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Topic: Another 'Over The Top' hardware review from Andrew :-) (Read 7807 times) previous topic - next topic
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Another 'Over The Top' hardware review from Andrew :-)

Let me kick this off by stating that I fully realize that I'm preaching to the converted here: I know full well that participants on this forum are above audiofool idiocy, but since this is one of my favourite forums, I thought I'd post this here for posterity - or just kicks?  I've posted it on The Cable Asylum and Stereophile forums - very much akin to sticking one's finger, or, whole arm - into a beehive...  I'm sure that you'll all get a laugh outta' the 'Frankencable' :-)  Warning - its a rather longish read...

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Stereo System Power-cables – Audible difference? - Listen for yourself here...

Last time ‘round (see January 24th post on Cdnav.com), I put together a quality, ultra-thick, shielded power cable with cytogenetically treated, ‘audiophile quality’ IEC and plug, and compared it to a ‘freebee’ power lead the likes of which accompanies pretty-much every non-portable computer sold in North America. I supplied you with high-quality, lossless .WAV audio files to audition as well as high-resolution visual graphs comparing the data throughput from each cable. In the end, no-one who contacted me was successful in audibly identifying which cable was which, nor see any visual difference between the two cables data transfer characteristic.

I received quite a bit of email concerning this evaluation; some folks were courteous and supportive, others not so much… ridiculing me [without actually addressing the subject]. They appeared to feel that the topic should be above subjective investigation.

Others suggested that I re-do the evaluation with a commercial-grade cable instead of a D.I.Y. unit - I assume they feel that laborers on assembly-lines are able to construct products to a higher tolerance than a dedicated individual with time on his hands and a knack for excellence. At any rate, I acquiesced and purchased a power-cable from a well-known manufacturer - one with rave reviews from audiophiles around the world; the xStream PSAudio Prelude.

Speaking strictly from an aesthetics / physical build standpoint, I must give high marks to this beast. Its heft is impressive (10-guage), and the build-quality is really a thing to behold. The cable is fairly stiff and it’s solid-billet, machined prongs are at the absolute limit as far as size goes – its takes some seriously heroic effort to actually plug it into a top-quality, ‘hospital-grade’ socket on one end and the DAC on the other – I thought I might damage these sockets just plugging / unplugging this power lead – supposedly however, the ‘tightness of connection’ is important. PSAudio states that the Prelude cable offers the following benefits:

Multi-strand OFC copper
Connectors machined from solid billet
Nickel plated connectors
Hermetically sealed connectors
2 shields
Hot and cold welded connections
Removable ground pin
Ferrite impregnated jacket
Unrestricted power delivery
No stamped brass parts
No corrosion
Huge surface area for connections
Cleans while it powers
Excellent power delivery
Lower noise floor
Ability to eliminate ground loops

And here are some accolades heaped upon this cable by audiophile folk around the Net’:

Quote
"I have just installed four Prelude power cords throughout my system. These 4 cords are being used with a high current Ultimate Outlet and a Juice Bar. WOW, what a difference in sound...more richness, clarity, depth, and warmth. Better still the removable ground pins entirely eliminated those annoying ground loops...gone 100%. Now there is nothing but beautiful music and movie soundtracks. The overall improvement was well worth the investment. In addition, these cables look great.”


Quote
“The Prelude is very dynamic and lively. All PS Audio cables definitely have more of a "power punch" than almost all competing products. I attribute this to their size, better soldiering, and nickel plated plugs.”


I put this beautiful bit of cable engineering up against what surely must rate as the most pathetic example of a power cable ever devised: my dangerously dilapidated, ridiculously constructed ‘free PC power lead’. My previous ‘specialty cable vs. PC lead’ indicated that any functional, ‘standard computer power cable’ was more than up to the task of moving electricity – without acoustic detriment to the equipment it was connecting to the source. As such, I decided to push the envelope and see how far one has to go in order to cause an audibly detrimental effect via 120 volt power lead. On one hand we have the outstanding build quality of the PS-Audio device, on the other; my FrankenCable: details below:

I began by cutting a generic computer power cable (likely near-identical to the one powering your home PC at this very moment), into three sections with a pair of scissors (yes, it’s that thin). Then, in order to re-attach the (now), three lengths of cable back into one whole length, I stripped bare the conductors on each side of the first two pieces and simply twisted each appropriate wire back together to rejoin them. I then cellophane-taped the exposed wires, thus covering the bare conductors in order to avoid electrocution.

The other cut-off section I re-affixed to the whole by twisting and taping [one] of the wire conductors as described above. For the remaining two wire conductors, I decided to create a worst-case scenario by splicing in a one-meter length of 18-guage, unshielded ‘zip-cord’! This created uneven lengths of wire in the overall cable length – what some might call ‘asymmetrical’. Afterwards, I taped it similarly to the previous splice.

