Chord Superscreen vs Clearer Audio Alpha - Anyone compared?

[Anonymous]

Hi all

I picked up a Superscreen at a good price on Ebay last week and yesterday tried it for the first time on an Arcam CD73. I switched it and asked the wife whether she could hear a difference -- without telling her what I had done. She said, "Wow!", I said "Sh*t!", and every cable sceptic got to get their ears cleaned!! Success!! The noise floor was lowered considerably and the whole presentation of the music was cleaner and crisper.

Hedgehog

 

[RCduck7]

Hedgehog:

Hi all I picked up a Superscreen at a good price on Ebay last week and yesterday tried it for the first time on an Arcam CD73. I switched it and asked the wife whether she could hear a difference -- without telling her what I had done. She said, "Wow!", I said "Sh*t!", and every cable sceptic got to get their ears cleaned!! Success!! The noise floor was lowered considerably and the whole presentation of the music was cleaner and crisper.

Hedgehog

Wow! Maybe i should try one to and compare it with the WireWorld mains cables i like, judging from your comments... Allthough i did connect my WireWorlds to a power conditioner and still had obvious difference. I didn't connect them (yet) straight to the wall socket without any conditioning, maybe them the difference will be even more obvious. I guees that's what you have done right? How is your mains power? Conditioned or not? Do you have any idea of the puity of your mains power? I learned that a powercord plays a lesser role if you have pure power to your equipment.

 

[Anonymous]

RCduck7,

I replaced a standard kettle lead with the Chord, so wouldn't know about improving other mains cables. It is plucked into a Tacima, which didn't make as much of a difference when I got it.

I don't know about the quality of the power supply in the house, but I would guess that it isn't great, as it isn't a great building in terms of its infrastructure. I'm going to take this setup with me to another country (Ireland) soon and will see whether the difference is, well, different there.

H.

 

[lastcoyote]

My PowerChord turned up yesterday! Fitted it to my Musical Fidelity X-Ray cd player and it sounds superb. Initial thoughts are that it really seperates everything nicely, plus opening up that soundstage more. Brings great clarity to music. Joan Armatradings self titled album sounds lush, particularly track 'Like Fire'. Looking forward to trying out some of my classical albums now

 

[True Blue]

Glad that everyone is happy with theirs. Obviously not just me imagining it!!!!

Mains upgrade next week.....dedicated cct.

 

[True Blue]

Pete, any comparisons yet between the two chord products?

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Sorry, True Blue...been really busy

Will ask my mate for the superscreen tonight and compare....

 

[Pistol Pete1]

True Blue....

Just remembered......sent my Merlin Mozart interconnect back as there was a fault on it, which means I can't use my cd player at the mo.

Promise once I receive it back (next week, i hope), I'll do that testing.....

 

[True Blue]

Not a problem Pete. Like I said I heard both but never immediately after each other. My powerchords cost the same as the superscreen anyway.

Dedicated Radial cct tomorrow cant wait, and my £23 bargain Tacima turned up (not sure I will need it mind you)

 

[j4mm3r]

True Blue,

Could you shed some more light on 'Dedicated Radial cct' what it is and who is doing it!!

Thanks

 

[harveymt]

I'd be interested in this too. Planning to do some DIY early next year and adding a dedicated circuit for the AV stuff can be done while Im doing that work. Interested in what cabling you're using etc.

 

[True Blue]

harveymt:I'd be interested in this too. Planning to do some DIY early next year and adding a dedicated circuit for the AV stuff can be done while Im doing that work. Interested in what cabling you're using etc.

To separate your HIFI from the main house ring main you have two options

1. A dedicated ring cct where the cable start and ends in the consumer unit seperate MCB 32A

2. A dedicated radial cct where the cable starts in the consumer unit and ends at the final socket in the line

I am having option 2 as my listening room is only 3m from my consumer unit and it will only be powering 1 socket "dedicated hifi only"

When you get it installed I would recommend 6mm twin and earth , CY or SY shielded cable for the install. With a 32A MCB in the consumer unit.

Option 2 been completed at a cost of £125 Domestic part P installer did it all

 

[Anonymous]

Just chucked the powerchord i picked up this morning onto my apollo and i am very impressed with the impact it has had.

 

[RCduck7]

harveymt:I'd be interested in this too. Planning to do some DIY early next year and adding a dedicated circuit for the AV stuff can be done while Im doing that work. Interested in what cabling you're using etc.

