I just went Black Mamba CX/HC all around, and the results are increased vividness (e.g. with piano, solo timpani, plucked strings, etc) and palpability, apparently due to improved transient response... evidently, I wasn't getting the leading edge of a transient right up until now, and this includes my Ayre phono stage and the Berkeley DAC. I had been using these cords on the amps and MIT power strips/filters for 6 months with no real audible benefit. It's only when I replaced the cords everywhere upstream that the benefits materialized (wire gauge is the same, 10AWG).
An expensive tweak for sure, but the results are easily verifiable; I would attribute the improvement to lower impedance between the wall and electronics - thus higher impulse current delivery - but I am not sure; and perhaps further noise reduction, although this is only easily evident with my phono and the Revox's input at maximum gain (where the VU meters no longer move). Considering, though, that my phono no longer clips with the loudest bass drum whack at the very end of the Telarc Carmina Burana (Shaw/Atlanta Chorus), as it used to before, and the fact that the chorus is no longer grainy or distorted, I think all this pretty much translates primarily to better instantaneous current delivery.
Not sure which part of these cords' design and construction is responsible for this result, but it's probably collective.
Curious what others are using for power cords with their Spectral gear...
An expensive tweak for sure, but the results are easily verifiable; I would attribute the improvement to lower impedance between the wall and electronics - thus higher impulse current delivery - but I am not sure; and perhaps further noise reduction, although this is only easily evident with my phono and the Revox's input at maximum gain (where the VU meters no longer move). Considering, though, that my phono no longer clips with the loudest bass drum whack at the very end of the Telarc Carmina Burana (Shaw/Atlanta Chorus), as it used to before, and the fact that the chorus is no longer grainy or distorted, I think all this pretty much translates primarily to better instantaneous current delivery.
Not sure which part of these cords' design and construction is responsible for this result, but it's probably collective.
Curious what others are using for power cords with their Spectral gear...