A few moments of pondering how to make matters worse for this cable found me attaching a metal rotary brush to my power-drill and proceeding to abrade all three exposed prongs on the plug-end in order to tarnish the cheap plating and encourage oxidation. I dipped the prongs in tap-water and hung the cable assembly outside on a tree in my back yard in order to see what a little elemental exposure might bring. After about two weeks of the cable hanging in a tree, I took the cable and rubbed the prong-end in dirt outside my shop for eight to ten seconds or so, then brought it inside and pounded the prongs with a hammer. Finally, I twisted the prongs to-and-fro with a pair of pliers – all this in an effort to absolutely deteriorate / minimize the three prong’s overall connection with the hospital-grade wall-receptacle I would be plugging it into.

Beat-up D.I.Y FrankenCable in one hand, PSAudio lead in the other, I proceeded to conduct a series of recordings and measurements, contrasting the two cables head-to-head. Details of the audio kit & the custom-build audio workstation PC used for these recordings is detailed on the Cdnav.com site – Jan 24th. The only change I’ve made since then was to remove the hard disk drive from within the PC and mount it in an external shielded box as I had done previously with the power-supply. This was at the suggestion of an audiophile who participated in the previous cable-audition, who felt that it might attract or be the cause of, “extra noise that would veil detail in the recordings”.

Additionally, I’ve created a slightly enhanced setup for auditioning this time around by partnering the PSAudio power cable on the DAC with my carefully made D.I.Y cryo-cable on the computer. On the other side of the evaluation, I coupled the FrankenCable on the DAC with a standard PC cable on the computer. In both cases, I hosted the Pioneer Elite transport on an APC ‘Pure-Sine-Wave’ UPS device.

I’ve not messed with the supplied lossless .WAV files in any way aside from cropping the ends of the file to a length that I hope is short enough that Chesky Records won’t sue me for posting them. Again, for the sake of shaking a horde of lawyers off my case: I strongly suggest that if you enjoy the music files posted for this evaluation, you take it upon yourself to go out and purchase the Chesky Records – ‘Ultimate Demonstration Disk’

Chesky Records - Ultimate Demonstration Disk

The music featured in this evaluation is [a section of] Track 3: Spanish Harlem, by vocalist Rebecca Pigeon.

I haven’t bothered to hide the files amongst others identical to it in order to throw you off, rather, I trust that you’ll be mature enough to take the evaluation at face-value and audition them back-to-back on the PC, using a quality set of headphones and perhaps an outboard DAC or high-quality sound-card. I also (strongly) suggest that you burn these two lossless tracks to CD and play them back on your main, high-resolution stereo system in an attempt to discern audible differences. It’s up to you to decide which file is which, I’ve simply gone so far as to supply them with two innocuous titles: ‘Spanish Harlem Left’ and ‘Spanish Harlem Right’. The files are not exactly the same byte-length, only because I wasn’t quick enough on the start / stop record buttons in the software application. File-size is no indication of anything in this evaluation aside from my reflexes.

Take your time; as many hours / days as you feel necessary. Relax, pour a drink of your favorite beverage, put your feet up, pop the CD in and hit ‘repeat’… Let me know what you feel you are hearing. According to audiophile lore, one of the files should be instantly discernable as sounding absolutely horrid, thin, veiled, vague – while the other will be sweet and velvety, full bodied and robust.

My original intension was to supply a graphic representation / waveform for you to view, but decided against it as several listeners in the previous power-cable shootout berated me for employing an open-source application for this procedure, suggesting that I would need to spend a minimum of several hundred dollars on a commercial product in order to get anything like a serious representation from the files. I wasn’t prepared to do so for this one-off eval’, thus, no pretty pictures.

I’ll be sending PSAudio a link to this evaluation as well and we’ll see how they respond and what they have to say in regards to the performance of their product. Maybe they’ll send me one of their ‘top-of the line’ / $1000.00 per meter cables to evaluate :-) (I’ll not hold my breath on that one). I happen to have one of their late-model power amplifiers on hand (HCA-2), and am working on methods to capture its’ output to file with my PSAudio prelude power cable as well as my FrankenCable - while the amplifier is outputting signal just below clipping. The amplifier’s user’s manual specifies that the unit will ‘offer enhanced performance’ with an after-market cable (which they conveniently happen to sell…). Perhaps noteworthy; the user’s manual for the Yulong DAH1 outboard DAC which I’m employing for this evaluation also specifically states that it will “greatly benefit from an aftermarket power cable”.

Please note: I am more than prepared to redo this evaluation with (any) power cable on the market vs. my junker or whatever my readers suggest as ‘competition’. I am also working on the acquisition of a PSAudio DAC III external digital audio unit for future experiments. If any of you have cables that you’d like to add to this evaluation, please contact me and we’ll arrange for shipping – which I’ll pay for both ways – insured / express.

