Charlie:
I've listened to the Audience for about 12-15 hours. I've not really noticed any break-in changes in sound. That may be because of the 3 day "Cryogenically Treatment" process the PC goes through. A Wonderful PC it is!

Rick:
The Audience Forte 3 will have permanent home on the Oppo with NO experimentation on any other of my electronics. The AntiCable Reference 3 (i have 4, now) will stay on my amps and preamp, and the Shunyata Venom 3 will be at home on the T Refs.

The forte f3 powerChord contain massive 10 AWG conductors, made from 99.9999% pure OFC stranded copper in XLPE (cross linked polyethylene dielectric) with PVC jacket. It's "Cryogenically Treatment" process takes a full three days. This cable is shielded with drain to ground to eliminate stray RF and EMI. It sports C688 Olin Brass contacts.

Thanks, Anthem

I do still plan to experiment with the Audience and Nordost PC’s between the Oppo player and the Marantz receiver at least.

But your enthusiasm has convinced me. I’’m ordering an Audience now while still on sale and will bring it back to TX...

I am at the point now where I do believe that power cords are in fact the FIRST connections to consider trying upgrades with, not the last. I’ve had more positive SQ effects from changing PC’s than all the speaker cable and IC changes I’ve made combined. HMMM. Never would have expected that in my wildest dreams.

Rick

charliehatch wrote:

anthem wrote: The increased bass mystifies me. Why? (Anybody?) If, as some say, a music-modulated supply current really does appear on the PC, then maybe a change in PC inductance or capacitance could produce that effect. It is strange for sure and not what I expected to happen.
My two additional Red Dawns are in the hands of UPS and should be here Friday, and they will go into service supplying my monoblock amps. Once again, I don't expect any change because I think the power supply storage for those amps must be colossal. We'll see...

Charlie

Hi, Charlie

I'll be very interested in what you find/hear with your amps. I do think PC's help most with sources processing digital stuff, and subsequent noise control. And as you say, your amps probably have a substantial power reserve. Though I also think that the PC's do more than provide ample power. They also clean up any component/power supply noise production interactions. The prevailing thought has been that it was noise in the power supply that needed cleaning up with power conditioners, etc. It seems that components, while processing digital signals in particular generate their own noise, and better PC's do an excellent job of cancelling that out.

Let us know what you hear!

Rick

Bro Rick, it is a good thing you are ordering those power cords for yourself because it does NOT sound like Bro Anthem is gonna ever loan em to you to have a listen!!!!
He will loan you his wife, but not them PCs!!!!!
MUST mean he likes em!!!!!
God Bless,
Wayne

Yeah, it doesn't sound like that Audience Forte PC is EVER gonna' leave it's attachment to his Oppo 205!

Rick

rjohn79395 wrote: I do think PC's help most with sources processing digital stuff, and subsequent noise control. And as you say, your amps probably have a substantial power reserve. Though I also think that the PC's do more than provide ample power. They also clean up any component/power supply noise production interactions. The prevailing thought has been that it was noise in the power supply that needed cleaning up with power conditioners, etc. It seems that components, while processing digital signals in particular generate their own noise, and better PC's do an excellent job of cancelling that out.

Rick, I agree that better noise rejection must help. But the things we are hearing, better imaging, more bass, etc., seem to go way beyond noise. Especially when you consider that the noise floor in your electronics is probably well below the ambient noise level in your listening room! This observed behavior seems to point to a real signal quality effect, and the effects we've heard are very similar to what I've observed with higher quality interconnect and speaker cables.

To me, that points to cable geometry and insulation as factors, and Nordost even talks about how they try to minimize insulation contact with the conductors.

If you have monstrous power storage, then, as you've said, the effect will probably be small. But source components seem to have much more limited storage, and that's where we've seen the biggest differences with PCs. I think the limited storage ends up producing a music "signal" (modulated current) in the PC as the component demands more current to make up for losses, and that is where magnetic field interaction with other conductors and the cord insulation becomes a factor. Conductor geometry will have an effect on inductance and/or capacitance.

A long time ago in the 1990s I tried an interesting experiment with good quality speaker cables. I bought three different sets of speaker cables (back then the dollar cost was relatively small compared to high end cables today). I worked for an electronics company and had access to an impedance analyzer, so I listened to and measured each cable. Each cable had different internal geometry and measurably different capacitances, and they all sounded different in my system. So why not PCs when a component has limited storage and pulls current when music demands? It seems reasonable to me.

We'll see if I notice any changes with my amps. All the above theory suggests there won't be any difference, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised.

Charlie