Pops110 Posted May 13, 2013 Posted May 13, 2013 I have been using my Audio gd dac with the power cable that it came with since I received it. This is the only component that doesn't have an upgraded power cord, the rest have a mix or XLO, Cawsey and Zion. I had a length of cable sitting around that I grabbed from Hollywood Hospital when we did a new suite. It's really heavy duty cable and its shielded, it's made by Electra cables. I thought I may as well make myself up a power cable for the dac. I used an iec connector I had lying around from the Cawsey cable ( It wasn't quite a firm fit so changed it for a furutech iec) and a cheapo hpm plug. I wired the shielding into the earth on the plug side. Bugger me, it really made a big difference. Instruments seem to have a lot more weight and separation between them. I was really surprised. Has anyone else experienced this. Do the audio gd dacs need better power cables to sound their best? Do I sell off my expensive cables and make a heap of these ones up? Should I change cables round and investigate a bit? Am I just dreaming and fooling myself? Cheers Dave.
chu Posted May 14, 2013 Posted May 14, 2013 In my experience, different power cables have different effects in all audio components that I have, whether it is a Dac, CD player, amp. They even make a difference when using with a (Audio-Gd) PSU. chu
Juicester Posted May 14, 2013 Posted May 14, 2013 I have been using my Audio gd dac with the power cable that it came with since I received it.This is the only component that doesn't have an upgraded power cord, the rest have a mix or XLO, Cawsey and Zion. I had a length of cable sitting around that I grabbed from Hollywood Hospital when we did a new suite. It's really heavy duty cable and its shielded, it's made by Electra cables. I thought I may as well make myself up a power cable for the dac. I used an iec connector I had lying around from the Cawsey cable ( It wasn't quite a firm fit so changed it for a furutech iec) and a cheapo hpm plug. I wired the shielding into the earth on the plug side. Bugger me, it really made a big difference. Instruments seem to have a lot more weight and separation between them. I was really surprised. Has anyone else experienced this. Do the audio gd dacs need better power cables to sound their best? Do I sell off my expensive cables and make a heap of these ones up? Should I change cables round and investigate a bit? Am I just dreaming and fooling myself? Cheers Dave. I've got the same DAC - I'll have a play tonight and see if I can confirm your findings. I've a few decent power cables I haven't gotten round to testing out. Wouldn't be surprised though. They have to cut costs somewhere along the chain.
Pops110 Posted May 16, 2013 Author Posted May 16, 2013 Changed cables around last night and I'm sure I'm not hearing things. Definitely sounds better with the homemade cable. A lot more separation and instruments seem to float in space a bit better. How'd you go Juice, did you give it s crack? Will try to swap around with my higher specked cables this weekend and report back. Cheers Dave.
Guest fordgtlover Posted May 16, 2013 Posted May 16, 2013 I've never heard an improvement as a result of an upgraded power cable in any component. 1
Upfront Posted May 16, 2013 Posted May 16, 2013 I've got a couple I've made up that I'm not using at the moment. Let me know if you want to try them out and I'll drop them off after work one night.
Juicester Posted May 16, 2013 Posted May 16, 2013 I've never heard an improvement as a result of an upgraded power cable in any component. what's your setup? (amp/source and speaker?)
Guest fordgtlover Posted May 18, 2013 Posted May 18, 2013 what's your setup? (amp/source and speaker?) I'd really rather not enter into the discussion about whether my gear is 'revealing' enough for me to discern differences attributable to power cords. I have tried many time over the years with decent enough speaker and headphone equipment. I even built an A/B switch box a few years back - nope, no discernible difference to be heard by my ears. Besides, if the night and day differences touted by some parties existed, you should be able to hear those differences on even the most modest equipment. I have build various headphone amplifiers over the years. When considering that electric current has traveled from a power station over high voltage wires through any number of industrial transformers to reach my house where it travels through 30 or so meters of $2 per meter copper wire into transformers, diodes, resisters, transistors, capacitors and such that use metal/tinned (not even copper) connectors, through tiny little copper traces on the PCB; it makes little sense to me that the power cord can actually make any difference. I'm not trying to start a fight. The OP asked whether he was dreaming. My response is that he may not be dreaming, but it is certainly a well understood phenomenon that our minds are quite easily convinced of things that support a particular view that we hold - perception biases. And, let's face it, listening is all in our minds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_perception http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
Pops110 Posted May 18, 2013 Author Posted May 18, 2013 Thanks Ford GT good post. I've found that cables have made a difference in the past, most of the time small differences, sometimes a little better. Definitely not a night and day difference by any means. I was just surprised that a cheap homemade cable made a difference. Could it the larger gauge and the shielding is making the difference. Are dacs prone to picking up noise, so the shielding is making a difference? Cheers Dave.
Pops110 Posted May 18, 2013 Author Posted May 18, 2013 Hey Linc, thanks for the offer mate. Might have to take you up on it, bit busy this week though, will send you a message when I got some time. How did you find the cables you made? Any difference? Cheers Dave.
Upfront Posted May 18, 2013 Posted May 18, 2013 I think so. But you be the judge. Let me know when your free.
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