I strongly suggest that you conduct your own auditions in a manner similar to that which I’ve outlined above, incorporating any enhancements you can think of; then publish them on the web. I, as well as any of the 100+ A/V forums out there (see Cdnav.com’s ‘Other Forums’ list), will publish your results so that others can attempt their replication.

I realize that I’ll hear from all kinds of audiophiles who will state that “in their systems, in their homes, with their environment / city power-supply etc, etc., “their power-cables make a huge difference”. Well, here’s an easy way to find out if you’re fooling yourself lads: capture your own lossless audio (or video), files with your own equipment and post it for replication by others. None of this stuff is rocket-science; all of the required components are easily obtainable. I’ll offer to help in any way reasonably possible (short of jumping on a plane and coming to your home in another province / state / country).

Notes: with regards to the layout of my shop’s electrical feed and potential electrical interference in the immediate area. I wired this shop myself; each wall (!) has its own lead back to a brand-new Siemens ‘EQ Load-Center’ box. The lines have been tested and certified by our city’s electrical engineer (have paperwork for those interested). I’ve also re-tested the plugs I installed for this particular evaluation using GB-Electrical GRT-500 Circuit-Tester. I used separate wall-plugs for running the PC / DAC and Pioneer Elite transport in this evaluation (PC/DAC on South wall – Transport on West)

As for potential air-borne interference; the shop is located in a residential neighborhood located approximately eight blocks from an electrical sub-station to the North, eight or nine blocks from an AM radio station to the East and about the same distance from an FM radio station to the South. I am running a D-Link wireless router a few meters from the test-bench, as such; there is enough electrical energy in the air around here to make my body’s molecules shake somewhat I suppose :-) We appear to have a fairly decent power-grid in the area; I very seldom experience brown-outs and the power only fails in weather extremes. The city is host to approximately forty-three-thousand persons.

Without further ado: the audio files and images:

https://cdnav.sslpowered.com/Auditions/Span...20-%20Right.wav
Spanish Harlem - Right.wav - 12.5MB

https://cdnav.sslpowered.com/Auditions/Span...%20-%20Left.wav
Spanish Harlem - Left.wav - 12.5MB

https://cdnav.sslpowered.com/Auditions/Junk%20Cable.jpg
FrankenCable - 110Kb

https://cdnav.sslpowered.com/Auditions/PSAudio%20Cable.jpg
PSAudio Cable - 103Kb

Andrew D.
www.cdnav.com

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Another 'Over The Top' hardware review from Andrew :-)

Reply #1 –
can you post the links to the other places you posted this, so we can read the responses?

Another 'Over The Top' hardware review from Andrew :-)

Reply #3 –
Do you think you could risk Mr Chesky's wrath a little more and post the original too please?

I know why you've chosen to post a minute, but you must know the limit on HA is 30 seconds. If possible, please post 30-second versions of all three files to prevent your links from being deleted by moderators here.


I don't believe in the audibility of power cables, but I would be interested to hear how different both sound from the original. If the difference is miniscule, then clearly all the equipment involved was good enough to reveal any differences, if they were present. If the difference is huge, then the charge that your experiment could be hiding difference may have some legs (though I don't believe it).

Btw, I believe there is at least one quote about arguing with fools.

Cheers,
David.
 

Another 'Over The Top' hardware review from Andrew :-)

Reply #4 –
Ya, thought about that, but figured that after running through all of the ancillary devices, the actual level was bound to be different, thus folks would think that they were hearing differences when in fact, they were actually hearing level mismatches.  As far as Mr. Chesky's product: I think I've already pushed my luck as far as I wish to.

Remember, you also have the same capabilities as I with regards to creating .wav files and comparing cables.  I urge you to do so and post your own results.  No matter what I do, folks will still say "oh, well, that’s with 'his' equipment, its not good enough... / doesn’t have enough resolution", etc., etc.  Please spin off a few .wav files of your own and share them with us.

Here are a few ‘Fool’ quotes for you:

When arguing with fools, don't answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are.

When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation.

Trusting a fool to convey a message is as foolish as cutting off one's feet or drinking poison!

In the mouth of a fool, a proverb becomes as limp as a paralyzed leg.

Honoring a fool is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.

A proverb in a fool's mouth is as dangerous as a thorn-bush brandished by a drunkard.

An employer who hires a fool or a bystander is like an archer who shoots recklessly.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise.

Yanking a dog's ears is as foolish as interfering in someone else's argument.


Sorry for the thread divergence, it’s just that some of them were pretty funny and supremely applicable.

Andrew D.
Cdnav.com