Anyone experiment with different AC cords on the Mac Mini?

[Lee]

I've been talking to a friend this week on tweaking a Mac Mini. Has anyone tried the Pangea ac cord or other "C7" type power cords on the Mini?

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo...umber=PGAC14C7

Strictly thinking here in terms of using the Mac Mini as my music server.

I'm intrigued because I have noticed that ac cords tend to have a nice improvement on digital gear in my experience with cd players, bluray players and DACs.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

The other option is going with battery power which is probably the best course but it is expensive and voids the warranty.

 

[RBFC]

The guys at Mach2Music, MacMini server specialists, swear by these two cords for those who don't go with the battery option:

http://www.mach2music.com/order/minipc.html

Lee

 

[Lee]

Thanks Lee for the link. I will look into it. I may also experiment with the Pangea SE C7 cord.

 

[joeinid]

This one looks nice as well.

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-15410-nordost-purple-flare-power-cable-c-7.aspx

 

[puroagave]

i use a C7 to IEC adaptor with my own DIY cable. a battery supply sounds like the way to go.

 

[Vincent Kars]

http://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-96-page-3

Lee,
I don’t want to hurt your feelings.
But I can’t look at this pic without a need for some fresh underpants.
Sorry

Vincent

 

[RBFC]

Vincent,

No problem. I personally don't have a special power cord for mine. The above photo looks to be a bit of overkill, but we make our own choices.

Lee

 

[Lee]

The Purple Flare looks interesting.

Vincent, I was not planning to go that far. Haha!

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

http://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-96-page-3

Lee,
I don’t want to hurt your feelings.
But I can’t look at this pic without a need for some fresh underpants.
Sorry

Vincent

Singers had more body, instruments more substance and texture—

Uh huh....

Tim

 

[Lee]

Tim,

Why do you automatically dismiss the reviewers observations on the music?

Better cords and conditioners do eliminate EMI and RFI and in my experience that clearly improves the sound, most notably on digital gear which is more susceptible to EMI/RFI.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Tim,

Why do you automatically dismiss the reviewers observations on the music?

Better cords and conditioners do eliminate EMI and RFI and in my experience that clearly improves the sound, most notably on digital gear which is more susceptible to EMI/RFI.

I'm having a bit of trouble connecting lower EMI and RFI to "Singers had more body, instruments more substance and texture," Lee. Yes, the lowering of the noise floor is a good thing. Been there, done that. That's what properly shielding against EMI and RFI can actually do. Specific impact on the tonality of voices and instruments? Not unless there was so much noise that you could not hear the tonality before. The one thing in that description that strikes me as possible - a bit of a stretch, but possible - is the texture remark. If we are talking about extremely low-level detail, the lowering of the noise floor may let more through.

The rest strikes me as meaningless poetry where "an audible drop in the noise floor" would have been much more descriptive. I suspect the problem was that there was no audible drop in the noise floor. If you really want to believe that your tweak is doing something clean power and a well-shielded cable won't, that's exactly the kind of thing you'll always hear when you can't hear an audible drop in the noise floor. If you're skeptical of elaborate solutions to simple problems, when the result described is something poetic, vague and unrelated to EMI and RFI...you go "Uh huh...."

That's why.

Tim

 

[Lee]

Tim,

It's alright to be a skeptic but at least do so with some experimentation. Try this stuff. It's pretty clear that better power cords make a difference as I have described including the instrument tonality. Yesterday, David Solomon of Peachtree Audio lent me some Shunyata gear to try on my system and the impact was quite real and substantial. I simply tried a Hydra 2 in the system on the amp connection with a Black Mamba cord from the wall. Bass improved, midrange fullness increased and the noise floor was definitely lowered.

And this was with my Maggie 1.7s (still breaking in but sound wonderful!) and a 50 watt Nelson Pass Forte amp. My VT-100 is in repair and getting a KT120 upgrade.

 

[Billinge]

I just swapped out a second hand Audioquest NRG1.5 for a new Nordost Purple Flare on a £1300 soundbar (Both SR Orange fused). Noticeable difference straight away.

The AQ was a bit of a bass heavy monster with real solid thump but the Nordost is more balanced sound, mid and treble to the front but bass not as pronounced as before. However it's only had less than a couple of hours use so far.

The AQ went on my Apple TV

 

[Lee]

Resurrected from 2012!

A lot has happened since then...