An Interesting Way of Looking at Evaluating Equipment Quality
An Interesting Way of Looking at Evaluating Equipment Quality
Robert Harley
Caelin Gabriel, founder of Shunyata Research, visited my listening room yesterday to hear his new CX-series power cords in my system. Shunyata makes the state-of-the-art in AC power conditioning and AC power cords, at least in my experience. Their Hydra V-Ray power conditioner and Python AC cord won our Product of the Year Award in 2008, and their other products have been honored with various Golden Ear and Editors’ Choice Awards. I’ve been using Shunyata products in my reference system for the past two years.
During the course of a discussion on the role of AC power in an audio system, Gabriel made an interesting analogy about judging the effects of power cords in a system. It goes like this: Dump five spoonfuls of dirt into a glass of clean water and stir. Look at the resulting dirty water. Repeat the exercise with four spoons of dirt. Can you discern the difference in contamination one additional spoonful made? Probably not. Now dump one spoonful of dirt in a glass of clean water and the same amount of contamination (one spoonful) is instantly obvious.
Gabriel says evaluating the effect of a single AC power cord in a non-optimized system is like trying to determine whether the glass of water has four or five spoonfuls of dirt in it. The improvement one cord makes is largely swamped by the poor performance of the rest of the AC-delivery components. Gabriel advocates evaluating an AC power-conditioner and AC cords as a system, judging the system’s effectiveness against stock cords or against other products. Simply put, one can judge the effect of a single AC cord only after the audio system’s AC power has been optimized.
I’ve long subscribed to this view that an audio system must be transparent in order to judge the quality of a single component, but Gabriel’s analogy makes the point vividly clear. I had not, however, considered the implications of assessing a single AC cord within the context of the rest of the power-delivery system, although I’ve reviewed AC conditioners/power cords by removing the entire system and putting it back in for the listening comparisons.
Incidentally, during Gabriel’s visit I was reminded of the first time I heard a difference in power cords. It was 1990 and I was reviewing two similarly priced power amplifiers. After about two weeks of listening, the designer of one of the amplifiers visited me to hear his product. While comparing the two amplifiers he had a puzzled look on his face. He went behind the amplifiers and saw that I had accidentally switched the stock AC power cords that were supplied with the amplifiers. When I unpacked and set-up the amps, I hadn’t paid attention to which stock black power cord came with which amplifier—in my mind, all power cords sounded the same. We switched power cords and listened again. To my great shock, some sonic attributes I had ascribed to the amplifiers over the previous two week of listening were actually sonic characteristics of the AC cords. And this was a difference between two stock AC cords. Since that experience I’ve paid close attention to the AC powering my audio system, power conditioners, and power cords. When I built my house, I specified three separate dedicated 20-amp lines, which are grounded via a copper rod in the earth just outside the listening room and isolated from the rest of the house.
Comments
Do we have any idea why AC cords affect the sound?
There's a good description on Shuynata's website: http://www.shunyata.com/Content/FAQ-Tech.html
Are you using Shunyata Research power cords and conditioner with your specially built computer/music server and if so does clean power to a computer/server make a difference?
Robert, Can you describe in more detail the way that you hook up your power conditioner and components with three dedicated lines? I have three dedicated 20A lines as well and I'm interested in where you plug in amps, the V-Ray conditioner, front-end equipment, etc.
The same can be said for vibration control. Using an AV rack designed with attention to vibration control, and then placing cones under every component, including the power conditioner, resulted in improvements far beyond what I might have imagined after experimenting with cones here and there..
I was unable to use a Shunyata AC cable on my PC music server because the computer's EIC jack is inset slightly and won't accept the large plug on the Shunyata. Shunyata is, however, making me an AC cable with a smaller plug that will fit my computer's socket. I'll report on the results.
As for rsorren1's question, I have two dedicated lines at the front of the room behind the loudspeakers and one at the back to power the front-end components. The two Pass Labs XA100.5 power amplifiers are plugged into a Shunyata Hydra-8 via Anaconda (the new CX series), which in turn is plugged into the wall, also with Anaconda CX.
The front-end components and preamp are plugged into a V-Ray with King Cobra CX, which is pugged into a dedicated outet with King Cobra CX.
JLeeMD is right that vibration control is an important aspect of optimizing an audio system (particularly one that uses tubes). I have the V-Ray on a rack, and the Hydra-8 on the floor behind the amplifiers, but mounted on Tiptoes.