I don't really have a dedicated circuit for my hifi but made sure no refrigirator, freezer or any other device was on the same circuit. Still, mains disturbances can be had from neighbours using devices. I use a good isolation transformer and i'm very happy with what it did to the sound. It doesn't compromise in dynamics like many conditioners do. The sound is clear, good seperation of instruments, more realistic and easier to the ears as before. Before that i did try a PS audio Quintet conditioner block that i lend from a friend. It gave instant a very big diference but not in a way i like. Music sounded to soft, boring, loss of dynamics... I don't know about their powercenters if their any good from PS audio but from my experience they are very expensive and it had a negative impact so far with some other posters i know on forums.

Before i had that isolation transformer i experimented with mains cables and i had good results with a WireWorld but with the isolation transformer installed differences are not that noticeable anymore with mains cables. I think that proves how much more important clean power is from the start then try to cure the problem with mains cables and conditioners.

To have even better results you can use 2 or more isolation transformers, 1 with a 1000VA rating for amp(s) and 1 with a 500VA rating for preamp/sources for instance. And i shouldn't connect a plasma screen to the same isolation transformer where all the sound equipment is on.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

True Blue,

Finally done a comparsion between the super screen and power chord mains cables......lets just say that in future, I'll be buying the power chord over the superscreen.

Don't get me wrong, the superscreen is very good, but the power chord offers more detail, more midrange, much deeper bass and much better separation....which adds up to, in my opinion, a more mature, life-like sound.

Buy with confidence......

 

[True Blue]

Thanks Pete, like I said I heard both but in isolation, thanks for doing the back to back which pretty much sums up what I heard

 

[Pistol Pete1]

True Blue,

Just bought two more Power Chords......connected one to my receiver and wow!!! One on cd player too, and it sounds so realistic it's unbelieveable!!!

Went to the Manchester Show, and I reckon it sounds as good as most things I heard there now...

It's taken my listen pleasure to a new level!!!

And the other is on my DVD recorder, as I use it's freeview tuner daily-again, it has made an excellent improvement to the SQ.

Lastly, I have bought a Chord Superscreen cable to either go on my blu ray, sub or tv...tests to be done to see which improves the most with it.......

 

[Anonymous]

I think you will need a figure of 8 for your blu ray player mate, do chord do one in the superscreen?

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Under control, Gander.

You can buy an adaptor from clearer audio that falls out a lot, or cut the old standard cable 4 inches from the figure 8 and add a female IEC connector onto it for connection....

Needless to say, I do the latter.......

 

[arablondon]

I have both cables the power alpha is fitted with Wattgate 320i for this reason I couldn't fit it in the back of my sony Bravia 52 W4000

but the chord superscreen fit it in nicely the pictures was so much better the black in pratiular becomes blacker and there is so many details in the dark scenes red is very red and sony turns into Pioneer in a matter of seconds

music wise i tried both on PS3 dont have a stand alone blu-ray yet and on my Onkyo 906 and the superscreen did not do any thing to the onkyo while clearer audio make a lot of diference there 's alot of details in music its very clear not fatiging wider sound stage and it feels as if i have changed the speakers or the amp itself so now i have the superscreen attached to the tv and the alpha to my onkyo and i bought another one for the ps3

 

[clearer_audio]

Gander:I think you will need a figure of 8 for your blu ray player mate, do chord do one in the superscreen?

Pistol Pete1:
Under control, Gander.

You can buy an adaptor from clearer audio that falls out a lot, or cut the old standard cable 4 inches from the figure 8 and add a female IEC connector onto it for connection....

Needless to say, I do the latter.......

Hello all,

We can now terminate all of our power cables with the Furutech FI-8N Figure 8 Connector directly. You can view some information about this new connector on the 'News' page on our website.

The IEC to Figure 8 Adaptor is obviously still a good solution for those who already have a power cable with a Standard IEC plug and need to convert to Figure 8 but the Furutech FI-8N offers a considerable improvement in performance.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Darren

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Hi Darren,

Thanks for that info about your company now doing figure 8 connections.

One question though....

With an additional cost of £25.06, it puts the cost of the alpha up to £59.63, which is dangerously close to the Russ Andrews PowerKord 8 at £73.95.

Can it compete sound quality wise to this cable, in your opinion, or is the price strategy slightly off?

 

[Anonymous]

after reading this thread, I think I may buy a power chord next week for my son's pioneer A300r precision amp ... the existing cable is just the standard thin cable