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Best AC inlet – no inlet at all? – RESULT

Hello, everybody!
Some of you may remember my question posted here on 2006-12-17 about removing ac plug and wall ac inlet and contacting powercord wires directly to the mains. I did it, so here goes...

The Short Story:
Greatly increased dynamics, better planar redistribution of the instruments and musicians along the depth axis, slightly wider soundstage and a surprise...- the height of the stage increased DOWN (read the long story). Biggest improvement – better defined sounds in the range between the lowest mids to the center of the mids region. Another good thing – the timber of voices and instruments got so very natural. I almost got a new cd player! The upgrade (or downsizing?) was definitely worth the trouble. Also I now have a spare top of the line furutech ac plug.
Everything was done safely.

The LONG STORY
I took my 7 feet DIY powercord that supplies all my system via furutech power distributor eTP60E. The cord had furutech rodium plated IEC connector and their rodium plated ac plug (european version).
The cord - is Furutech FP alpha 3 (appr. $90 for 3feet) with 12 awg conductors.
IEC –FI 25(R) and Plug FI-E 35(R) go for $100 each (appr.)
This DIY powercord had been in my system from October 2006 and is well burnt in. The construction of the plug is hermetic so, to avoid exposure and oxidation I cut it off with a small run of the cable still in. The IEC remained in its place.
This Saturday a professional electrician and a friend of mine came to my place, while my wife was out to visit her mother (important hi-tech know-how). He switched off the line to my system. It is almost dedicated, only a chandelier with Edison lamps is also on it.
Next thing was to remove Siemens inlet with its own faceplate.
Another friend of mine came and brought 12 bottles of Belgian monastery ale (important spiritual and esoteric add-on)
The said electrician bared appr 2 inches of the wires and mains wires, found correct polarity as the IEC was already attached (remember?), next he fans them out, strand after strand (the longest procedure), and connects carefully and meticulously while constantly braiding and applying “wildest pressure imaginable” first to small groups of strands and then to the whole bunch. This is where strong ale of the monks really helps to retain patience.
After that the connected wires were well isolated, the empty space in the wall, where the inlet had been, was filled with tough plastic crablike ancor to prevent the cord from moving and at last masked by the old faceplate (preliminary drilled through to allow for 15 mm thickness of the powercord). The old cover was carefully GLUED to the wall with a very special, never drying completely, viscous and transparent glue, used in signage and advertisement business. This last process was important, as my wife was going to get home after all.
Next we carefully switched everything on. After we made sure that it is not going to fire, emit poison vapours, cause catastrophic planetary collapse and/or yell red murder at our neglect of all safety regulations, I put a cd inside the player.
My system is quite revealing and powerfull, so if you think I am overenthusiastic, I am not.
First impression – no harshness in the hi freq. Next came the realisation, that the music obtained some specific wholesome and harmonious character, I have never heard before at home. The immediacy of every sound was striking. It seemed that every instrument was beginging to sound earlier and continued to sound slightly longer than before. That produced the effect of better rythm, almost of highier speed of playback. New parts of the well-known songs came out, making me wish to say: aha, so this is how it was done.
Voices, especially of male singers, obtained chesty component, became fuller. Different smallest noises, inherent to the voice of a breathing and articulating person with natural wetness of the mouth and throat, appeared. In some places it seemed, that I can clearly hear the wood of a drumstick.
The soundstage got slightly wider, but only slightly.
Next come two Big Things. Before this experiment the depth was good, but at times it “looked” like an empty field with small figures standing wide apart. Some at the front, some in the middle of the depth axis with occasional effects far far away. Now the figures grew bigger, and what was an interplay of parts, became interrelated and interwoven musical matter. Dispersed and fractured events became whole. The second of the Big Things was a radical and interesting change of the height of the scene. It did not went up and remained on the level about 4,5-5,5 feet high. It increased down to the floor. This was especially well heard on a song by Greatest Show On Earth – Horizons (japanese mini-lp). A long and elaborate drum solo went, and it was clear that the drumkit in the studio was standing right on the floor (no dais) and slightly to the left and to the back. The physical size of other instruments, like grand piano was also very close to real. On King Crimson’s Power to Believe track some tibetan or buddist bells sounded almost narcotic, while overall presentation was not so heavy as before. It sounded closer to Larks’ Tongues In Aspic than to heavy metal, if you see what I mean. Frippertronics became relevant to the soundscape depicted by other members of the band.
Tomorrow my friend, who is a fan of classical music, comes to visit me. Our listening will continue.
So, the experiment was successfull by far and I am sorry I haven’t done this before.
Sorry for being too eloquent.
Serge.
p.s. English is not my native, so sorry for mistakes.


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Topic - Best AC inlet – no inlet at all? – RESULT - steppe 16:18:06 04/07/07 (2)

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