breaker. Possibly fit an independant earth rod as well.

 

[True Blue]

RodhasGibson:Cool, but only some of us will believe you

Good deal that.

Cheers, well I'm sold. £75 for 1m thought it was a good deal

 

[Anonymous]

Quality! I would like to try one of the Clearer Audio Silver ones to see what happens

 

[True Blue]

Hi igglebert, I am a marine engineer and could definately see the benefits of mains conditioners, but I admit to being slightly sceptical on the whole power lead thing. Not any more!!!, sod the science(its only a cable malarchy) I have seen the threads and to be honest a bit bored by them, all I know is that what I am hearing has now reached another level with the introduction of a new mains cable. Just wish that I had tried them sooner. Needless to say all of my kit including AV will be getting a nice boost soon

 

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of half decent mains cables, one being the Chord SilverScreen blue one. I can't really tell any difference but interconnects are very characterful. I need to try some A-B tests with the mains cables but I always end up just sticking music on instead

 

[PJPro]

True Blue:Next month I will be running a seperate ring circuit and circuit breaker. Possibly fit an independant earth rod as well.

I seem to remember a well reasoned argument against an independent earth rod. Can't remember the detail. Nor can I find the article/thread. Might be worth investigating further before you go to the trouble (from an electrical safety rather than audio perspective).

 

[Anonymous]

I tried a good quality mains cable on my Supernait and could hear no improvement at all, then someone pointed out that Naim provide very good cables on their products straight out of the box anyway so proved to me that it was one of my not so good Hi Fi purchases ............

 

[Anonymous]

at least consult a qualified electrician before you do anything voodoo is one thing but safety another

 

[True Blue]

one off:
at least consult a qualified electrician before you do anything voodoo is one thing but safety another

Thankyou one off for your concern. I am authorised to work on High Voltage 1000v plus (usually 6.6Kv or Higher), however I am not domestic Part P installer qualified (strange eh). I will be running the ring myself and getting a Part P installer to connect the MCB to the Consumer unit. we all have to do this otherwise our home insurance becomes invalid.

PJ Pro, interesting, thankyou I shall do a bit more research on that one

, let me know if you dig anything up

 

[True Blue]

MENISCUS:I tried a good quality mains cable on my Supernait and could hear no improvement at all, then someone pointed out that Naim provide very good cables on their products straight out of the box anyway so proved to me that it was one of my not so good Hi Fi purchases ............

Meniscus, yes I had the same discussion with my dealer today regarding which piece of kit to attach it to. Pretty much what he said as well. Only major improvements to Naim power supplies comes from the external types ie the flatcap, supercap etc etc.

 

[True Blue]

PJ PRO, here you go, just dragged my old text books out: -

"In many cases the domestic earth is provided by the supply company via
the steel cladding of the cable laid from the local sub-station. This
can mean that the "earth" in a house may actually float at up to 30v or
so above the actual earth potential at the location.

If you sink an earth rod locally then you may create a situation where
all your immediate neighbours' earths default to your earth rod and you
get a significant permanent current flow"

Think I will be leaving the rod out then!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Yes True,

I have heard that flatcaps, supercaps are a good addition to Naim gear, might give it a go when funds allow...............

 

[True Blue]

mmmmmmm, when funds allow...............

, know that feeling

God knows how I could justify spending that sort of money though on a power supply, unless I have a windfall

 

[Anonymous]

True Blue:

Well, regular readers will no doubt be aware of my search for audio heaven, recently culminating in the purchase of my Rega Saturn (black), thought all was fantastic, no way was I going to improve the dynamics, soundstaging, imaging and clarity without a possible upgrade to my speakers.

Well I have just made the most pound for pound best upgrade to this system I have made. Dynamics are unbelievable accross the range, my speakers are now projecting a much fuller and wider soundstage, instruments are now even clearer and my system has now reached yet another level all for less than £80.

The product.............................an ex dem Chord Power Chord (the orange one) fitted to my CDP..........cor

Audio Affair are selling new 1 metre orange chord power cables for £74.95 including free next day delivery, they state it's the old version of the cable, but with Audio Affairs rather nice 30 day money back guarantee it may be worth a punt

 

[jaxwired]

True Blue,

If it makes you happy, it's money well spent. However, I would argue that your ears do in fact lie. I know mine do.

 

[Anonymous]

glad you found out about the earthing

BS7671 worth a read too

 

[sthomas048]

When i changed the standard power cable to a Clearer Audio one on my cd player the difference was instant. Mind you, i did pay £140 for the new cable !

Using the same cable on my amp however made no difference whatsoever.

 

[Craig M.]

my chord power cable makes not one bit of difference on my amp either.

 

[Bodfish]

My Chord Superscreen made not one jot of difference on my hi fi. I tried connecting it to my TV and no difference there either. It's still there mind you, more due to the fact that I can't be bothered to monkey around the back of my TV again

But my Nordost mains cables made a staggering difference to my hifi - weird huh?

 

[PJPro]

True Blue:
PJ PRO, here you go, just dragged my old text books out: -

"In many cases the domestic earth is provided by the supply company via
the steel cladding of the cable laid from the local sub-station. This
can mean that the "earth" in a house may actually float at up to 30v or
so above the actual earth potential at the location.

If you sink an earth rod locally then you may create a situation where
all your immediate neighbours' earths default to your earth rod and you
get a significant permanent current flow"

Think I will be leaving the rod out then!!!

Yeah, that's similiar to the text I read online. However, the article/thread went on to develop the argument against two earth rods as well.

 

[True Blue]

Second Chord Power chord arrived today off Fleabay, bit cheaper than the last one, but its the new style "purple". Decided to plug it into my TV which is being fed off a Tacima. Again what a difference!! Seperate radial cct will be installed by the endof the month!!

 

[RCduck7]

I had more then 5 mains cables to try out for a week from a dealer, but without true significant audible differences on amp or source when i tested these. Some cables were even worse on my amp then my current Lapp cable. In these few days i also could borrow 2 WireWorld cables from an other dealer. I know the dealer deals in Chord products to, but so far he mentioned he had the best results with Wireworld, he didn't actually mentioned the Chord cables. When i got home and compared them once again with the other cables my eyes opened! Only with the Wireworld cables, especially the Aurora (a step up from the Stratus) i could hear and feel the lows were more refined and tighter, imaging, overall sound was better and silent backgrounds and top end sparkle were defenitly significant improvements. These cables are mains conditioning cables. There are still many cables out there i haven't tried but i advise you, before you take the plunge and buy Chord cables for your hole system i would try a Wireworld Aurora before doing that. You never know...

A review...

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