A note on the transparency of my system using the Watkins Generation 4 speakers:
For at least the past 20 years I've been using the Absolute Power Cord Mk II, once imported and sold by Bill Parish of GTT Audio. These power cords are bright blue in color, eight feet long, of three-wire 14 gauge construction, and are hospital grade. They don't look like anything special, other than for the color and the clear-ish round plug end. These were manufactured in China by Ching Cheng, one of the largest OEM specialty power cord manufactures in the world at the time. They originally sold for about $50 each. Since I've used them I've always felt that they were quite neutral in terms of tonal balance and detail retrieval.
Many years ago I went through a long period of experimenting with high-dollar interconnects, speaker cables, digital links, etc. In the end, I found that the fairly low priced Blue Jeans and Benchmark cables were at least as good if not better sounding. They seem uncolored tonally with no faults to speak of, whereas most of the high-dollar stuff was obviously tonally colored.
I did replace my power cords at one point with Triode Wire Labs versions, upon recommendation from Dave at P.I. Audio, the maker of my UberBuss power conditioners. But, despite my initial very enthusiastic reactions to those cords, in the end, I found them a bit too rolled off/soft at the top end. They probably work great with the Klipsch/Volti and other horn speakers favored by Dave and Pete the guy who runs TWL. And I did find the USB link jointly developed by those two guys to be my long-term favorite USB connector to get rid of digital harshness.
In recent years Bill Parish of GTT Audio regularly has one of the best sounding rooms at AXPONA. Indeed, this year's exhibit was probably one of the top five sounding audio systems I've ever heard.
Bill had a few more of the Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs in storage a few years back when I contacted him about them, so I bought most of what he had left and now have plenty for my current systems. Besides the audio room, I use them for my desktop computer audio system and my Farad power supply which powers my Poor Man's Roon Nucleus Plus in a downstairs room.
Recently, well after my Watkins speakers had fully broken in, I had replaced all seven of my power cords in the main system with very inexpensive 14-gauge hospital grade versions from Cable Leader. I did this since that company offered short length, 3 and 6 foot cords which seemed to fit my compact system's needs much better than the 8-foot Absolute Power Cord Mk II. Other than color, they also looked very similar to the old cords, right down to the clear-ish round plug end.
While I have been using the Absolutes for the last 20 years, since I moved to my current audio room in 2015 it has always been a hassle to hide those long cords and get them behind the foam pads which stand on the floor near my equipment rack without creating a rat's nest behind that rack. With the Cable Leader cords (three 3-footers for the Lumin equipment and ethernet switch's power supply, and four 6-footers for the UberBuss power filters and the amps), everything looked very neat and tidy.
But since I substituted the Cable Leader power cords, I'd noticed a reduction in bass amount, punch, heft, definition, etc. I'd also noticed less startling macro-dynamic swings and less amazing soundstage envelopment. There also seemed to be a narrow region in the upper mids/lower highs which brightly "stuck out" a bit tonally on certain music. Further, the stick sound on struck cymbals seemed more buried and less distinctly preceding the shimmer in time, more like most speakers had portrayed it before the Watkins. It seemed the timing of cymbal strikes was messed up, in other words.
In short, the speakers seemed less involving and fun to listen to than they had been at first. Initially I thought I was imagining all these changes. Then I thought perhaps I was just getting over the honeymoon phase with the Watkins speakers and hearing things more as they really were. But I eventually decided that I had to find out.
So after thinking for days about how best to organize the older longer Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs behind the rack, I undertook the project of removing the Cable Leader cords and putting the old cords back. I had to power down everything, reapply Deoxit Gold to all cable ends, and work in extremely close quarters to do it, replacing each cord in the order I'd determined would best organize the longer cords. The project took a few hours of work to complete. Things don't look as neat and tidy as they did with the Cable Leader cords, but they do look considerably better now than they did before--no visible rat's nest. I also reinserted the Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs in a way which did not involve moving any of the equipment, so I was mostly working in the narrow confines behind the equipment on the rack and between the equipment and the wall just behind the rack.
I knew from the first few moments of listening that I hadn't been imagining the changes that I'd heard from the Cable Leader cords. Even though I know from experience with such changes that the equipment and connections need days of time to warm up and "settle in" to get the full effect, I knew from the first few moments of listening that the Watkins' sonic magic was back in full force--and at no cost other than the toll on my body from the physical contortions involved.
Given my limited experience with power cord substitutions, I have little idea where the Absolute Power Cord MkIIs stand in the sonic pantheon of currently available after-market power cords. All I know is that throughout all the sonic changes in my systems over the last two decades, these seemingly have gotten out of the way and let the equipment and the music shine through. And I think it's a tribute to the Watkins Generation 4 speakers that they so clearly reveal the sonic changes wrought by a power cord swap, even where the power cords involved are, as here, from all appearances, quite similar in construction and both quite reasonably priced--well, the Cable Leaders are inexpensive while the Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs are at this late date basically Unobtainium.
