Thanks, Rick. The Furman you're using is similar to my PS Audio Dectet except that the Dectet is limited to 12 amps. That makes the 20 amp Furman a better choice, so I think I'll get one of those. I plug my two TRefs directly into wall outlets at the moment. All the rest of my gear (including TV) goes into the Dectet. But that 12 amp limitation has always bothered me. That would be a good place for me to start on the power side.

I look forward to hearing more comments on your power cables as they break in.

Charlie

OK so all cables connected and the sound gets better every day I listen to them. I'm a musician so forgive me if I talk in terms of musical terms but for me, I can hear so many more overtones which creates this warmth, fullness and clarity to the sound. It's much more noticeable with exposed music like Clapton Tears in Heaven, Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven as well as my jazz albums which are primarily Miles and Stan Getz....

Now I'm thinking how much better would this sound with the TRefs?

GW

gmwinder wrote: OK so all cables connected and the sound gets better every day I listen to them. I'm a musician so forgive me if I talk in terms of musical terms but for me, I can hear so many more overtones which creates this warmth, fullness and clarity to the sound. It's much more noticeable with exposed music like Clapton Tears in Heaven, Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven as well as my jazz albums which are primarily Miles and Stan Getz....

Now I'm thinking how much better would this sound with the TRefs?
GW

Careful gmwinder or you will fall into that "there is always something better out there" syndrome. I know what GET recommends for break in but I swear my TONes got better at 100 hours.
Del

Hi all,

This thread motivated me to do something about the power supply side of my system. I have a 20 A line to my system, and I had been running a PS Audio Dectet (only 12 A maximum) for distribution and protection. Everything except the TRefs were plugged into the Dectet. TRefs went directly to the wall.

So I bought a Furman PL-Pro C (20 A maximum) from Amazon and substituted it for the Dectet. Did I hear a difference?

First, a little history. Lately I had been noticing a degradation in sound quality. Things were harsher, and I was hearing some distortion, most often in the midrange of cellos. I figured I was going nuts. I had moved some cables around when I installed my reclocker, but I had been very careful to route all my analog signal cables in a way that avoided touching any power cables. But things were still a rat's nest back there.

So in goes the Furman. Because the Furman has a different geometry, I had to put it in a different place and reroute all the power cables again. I ran only the primary audio component stuff into the Furman (DAC, amps, Oppo) and left the TV and all the wall-warts in the Dectet. I ended up really improving the cable mess. TRefs remained plugged directly into the wall.

Result: WOW! Immediate and noticeable improvement. Harshness is gone, strings are sweet, no distortion in the cellos. Detail and ambient depth are improved.

Now comes the big question. Was this due to the change in the power conditioners? Or a change in the power cable routing? We had a lightning storm a few weeks ago, and there was a strike miles away that put a spike into the power system. I noticed that the Dectet clamped the power briefly while the system was playing. This has happened a couple of times in its life. Maybe the surge protection in the Dectet was damaged. Or, maybe the Furman just does a better job with its power cable and internal circuitry.

There is another clue. The only component that stopped during the brief clamp was the DAC, which makes me think it has a marginal power supply. And that could make it more sensitive to upstream power delivery problems.

My guess at this point is that the Furman is putting out cleaner (and higher) power than the Dectet which makes the DAC happier, and that the DAC was probably the source of the harshness I had been hearing. Only a guess at this point.

Next step will be to put in some Nordost (probably) power cables. I'm going to start with one from the Furman to the DAC and have a listen. Then I'll do two to my monoblock amps. This will take a while.

Stay tuned.

Charlie

Hi, Charlie

Good for you! Glad your SQ took a jump in the right direction!

Re best places to try power cord upgrades first: SOURCES. So trying a Nordost on the DAC first makes a lot of sense. In my case, the effect of power cord upgrades is far more noticeable on sources. My external amps also benefited from cord upgrades, just not quite as much.

Have fun, enjoy!!

Rick

Thanks, Rick. Your pointers here have been very helpful.

Charlie