What's surprised you gear or cable wise?

Michaels HiFi

Michaels HiFi

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OK guys - in your experience in this hobby, what's one of the biggest surprises you've had about a piece of gear or cable you've listened to - either good or bad?
 
MichaelsMinute said:
OK guys - in your experience in this hobby, what's one of the biggest surprises you've had about a piece of hear or cable you've listened to - either good or bad?
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"a piece of hear"....

If I'm inferring correctly, you're referring to a piece of "gear"....😉

1) My (original) Rega Planar 3 turntable from way back in the day was quite a revelation.

2) the importance of a good power distributor

3) the Altaira grounding hubs

4) The Sonore microRendu: implementing a well-designed network bridge brought vs. connecting a computer functioning as the music server" directly to a DAC via USB was significant.

5) Power cords: the improvement provided by audio-grade power cords vs. generic, black, "junk" PCs. That was a biggie.
​
 
What always comes to mind for me with this type of question is my Aurender. I used a few streamers, up to $5k and not happy, I tried the ACS10 and was amazed, just what I wanted to hear.

Then I read Puma Cat's post and found we have similar experiences. The P3 was my first higher end table. Seems funny thinking of a P3 as high end today but at the time it was an ear opener. I've also found power products to provide a surprising nice improvement. I remember I borrowed a power conditioner the guy talked me into trying a power cord, I think I grabbed it just to appease him. Well I ended up bringing the conditioner back not liking what it did but bought a power cord for every piece in my system that allowed for one. I think the conditioner just couldn't feed my Krell amp. It took me awhile to find a conditioner that worked for me.
 
It was the first time I walked into Audio Dimensions in Royal Oak, MI and heard Maggies playing. I believe it was the 3.6r's, a pair of which I ended up buying and still proudly own. I kept looking around the room trying to figure out exactly where the sound was coming from. What I knew for sure was that I loved that sound, and I've been hooked ever since.

Another "Ah-ha" moment was in the same store, when Harry played a Holly Cole CD on the tiny Arcam Solo Mini feeding the Magnepan "Mini Maggies". Insanely good for the size and price.

A third would be how amazing music on Blu-rays sounded through a Marantz AVR and Emotiva power amp. Shocking, really.

Finally, the time as a teenager that I heard Bose 901's, which at that moment I thought would be my end-game. Things have changed. I have a feeling that they're going to change again if I make it to the Florida Audio Expo in February and hear the Clarisys speakers.
 
JCS123 said:
It was the first time I walked into Audio Dimensions in Royal Oak, MI and heard Maggies playing. I believe it was the 3.6r's, a pair of which I ended up buying and still proudly own. I kept looking around the room trying to figure out exactly where the sound was coming from. What I knew for sure was that I loved that sound, and I've been hooked ever since.

Another "Ah-ha" moment was in the same store, when Harry played a Holly Cole CD on the tiny Arcam Solo Mini feeding the Magnepan "Mini Maggies". Insanely good for the size and price.

A third would be how amazing music on Blu-rays sounded through a Marantz AVR and Emotiva power amp. Shocking, really.

Finally, the time as a teenager that I heard Bose 901's, which at that moment I thought would be my end-game. Things have changed. I have a feeling that they're going to change again if I make it to the Florida Audio Expo in February and hear the Clarisys speakers.
Click to expand...

I've had several such moments. I love Holy Cole also having seen her in concert.

I've hear more speakers than I can count, and I still remember the first time I heard really good horn speakers - I knew from that instant good horns are for me.
 
I have had a few moments. I grew up around gear so had a reference for decent sound since I was 5 or 6. Also hung out at our local HE Store Soundex a lot.

The first was when I bought a Marantz CD-63SE MKII and an Audio Alchemy DDE V1.1 DAC and joined it to my Hafler 945-9180 Dynaudio system. CDs sounded decent.

Another was when I bought my Odyssey Stratos and got a pair of Groneberg Cables. Klauss touted them as on the Bass side. I used them to tame a bright system and realized you can use ICs as Tone Controlls and that all cables do not sound the same.
 
Probably discovering the difference installing a 20 amp dedicated circuit made. Began my understanding and appreciation for the importance of good power.
 
Fuses did nothing.
Software in digital playback really matters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Then it was damn Mod Squad Tiptoes . . . .

After that I decided that "Everything Makes a Difference" -- although most are NOT better.
 
I wasn't a true believer until around 2002/03. Had an Esoteric DV50S and bought a Shunyata King Cobra (later known as a version V1) and had two audio buddies over for a listen between the stock C15 and the KC. I played a track with the stock cord & then changed it to the KC. It literally took 15 seconds of listening before our jaws hit the floor. The air between instruments, tonality, dynamics, etc., was the eye opener.

That cable, when horizontal and then placed vertical made a sound like there were BB's inside -- it was actually some sort of hardened ferrite powder/balls (I used to know the name for it - but hey; that was 20 years ago).

Anyways, IMO that is the cable that made my friends & I a true believer & put Caelin & Shunyata Research on the power cord map.

Best to all,

Bob
 
Vintage_Tube said:
I wasn't a true believer until around 2002/03. Had an Esoteric DV50S and bought a Shunyata King Cobra (V1 = later known as) and had two audio buddies over for a listen between the stock C15 and the KC. I played a track with the stock cord & then changed it to the KC. It literally took 15 seconds of listening before our jaws hit the floor. The air between instruments, tonality, dynamics, etc., was the eye opener.

That cable, when horizontal and then placed vertical made a sound like there were BB's inside -- it was actually some sort of hardened ferrite powder/balls (I used to know the name for it - but hey; that was 20 years ago).
Click to expand...

That material was Shunyata's proprietary Zr-Ca material. It was developed based on the e-field dissipation properties of rochelle salts, which were described in one of Shunyata's original patents.

BTW, I have a very similar story comparing the Diamondback PCs and stock power cords for audio friend.

The "backstory" is this audio friend happens to work at Cal Berkeley's Patent Office and a month or so prior, he provided me with Shunyata's original power cord patents to read. And, of course, as a scientist, I read them and came to the conclusion: "Okaayyy....these patents are written by a scientist who really knows what they're doing."

And as it happened, right around this time, Dedicated Audio was having a 2-for-1 sale on Diamondback power cords. So, I bought two of 'em, and as soon as I installed and listened to them in the system in place of the stock, generic black PCs, the improvement was very clearly obvious and not subtle, at all. The presentation was notably better "across the board."

I then called my audio friend who gave me the patents to read to come over and hear a "controlled experiment" comparing the generic black power cords with the Diamondback PCs.

When I first mentioned I wanted him to hear this PC demo first-hand, he said: How can a power cord connecting the last 5 feet of AC power from the wall outlet to a component possibly make any improvement in audio quality?".

I replied, "Just come over, we'll do an experiment."

So...he came over; we put on a reference track he knew well using the generic black PCs to power the preamplifier and amp. All well and good. Then, when I installed the two Diamondback PCs and played the same track, and I also saw his "jaw hit the floor", and he blurted out in astonishment: "If I had not heard it for myself, I would not have not believed it!!!"

Yep, Bob, I know first-hand what your friends experienced. :D
 
Good/great surprises?

Muon Pro - earns THE top spot
Snake River cables (mix thereof)
Pro Series ANK 5.1 Signature DAC with Quad C cores
Placing my Rythmik f25's up on spiked Target MR Maximum Rigidity Speaker stands
Investing in speaker placement tools/speaker placement


Negative surprises?
Shunyata Alpha IC
Pangea PC's

Tom
 
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