For at least the past 20 years I've been using the Absolute Power Cord Mk II, once imported and sold by Bill Parish of GTT Audio. These power cords are bright blue in color, eight feet long, of three-wire 14 gauge construction, and are hospital grade. They don't look like anything special, other than for the color and the clear-ish round plug end. These were manufactured in China by Ching Cheng, one of the largest OEM specialty power cord manufactures in the world at the time. They originally sold for about $50 each. Since I've used them I've always felt that they were quite neutral in terms of tonal balance and detail retrieval.
Many years ago I went through a long period of experimenting with high-dollar interconnects, speaker cables, digital links, etc. In the end, I found that the fairly low priced Blue Jeans and Benchmark cables were at least as good if not better sounding. They seem uncolored tonally with no faults to speak of, whereas most of the high-dollar stuff was obviously tonally colored.
I did replace my power cords at one point with Triode Wire Labs versions, upon recommendation from Dave at P.I. Audio, the maker of my UberBuss power conditioners. But, despite my initial very enthusiastic reactions to those cords, in the end, I found them a bit too rolled off/soft at the top end. They probably work great with the Klipsch/Volti and other horn speakers favored by Dave and Pete the guy who runs TWL. And I did find the USB link jointly developed by those two guys to be my long-term favorite USB connector to get rid of digital harshness.
In recent years Bill Parish of GTT Audio regularly has one of the best sounding rooms at AXPONA. Indeed, this year's exhibit was probably one of the top five sounding audio systems I've ever heard.
Bill had a few more of the Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs in storage a few years back when I contacted him about them, so I bought most of what he had left and now have plenty for my current systems. Besides the audio room, I use them for my desktop computer audio system and my Farad power supply which powers my Poor Man's Roon Nucleus Plus in a downstairs room.
Recently, well after my Watkins speakers had fully broken in, I had replaced all seven of my power cords in the main system with very inexpensive 14-gauge hospital grade versions from Cable Leader. I did this since that company offered short length, 3 and 6 foot cords which seemed to fit my compact system's needs much better than the 8-foot Absolute Power Cord Mk II. Other than color, they also looked very similar to the old cords, right down to the clear-ish round plug end.
While I have been using the Absolutes for the last 20 years, since I moved to my current audio room in 2015 it has always been a hassle to hide those long cords and get them behind the foam pads which stand on the floor near my equipment rack without creating a rat's nest behind that rack. With the Cable Leader cords (three 3-footers for the Lumin equipment and ethernet switch's power supply, and four 6-footers for the UberBuss power filters and the amps), everything looked very neat and tidy.
But since I substituted the Cable Leader power cords, I'd noticed a reduction in bass amount, punch, heft, definition, etc. I'd also noticed less startling macro-dynamic swings and less amazing soundstage envelopment. There also seemed to be a narrow region in the upper mids/lower highs which brightly "stuck out" a bit tonally on certain music. Further, the stick sound on struck cymbals seemed more buried and less distinctly preceding the shimmer in time, more like most speakers had portrayed it before the Watkins. It seemed the timing of cymbal strikes was messed up, in other words.
In short, the speakers seemed less involving and fun to listen to than they had been at first. Initially I thought I was imagining all these changes. Then I thought perhaps I was just getting over the honeymoon phase with the Watkins speakers and hearing things more as they really were. But I eventually decided that I had to find out.
So after thinking for days about how best to organize the older longer Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs behind the rack, I undertook the project of removing the Cable Leader cords and putting the old cords back. I had to power down everything, reapply Deoxit Gold to all cable ends, and work in extremely close quarters to do it, replacing each cord in the order I'd determined would best organize the longer cords. The project took a few hours of work to complete. Things don't look as neat and tidy as they did with the Cable Leader cords, but they do look considerably better now than they did before--no visible rat's nest. I also reinserted the Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs in a way which did not involve moving any of the equipment, so I was mostly working in the narrow confines behind the equipment on the rack and between the equipment and the wall just behind the rack.
I knew from the first few moments of listening that I hadn't been imagining the changes that I'd heard from the Cable Leader cords. Even though I know from experience with such changes that the equipment and connections need days of time to warm up and "settle in" to get the full effect, I knew from the first few moments of listening that the Watkins' sonic magic was back in full force--and at no cost other than the toll on my body from the physical contortions involved.
Given my limited experience with power cord substitutions, I have little idea where the Absolute Power Cord MkIIs stand in the sonic pantheon of currently available after-market power cords. All I know is that throughout all the sonic changes in my systems over the last two decades, these seemingly have gotten out of the way and let the equipment and the music shine through. And I think it's a tribute to the Watkins Generation 4 speakers that they so clearly reveal the sonic changes wrought by a power cord swap, even where the power cords involved are, as here, from all appearances, quite similar in construction and both quite reasonably priced--well, the Cable Leaders are inexpensive while the Absolute Power Cord Mk IIs are at this late date basically Unobtainium.
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