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Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Part 30

Last year, an audiophile read our posts on (a) Cooking 4-pin XLR cables, and (b) their use on Simaudio's 820S outboard power supply. An octogenarian, he asked that I refer to him as "Crusty Old Audiophile," or COA for short. He said that his son was, well, my age, which explains why he referred to both his son and me as "kiddos."

COA emailed, "I don't have no high falutin' [Simaudio] Evolution, like you," but he did have Simaudio's 310LP phonotstage, plus 320S outboard power supply. These two Simaudio "Moon" series products utilize a 4-pin XLR cable.




COA knew of a small handful of audiophiles who owned an audiodharma Cable Cooker. But none had adapters needed to treat 4-pin XLR cables. So COA reached out to me. "I was expecting you to be a kid," he wrote. "I didn't think you'd be so darned professional." So he shipped me his OEM Simaudio 4-pin XLR cable, which is identical to the one which came with my 820S. Don't forget; in this cable, the male XLR comes first.



"Unlike you and my son," COA emailed, "I ain't into digital." Maybe because COA doesn't plug and unplug his cables, his 4-pin XLR cable did not have as many scuffs and paint scratches as mine and my friends'. While his cable was away, he plugged the powercord directly into the 310LP. COA said that not using the 320S was a letdown, the sound becoming limp, confused, lazy, and undefined.



I left COA's 4-pin XLR cable on the Cooker for 4.5 days. Ridiculously, USPS took over 3 weeks, to have the small box containing the cable go from the Bay Area to Texas.

COA wrote that his "eyesight ain't what it used to be," so he had his son take off the 310LP's lid, and make the gain and loading adjustments. And that was where they found the Cooked 4-pin cable to exert itself. Before Cooking, making gain and loading adjustments was "a guessing game." But now, COA and his son could hear what each change was doing.

Making no changes, COA said that the Cooked 4-pin XLR cable makes the 310LP track a wider soundstage. And grain and noise he thought were part and parcel of the turntable (VPI Traveler) were actually the 310LP/320S.

COA re-read the reviews of the Simaudio 820S, especially when used on the 610LP phonostage. My friend feels that, with an 820S, his 610LP more strongly sniffs whatever his turntables, arms, carts, and cabling are doing. COA agrees that something similar is happening with his 310LP/320S.

These 4-pin XLR cables are for DC power. They do not carry actual audio signal. So we would think that Cooking them would not amount to much. But we'd be wrong.

-Lummy The Loch Monster



Edits: 01/25/21

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.  


Topic - Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Part 30 - Luminator 17:36:08 01/25/21 (10)

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