Recommended Power Cord for Lumin

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
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I've just finished trying quite a few different power cables on my Lumin S1 in my main system. I tried the WW Silver Eclipse 6, Kimber PK Palladian, TaraLabs RSC, Nordost Odin, Nordost Valhalla 1, Nordost Valhalla 2 and Shunyata Alpha Digital.

There is no doubt that the Shunyata Alpha Digital sounded the best. It had greater focus and clarity compared to the others.

I've been reading about the new Shunyata Sigma Series cables, and they look quite good. Initial feedback from friends who have them has been very good. http://www.shunyata.com/images/products/PDFs/sigma_broch_FIN.pdf

As a side note, I also tested the power cords (including the Alpha HC from Shunyata) on my amps, and a friend and I both felt the Nordost Valhalla 1/2 and Kimber Palladian were the best. The Shunyata HC was sluggish sounding. The Odin, surprisingly, didn't impress as it should for its price tag. The others were just blah.

Obviously, as with everything YMMV. But given its fair price point, I can strongly recommend the Shunyata Alpha Digital to fellow Lumin owners (and I'm sure the new Shunyata Sigma Digital will be excellent as well).
 
Mike, I agree with the Alpha Digital. When I replaced the Shunyata Cobra with the Alpha on my Bryston BDP-1 a year ago, it was literally one of those jaw dropping, Holy Smoke moments. A month or so ago I upgraded to the Sigma Digital, and while it didn't knock me over as when I went to the Alpha, it did bring an even quieter background to the music.

One thing to keep in mind about the Alpha and Sigma power cables is they are designed to remove the noise generated by the power supply that is then reflected back onto the power grid and pollute the other gear in the rack. In other words, they let the other gear perform better, while bringing clean power and minimal DTCD to the attached device.

If anyone understands power and power cables, it is Caelin Gabriel.
 
Agreed Bud. It wasn't close. I was shocked to be honest. I knew it was good because I've had it for so long, but a friend of mine wanted to try a million other cables to see.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi Mike! Thanks for your comments! No question that listening to power cords is one of the more thankless tasks in audio. I find the listening results highly unpredictable especially with amplifiers particularly of the large wattage variety.

I assume you listened with your PASS amps? Was also wondering if the cords were all 20 amp rated and how long each power cord had been used or burned in? The other issue I find is that you can't quick switch between cords because most amplifiers takes at least 30 mins to sound their best -- even if thoroughly warmed up -- after being switched off and on again.
 
Nothing so scientific. Myles. Just a fun experiment. The purpose was the digital, but since Charlie has the same amps as me, we also decided to try some PC's on the amps. We listened to the same three songs with each cable. We would have liked more time with the cables on the amps.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Thanks Mike! The Odin result is what puzzled me.
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It was his and well broken in. We were shaking our heads. Likely just a synergy thing. We loved his Valhalla 1/2 on the amps. He was going home and putting his Valhalla 2's back on the amps.
 
I wish you could get the Odin back in your system and let it sit disturbed for 24 hrs. Something else a noted - not Caelin Gabriel - cable designer once told me is that the caps in the equipment have to reform every time you switch cables. One thing that he noted is that even broken in cables can sound bright when first inserted; after fifteen or so hours this usually goes away.
 
I have experienced the phenomena Myles has described. Even moving a cable can have a similar effect. I think you need to spend a good 72 hours with a cable in your system to get "the feel" of its potentials. If its performance yo-yo's after that time, then it's had it's chance and the relationship is over.
 
Steve said:
I have experienced the phenomena Myles has described. Even moving a cable can have a similar effect. I think you need to spend a good 72 hours with a cable in your system to get "the feel" of its potentials. If its performance yo-yo's after that time, then it's had it's chance and the relationship is over.
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I will respectively disagree. With 6 or 7 cables and 72 hours each - you are talking 15-21 days! By the time we got through all the cables, we wouldn't be able to remember one from the next. Fast switching is the only way. If fully broken in cables can't impress in the first few minutes: NEXT! Otherwise you risk the effects of long-term psychoacoustics takes over as the ear/brain interface gets use to the sound.
 
Mike said:
I will respectively disagree. With 6 or 7 cables and 72 hours each - you are talking 15-21 days! By the time we got through all the cables, we wouldn't be able to remember one from the next. Fast switching is the only way. . . .
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Definitely the case. Aural memory is very poor.



Mike said:
. . . .If fully broken in cables can't impress in the first few minutes: NEXT! Otherwise you risk the effects of long-term psychoacoustics takes over as the ear/brain interface gets use to the sound.
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What about the statement made by some that once you pick up a cable and move it, you have to break it in all over again.


It's a Catch 22
 
Mike... I don't disagree with your methodology for short listing but I believe a good cable needs the opportunity to settle before discounting it. There is the risk of psychoacoustic adjustment during the process, yes. Having a sporadic listener like The Lady who pops in from time to time helps overcome that.

The other consideration is that passive inline filtering of component EMI/RFI has immediate discernible benefits. So a cable that has such filtering "built-in" or in the immediate component chain will sound better from the start. This makes it even more difficult to compare other potentials that may not have that tech built-in.
 
GaryProtein said:
Definitely the case. Aural memory is very poor.





