van den hul power lead on xcans ?

[garycake]

Hi,
Has anyone tried a uber expensive power lead on the x cans the so called audio grade lead with silver plating and very thick cable, i tried a van den hul mainsstream and i found it did effect the sound by increasing the bass.I thought it seemed good at the time but soon realised it sounded unatural, i have gone back to the bog standard kettle lead. i am thinking of doing the capacitor upgrade which you say will increase the bass but i would not like to end up with a similar sound to adding one of these leads whats your thoghts

[PinkFloyd]

garycake said:

Hi,
Has anyone tried a uber expensive power lead on the x cans the so called audio grade lead with silver plating and very thick cable, i tried a van den hul mainsstream and i found it did effect the sound by increasing the bass.I thought it seemed good at the time but soon realised it sounded unatural, i have gone back to the bog standard kettle lead. i am thinking of doing the capacitor upgrade which you say will increase the bass but i would not like to end up with a similar sound to adding one of these leads whats your thoghts

Hi Gary, I wouldn't put one of those boutique mains cables anywhere near my amp.

The mods do not increase the bass they bring about an across the board improvement on everything the amp does already.... bags more air around instruments, deadly quiet background, improved dynamics, tighter / more musical bass.... imagine listening to the amp without a veil.... the mods lift the fog and let everything come flooding through to your ears. They don't accentuate the bass in any way.

[aurum]

garycake said:

Hi,
Has anyone tried a uber expensive power lead on the x cans the so called audio grade lead with silver plating and very thick cable, i tried a van den hul mainsstream and i found it did effect the sound by increasing the bass.I thought it seemed good at the time but soon realised it sounded unatural, i have gone back to the bog standard kettle lead. i am thinking of doing the capacitor upgrade which you say will increase the bass but i would not like to end up with a similar sound to adding one of these leads whats your thoghts

I've modded most things on my V3 now and one of the few things I haven't changed is the kettle lead. In my experiments with power cables is that solid core copper is the best sounding. If you add silver plate to it, the sound becomes edgy & somewhat dry.
Pure silver cable is fast, clear & neutral in the right system, but many find silver to be unforgiving in showing up other problems with synergy. Pure copper is more rounded sounding in its nature & will suit most audio applications.

Unless you have sorted out the whole audio chain don't play with anything with silver in it. Do the cable thing once the cap & diode upgrade is achieved, or after then you may not want to bother.

[ungawa]

admin said:

Hi Gary, I wouldn't put one of those boutique mains cables anywhere near my amp.

Mike - Care to elaborate? Because I was thinking of dishing out some Moolaa on a new Mains Cable ....

Cheers - brent

[Deleted]

Brent
Save your money.
If you want to try something worthwhile have a look at Mike's screened mains cables.
in Fantastic Mains cable from June 14th
Please note that Graham Slee does not agree with their use.You will have to make up your own mind on this subject.
SandyK

[southpaw]

I used two of these cables on my old cyrus setup and they made a real difference to my ears something close to adding a psx-r. So do they work ? imo yes but £225 is not worth it at all!
I added a home made cable (picture of it on here somewhere) to my headphone amp and for the few £s it cost to make it was definately worth while.

[Deleted]

southpaw
The fact that you can make noticeable improvements with home made leads like you mentioned, and those shielded leads Mike constructed , demonstrates that 225 pounds is a bloody ripoff !
SandyK

[ungawa]

Yeah - as always, the cost of the upgrade must be justified by the resulting improvements ... and its such a fuzzy area when considering Power Cables ..

There are some for sale over here on the local Auction Site which I'm considering .. certainly not in the £225 range .. !

Thanks guys ... - b

[colin1958]

hi,if you have time & have friends with different power cords replace your cd,amp whatever cable with different cables,but, not you!!!have a friend change the cable,play a piece of music or cd that you are really familiar with & listen.this will take quite a bit of time chopping and changing cables, don't look whilst cables are changed [or not] & see if you can notice the difference and why.as i said it will take up alot of time,have pen & paper ready to mark down changes [if any] & what cord [if any] was it cord 1,2, 3 you get my drift...you will surprise yourself