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In Reply to: Aftermarket power cord for Atma-Sphere M60's posted by bryan on April 28, 1999 at 23:25:35:
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My old cords are TG Audio Labs HSR-I and HSR-A. Both these cords work great on probably most ss gear. The HSR-A is a new release that was supposed to be good on tubes. I had a VAC 80/80 in house and first hooked it up with the HSR-A and let it settle for a while and thought it sounded off pace and sluggish. Off came the HSR-A and on went the stock cord and sure enough there was a instant very large improvement. I only have one HSR-A cord left but have mono block tubes so I can't even try it out, not that I would expect much anyway.
The M60 stock cords are the thinnest, cheesiest cords I've seen and I know I can do better.
I spoke with a super friendly fellow M60 owner last night and hes going to send me two Tiffany cords to try out. I'll be waiting by the curb for those.
I also heard that the Synergistic Master Coupler cords work well on tubes. But you say not. MMmmmMMMMmmm.
I believe that cords meant for tubes or ss can really be classified like that but there is no guarantee that they will work on 100% of equipment. The trick is finding out what cords work on your specific equipment. For example, I know the HSR-I works on SimAudio Celeste 4070SE's all across the country in different people's systems. The two just work well together. Sure, I could make an educated list and bring cords in until I get the right ones but I figured maybe someone alread knows what works with the M60s. Synergistic, Cardas, JPS, yada ... yada. I'd go broke and probably get hit by the UPS truck doing this. I also realize that system synergy and ones ac environment factor in but I don't think they do as much as the cord < <---> > amp synergy itself. This interface is one of the most important in the system, IMHO, and its a real blast playing around with cords. I've had the pleasure of introducing this to other less informed audiophiles and its always a thrill watching their reactions when a drastic cord change is made. Its' always the same thing. "Holy Sh*t!".
Once you get a handle on this it becomes a real system tuning thing just like interconnects. Its not just the challenge of getting good well matched cords, its getting several of them and tuning with them. You gotta love it.
to try- either cords by Siltech, or their kissing cousins, Kharma-wonderfull cords-smooth warm lush smooth full-hideously expensive.;-(
synergistic tend to be harmonically lean IMo as well as everyone i've leant it to.
enjoy,
jack
stupidly insane.
As an alternative to some of the commercial power cords suggested, it might be worthwhile to try a homebrew cord we have been playing with.
An OTL has a relatively high current draw, consequently a large gauge wire in the power cord may give an increased sense of bass control and separation.
On some of our little amps, and even our little preamp, we have found a cord made of a three braid of good ol' 12 ga. solid wire from a home improvement store worked very well. It's very unwieldy, ugly, tends to go where it wants to, and lets the amp sound great.
On my own one off SE amp we installed one of these cords, on the 250W HV supply alone, the difference between this cord and a hospital grade 16 ga. cord was, as we love to say, not subtle - bass control was dramatically improved.
Incorporation of common mode choke based filters at the primary of the power trans will do nicely to blacken the background.
Your contributions have been sorely missed.
Jack
Interestingly, I went cruising around your website looking for some info on those 12 gauge cords you mentioned and I noticed the Jena cable blurb. I remember reading something by J. Crock at ASUG about her liking Jena ac cords on the M60s. I dismissed it because of the horn tooting thing. Have you yourself tried making cords using this cable?
Yeah, I have, in fact I have one on my DAC right now. A definite improvement over a plain old IEC type cord(oh boy, now Jennifer is gonna call me and ask for it back!)
It's a very nice cord, but with respect to my relatively high current pulling amp the homebrew 12 ga. solid core cord I mentioned had more of an impact on bass.
Homebrew is an option for sure. I was considering contacting Thorsten and getting his recipes for knockoff Synergistic cords and it would be nice to have even others to experiment with. You mentioned that OTLs draw lots of current and that you have had good success with some 12 gauge on your amps which are not OTL, I believe. I assume you are suggesting that these cords have a decent chance of being effective with the M60s. Do you have a copy of the parts and instructions typed out? and ready to email? or on your website? Thanks.
"Do you have a copy of the parts and instructions typed out? and ready to email? or on your website? Thanks."LOL. Sure, it's our pleasure to serve! Let me take some photos and call the printer about four color brochures.
Here's the extremely detailed instructions...
Step one - do some soul searching and decide if you really want to build something that can kill you if you are not careful, while realizing that Doc is worth about 12 cents so your family will be very disappointed if they decide to sue him because you wanted to play homebrew electric chair. It's not that difficult a project, but you are playing with AC mains, folks, and each person is responsible for their own actions when it comes to living through them.
Step two - buy some 12 ga. solid wire (the standard stuff with 600V PVC insulation) from a home improvement store. Black, White and Green are practical, if aesthetically uncouth colors. Get enough of each color to match the length of the cord you need, plus a little extra, because braiding it will create a shorter length.
Also pick up one of those big ugly yellow three prong AC plugs that has a screw on cover and a clamp where the cord comes out. My cords are hard wired at the component end. If you need an IEC connector for the other end, call Ron Welborne, and god help you cramming those three big wires into the thing.Step three - Crack your knuckles, grab a beer, and start three braiding(you know, like hair) the very stiff wire. It is a bitch, your hands will ache afterward, but try to get a fairly tight braid, because the point of braiding is to get the wires crossing as close to perpendicular to each other as possible. It won't be perfect, just do the best you can.
Step three - strip the ends about 1/2" and attach the wires to the terminals in the AC plug, paying attention to which wire goes where (for example, black is hot, goes to the small prong, white is neutral, goes to the large prong, green is ground, goes to the third, rounded prong )
Attachment is easiest by using the screw terminals in the AC plug, probably better by soldering those connections, but the heat will deform the plug and you'll have top pull the prongs back into proper alignment as the plastic housing cools.Step four - slip the cover over the wire and screw it onto the plug, and then tighten the clamp on the braid.
NOTE: This is my favorite step to forget. You put the connector on the other end, then realize you left the damned cover off the first plug. I do the same when building interconnects - I think it's called PCDD -Plug Cover Deficit Disorder. The PCDD sufferer is typified as swearing a lot and carrying desoldering braid with him wherever he goes.Step five - Now do likewise at the equipment end if using an IEC plug, otherwise, hardwire the cord to the AC mains connections in your equipment for a serious connection. If you wire directly, you generally want the hot wire to go to the fused side of the power trans primary, most likely it will be connecting to a switch. Natch, the neutral goes to the other leg of the PT primary circuit, and the ground wire attaches to the chassis.
Note that this cord is stiff, ugly, very unweildy, and people will say, "where did you get that thing?"
God, I love it.
Remember, your AC goes through maybe 20-50 feet of this stuff in the wall anyway, before it gets to your power cord. Think about the effect of adding 6 feet of exotic $800 power cord to the end of $3 worth of that stuff in the wall, and maybe this seems not such a bad alternative.