What about the statement made by some that once you pick up a cable and move it, you have to break it in all over again.
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When you attend the Nordost demo's, they don't tell you to come back a few days later before they switch from one to the next as they work up the line. If fast switching is good enough for their demo, its certainly good enough for our fun experiment. Nordost barely gets through 1 minute of play back before switching. At least we gave them all the same three songs (one redbook, one high res pcm and one dsd).
 
GaryProtein said:
Definitely the case. Aural memory is very poor.

What about the statement made by some that once you pick up a cable and move it, you have to break it in all over again.
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If it's so bad, how come I can tell who's calling on my crappy sounding cell phone? And it doesn't have to be unreliable; depends upon how you structure the test and use up short term memory. Key to designing any experiment is asking the right question.

Funny thing is that the eye can be fooled just as much as the ear, but no one ever questions what we see.

You don't have to let the cable break in again if you use a coat hanger I'm told.
 
Mike said:
I will respectively disagree. With 6 or 7 cables and 72 hours each - you are talking 15-21 days! By the time we got through all the cables, we wouldn't be able to remember one from the next. Fast switching is the only way.
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I don't agree for a number of reasons. First of all, how do you "fast switch" a power cord? To me, "fast switching" infers something that happens very fast so that people who don't trust their long-term listening impressions will somehow trust their short-term listening impressions. I don't know how you can do that with a power cord. First you have to mute the preamp, turn off the piece of gear you are switching power cords with, remove the power cord, install the next power cord, turn the unit back on, un-mute your preamp, and hit play on the Lumin (or whatever the DUT is). I don't see anything in that scenario that is "fast."

Second of all, once you switch a unit off and turn it back on, it's not going to sound the same as it did before you switched it off. Just because you are trying to be Peter rabbit ears and have the fastest ears in the west because you don't trust them otherwise doesn't mean that your methodology is going to lead you to accurate conclusions.

Mike said:
If fully broken in cables can't impress in the first few minutes: NEXT! Otherwise you risk the effects of long-term psychoacoustics takes over as the ear/brain interface gets use to the sound.
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Again, I couldn't disagree more. It's going to take more than a "few minutes" before the DUT will stabilize in SQ after it has been switched off, power cord removed, power cord installed, and powered back up again. I don't think you would want to read reviews of high-priced gear that came from reviewers who fast-switched between similar components and came to their conclusions after 3 songs. I take the opposite tack of some people. I have much more faith in my long-term experiences listening to gear than I do hearing snippets of music six gun style.

I sat through one of the Nordost demos at RMAF in the past and I'm not a fan of hearing music for 15-20 seconds before cables are swapped out. I hated the demo that Ted Denney did in Phillip's room this past year at RMAF with his magic RF generator that has more listening modes than 10 AVRs combined. I don't think Ted played 5 seconds of a song in his 'before and after' demos and it drove me nuts (and I admit it was a short drive). I personally can't make meaningful comparisons in 5 seconds unless there are some type of gross aberrations going on. When you are listening for very subtle things, it's hard to hear them, process them, and understand them in 5 seconds or less.
 
I completely disagree Mark. I can switch power cords and be back up and running in less than 30 seconds - especially with someone helping me (like there was). I can CERTAINLY remember what factors impressed me (and what didn't) in 30 seconds or less, what stands out, what doesn't and listen for very specific things over the 3 songs.

As for your second point, I've switched the Lumin PSU on and off many times and heard no difference for such a short shut down.

There is no reliable way to compare 7 completely different power cords without fast switching. Over a 21 day period, I may end up picking the cable I heard while I was in the best mood that day. Rubbish.

Nordost does their experiment that way, because it works. If it didn't, they would be showing us a spectrum analyzer and telling us to look at the screen to see how good their cable is.

And let's keep in mind, this was a FUN EXPERIMENT...not some ridiculous audiophile sanctioned scientific study.

Just like blind testing....this works.
 
Man... I'd like to find whoever popularized the whole "human auditory memory is fleeting" crapola. While I'm sure they're old as hell nowadays - that still doesn't quell my immediate urge to kick them in the crotch. Repeatedly.

As for the whole giving something only a few minutes to impress you approach to evaluating Hi-Fi: I mean... I get it. A lot of people shop that way. Let's look at Samsung's TV market as a primo example. They sell more TV's than anybody. Why? Well, it's not because their products are inherently better than the competition (which is rarely the case). It's mostly because they know how people work. They know that when Joe Lunchbucket walks into his local Best Buy, Joe won't be carousing the TV aisle in search of the quickest, most reliable, and most color accurate screen. Nope. He's just like every other consumer. His dollars will likely go to the screen that's so "OMFGZ BRITE N' SHINY". And ya know what? Tons of people are happy with their retina burning displays. It's cool. To each their own...

But when you conduct a 3-minute shootout with Hi-Fi gear, I have to ask, what are you REALLY listening for? And do you really think what impresses you in the short term will hold up in the long term?

I gotta say, this methodology doesn't strike me as the best way to evaluate any piece of Hi-Fi gear. That said, if this is how you roll, then rock on man.
 
Zero said:
But when you conduct a 3-minute shootout with Hi-Fi gear, I have to ask, what are you REALLY listening for? And do you really think what impresses you in the short term will hold up in the long term?
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It was about 15 minutes per cord, not 3. I was listening for imaging focus (sharpness/clarity of vocals), bass weight and overall clarity. These are the things that the Berkley had as strengths over the Lumin.

I'm not sure what Charlie was listening for specifically, but we ended up with exactly the same conclusions.
 
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