Just wanted to add 3 points:
1. With all due respect, you CAN hear the sonic difference that swapping just a single power cord makes, especially if trading up from a stock cord. Granted, the improvement is more pronounced - or at least, easier to discern - in a quieter, more revealing, system. So if the rest of your power cords are of high quality, you will probably hear an even larger sonic improvement.
2. You don't necessarily have to shell out big $$$ for a V-Ray and Anacondas to experience the Shunyata magic. My system uses the relatively inexpensive Guardian-6 conditioner and Copperhead & Diamondback cords, with extraordinary results. I'm convinced that you are better off wiring your entire system with Venom cords (Shunyata's cheapest) than adding a single Anaconda or Python to a 'strategic location'. And though once a skeptic, I now beleive that no audio system is complete without power conditioning. I can easily say that the Guardian is the single biggest improvement I've made to my system in many years. It not only provided the black, silent, background that's advertised. It also improved imaging and expanded the soundstage significantly.
3. I know it's counterintuitive, but I've found time-and-again that power cords make a BIGGER sonic difference than interconnects. It took a while for me to believe my own ears on that, but I've heard it demonstrated repeatedly, in different systems, using different cables & cords. If you're ignoring the AC, you're really cheating yourself.
Can you give more specifics about your dedicated lines - wire type and guage, outlets.
Regarding the isolated, grounded circuits, you state in your book:
"You can also improve AC power by providing a separate, isolated ground for the listening room's AC outlets. An electrician disconnects the grounds from the listening room's AC outlets, runs a wire from the ground outside your house, then pounds a copper ground rod into the earth and attaches the wire. Your audio equipment is no longer connected to the house ground."
Can you give more info on how this is accomplished? I thought that, assuming that the lines are fed from the same main panel (or attached subpanel) as the rest of the house, having an independent grounding system for certain lines did not conform to the electrical code.
Some info on dedicated lines.
Peter, the tech person at Shunyata told me that to avoid ground loops it is very important that all lines be identical in length.
Dedicated lines and Shunyata power cords and a Hydra Two on for my digital front end has made a huge improvement detail and sound stage.
I have recently added a Mac Mini connected to my Benchmark Dac 1, and I would like to know if any of you have are using dedicated lines, power cords and or power conditioning for a computer/server and if so what were the results.
Thanks
Running a separate ground system to another grounding rod does not disconnect your components from the house ground. The reason is : All of the neutral wires in your house are connected to the grounding bus inside the first service panel. This is per National Electrical Code and has been in place for many years.
The only way to have a separate ground, is to use a balanced transformer, which inherently has no neutral on the output, just two hot wires, then run a separate ground wire and grounding electrode into the ground.
Even then, the new grounding system is still connected to the house grounding system through the earth.
Also remember, the center tap of the neighborhood supply transformer is earth grounded.The grounding system does stabilize the electricity somewhat, but the main purpose is to provide a path (through the earth soil) from an accidental hot wire contacting anything that is grounded, all the way back to the neiborhood transformer, which will trip a breaker.
The best improvement is installing a better ground electrode, or supplementing the one you have, and maybe using additional devises such as the Audio Magic ground disruptor, or the Acousic Revive virtual ground.This would all meet code.
Thanks Mr.Harley
" I’ve long subscribed to this view that an audio system must be transparent in order to judge the quality of a single component"
I agree you but i think "Hydra V-Ray power conditioner" could not give us good result in a very transparent and emotional system.
I agree Hydra will improve many aspects of sound but it filter micro information of sound that it reduce beauty of the sound.
I tested Hydra in my freind home (very good acoustics) with dcs elgar directed to conrad-johnson 140 and wilson watt puppy 7.
Idon't say hydra giva us bad result in all systems but it reduce emotionality in sound if your system give you that emotion.
I more like to use Shunyata AC cables.
regards
Amir
Robert I need your input:
I need help picking the right Shunyata Power cords for my system:
I thinking of using the Hydra 8 version II and The Anaconda CX from the wall to the Hydra.
Her is my setup:
Processor/Pre: Meridian 861V4 XLR version
HDMI PCM Upsampling and De-JitterProcessor : Meridian HD621
CD Player: Meridian 808.2i
Blu-Ray Player 1: Pioneer BDP-LX91(BD-09)
Blu-Ray Player 2 (USE for playing DVD-Audio, SACD, BD Pure Audio Discs and DVD`S): OPPO BD-83CHT
Stereo Amplifier: Chapter Qube Reference 400S (2 X 600W)
Mono Amplifier: Chapter Qube Reference 500M (1X1000W)
Aktive Subwoofer: JL Audio Fatom F212
Thanks for the good advise from this forum ; )
PerS
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