I'm new here so forgive me if this is all a re-tread of what went on in the (apparently heated) power supply thread.
I'm a little surprised to see the second post in this thread completely discarding the effects of power cords. I won't go into whether or not power cords/supplies will help the Squeezebox, but I can offer first-hand experience with power cord upgrades in general. Replacing my SACD player's power cord with a $65 homemade high-end cord (see below) made an audible difference (I'm using the SACD player's built-in DACs). Replacing my DAC's power cord with a homemade cord made an audible difference on CD playback when testing with a good CD (e.g. the CD layer of the Telarc Sampler SACD 1). Surprisingly it even slightly improved SACD analog passthrough (the DAC is doing volume attenuation on the SACD's analog signal). Replacing my amp's power cord with a homemade cord made an audible difference. I did lots of A/B testing and included my roommate who is also an audiophile and a former violinist. He particularly pointed out the difference in the string section in the Amadeus soundtrack SACD, greatly preferring the homemade power cord. One day I turned on the stereo and was disappointed with the sound. It just wasn't as lively and expressive as I remembered it being. I supposed that maybe I was imagining things the previous night. Then I realized that I had swapped a normal power cord back in for a final round of testing. When I replaced it with a homemade cable, the sound opened up again. Naysayers and skeptics can say I must be imagining things. Frankly there's nothing I can say that will change their minds. I claim that there is an audible, appreciable, and enjoyable difference. I claim that I'm an intelligent, skeptical, and careful listener (both to my stereo and to other people's arguments!). Each power cord was swapped in or out one at a time with no other system changes. I understand the scientific method! I have no personal financial stake in any power cord company or any other equipment manufacturer. I hope this doesn't ignite another angry debate. I just wanted to share my experiences and my opinions. And I've listed as much info as I can below - I think often times when people say they haven't heard any difference there are other issues in the signal path that might obscure the difference. Using good source material SACDs/CDs is certainly a huge factor - The Black Eyed Peas will sound like garbage on any high end system no matter what cabling is used (though oddly they sound incredible in my car - somehow they're great on low-fi, horrid on hi-fi). Here's my hardware: Sony 999ES SACD player Proceed DSD DAC/analog passthrough Proceed AMP5 B&W 703 mains, HTM7 center, 602 s3 surrounds Misc: Belden 1505F RCA interconnects from SACD player to DSD (analog passthrough) Belden 1800F balanced XLR from DSD to AMP5 Belden 5000 series 10 AWG "Ten White" speaker cable w/Audioquest silver spades (1014-S), crimped with Walker SST. All speakers bi-wired. Power: Homemade Chris VenHaus "Flavor 1" digital power cords w/Walker SST for SACD player and DAC. Homemade Chris VenHaus "Flavor 2" analog power cords w/Walker SST for amp. PS Audio UPC-200 line conditioners w/Flavor 2s. Test material (some of it at least, can't remember all of it right now): SACD: Amadeus Soundtrack, Disc 1, track 1 SACD: Telarc Sampler 1 SACD: Eric Clapton, Slowhand CD: James Taylor, Greatest Hits, "Carolina in my mind" CD: Mary Chapin Carpenter: Stones in the Road CD: Serenity soundtrack, tracks 3,4,20. -- banzai ------------------------------------------------------------------------ banzai's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5008 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22000 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
