Cable Asylum: REVIEW: T.G. Audio Labs SLVR Power Cord Cable by rhyno

Model:	SLVR Power Cord
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$500
Description:	6' power cord
Manufacturer URL:	T.G. Audio Labs
Manufacturer URL:	T.G. Audio Labs

Review by rhyno ( A ) on July 12, 2003 at 17:56:36
IP Address: 67.65.165.227

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for the SLVR Power Cord

I could kick Bob Crump in the nuts for making me go through the burn in process with these damn power cords. "30 days" he says, no less. So that means I have to leave on my BBQ amp (and a BBQ is about as hot as my listening room gets, with 300w idle draw) for 30 days...yes, my electric bill for the month was over $100 higher, thanks for asking.
Back to that break in: upon plugging these cords (2) into my amp (dual mono), I figured I wouldn't do any serious listening as most everything sounds bad when new. Oddly, these didn't. They sounded terrific based on some quick listening while walking in and out of my room; I thought it was quite telling that when listening outside of my room (a real test for any system, FYI), the sound emanating from the room sounded much more alive---the sound of music in the recorded venue. It was just wonderful....for about 5 hours.
Then it all went to hell for 30 long days.
Week 1: ungodly bright. watched a lot of TV.
Week 1-2: dull and recessed, but listenable.
Week 2-3: still dull, but some microdetails are coming back (relative to the initial turn on; but in relation to my system's history, the details are all new). Body is starting to form around the images. I'm starting to hear everything about the performance, except why I like it. Very hi-fi,
very un-musical.
Week 3-4: still missing weight & ambience (decay and hall info). The whole presentation sounds constrained in both PRAT and weight, but you can hear that it wants to snap the images into focus and let the music breathe---it just can't--notes are still just meshed together rather than having the full harmonic air around each.
Week 4-5: around 600hrs things start coming into focus. Decay returns, ambient info is emerging, thereby giving body, weight & focus to performers (who are emerging from a 2-d shell into 3-d).
(For anyone who says cable break in isn't real, don't ask me to explain why. Buy a SLVR or find a friend with one and you'll find my statements correct).
Now, I'll make no illusions as to being the definitive power cord authority, but I have listened to just about all the popular home-brew cords out there (ChrisVH, Jon Risch, the Asylum cord, and my own home brew using 7 paired 20ga tinned copper conductors), and I can say that the difference in each of these cords was perfectly obvious to me. In my system, my home-brew was handily the best, with the VH coming in second, and the Risch / Asylum cords striking me as boring and unlistenable. My comparisons from this point on are between the TG SLVRs and my home-brews.
The SLVRs emerge as being substantially better than any home-brews I've heard in the following parameters:
1) sibilance
2) tonality
3) ambience
4) focus.
1) Sibilance: with the SLVRs in place, 'Sssss' became 'Ss', 'Fffff' became 'Ff'. Cymbals rang, splashed and decayed more naturally and more realistically, with more ambient air (per #3) allowing one to hear the brassy shimmer rather than an over-hyped decay (that was present in a
tonally-skewed power cord, per #2). Vocals, particularly female vocals, sounded more accurate---the difference being akin to a poorly trained singer who is in love with her job and doesn't know how to end a word properly vs. a classically trained singer who knows when to shut her mouth and service the music rather than her ego.
2) Tonality: every tinned copper power cord I've heard has an accentuated upper mid-range / lower treble, which results in a bright presentation (as compared to Cu; but pure Cu has its own problems of dullness as I've heard it used--hence my description of the Asylum cord as unlistenable). The SLVRs had a far more even tonality, whereby no element of the frequency spectrum sounded hyped, exaggerated, attenuated, or softened. ---I've read the Enjoy the Music review and the author's description of "real" for the SLVR is spot on. The presentation sounds more realistic---using the home-brews the tonal balance was skewed such that the overall presentation sounded more 'hi-fi' than 'real'. And that's not to say that my home-brews are bad---they do many things well. Its just that the SLVRs do the 'real' thing much better. I'm personally thrilled that some residual brightness in my system was removed with the insertion of the SLVRs.
3) Ambience: air is important. I'm not talking about that silly shit you breathe, I mean the real important stuff---the air around the performers in a home audio presentation. Well, the SLVRs provide a tremendous amount of air to performers and to the hall, which results in a more venue-specific presentation. Concert halls vs. small clubs vs. studio presentations (with or without the singer isolated from the musicians) is clearly audible with the SLVRs. Adding these cords reminded me of the effect (though not as substantial) of when I first heard a 30hz system augmented by a subwoofer that was flat to 20hz--not a lot of music added, but lots of air, which results in a lot of musicality added. And it is the air that is essential to one audio holy-grail (for me): a 3-D presentation.
4) Focus: focus really goes hand in hand with ambience. No air, no focus. Oh sure, you can have no air and some pinpoint images (focus) laid across a decidedly 2-D stage, but that's like watching the movie "Star Wars" on a 13" screen---you'll get your information, but you'll never be drawn in or amazed. You'll never be there . The focus that comes with the air with the SLVRs allows one to hear the body of the peformers. Front to back, left to right, the air around the performers allows one to hear the outlines of the performer and provides for a much better semblance of stage layout: where one body ends, air begins, and then air ends when another body begins. This is focus . And if your system can do the focus, but you've never heard it, you don't know what you're missing. Its addictive.
Now, as I said, I've not heard all the commercial power cords out there. I must defer to other reviewers who've have the opportunity to plug and play every cord under the sun into their systems. All I can comment on is my experiences with these cords in my system...and I can say this: the SLVR is a darn good power cord. ---With something like power cords, where in my experience I've found that a cord retains its character no matter what its plugged into, I find matching of cord to component is less critical than system matching with something like an amplifier to a speaker or even ICs to the system. As such, I am pleased to conclude this component search. I'm not saying there's no better power cord out there, as clearly I don't know that; what I can say is that I am sufficiently pleased with the performance of this component that I can say "Done." and move on to other potential areas of improvement in my system.
My personal philosophy in regards to cabling has changed as time has passed. My thinking has evolved where cables went from being a necessary but unimporant tool, to cables being a system "tuning" device, and finally residing at the point whereby I consider cables as components, no different from a transport or a preamp. And with thinking as such, its far easier to justify the cable prices that exist with select high-performance cables (and for me, $500 for a power cord is expensive). So the question becomes: is the $1k (2 power cords) for my amplifier's cords equivalent to a $1k improvement in another component in my system (i.e. a better preamp or DAC). I can say unequivocably that the answer is Yes , the cords make a substantial improvement in my system. (I think back to a similar $1k upgrade I made years ago, from a CJ PF2l preamp to a Joule LA-100
Mk2. The difference in price was $1k, and the improvement was obvious and easy to justify. I think that the difference between my own homebrew power cords ($100 in parts), vs. the SLVR power cords, is of a comparable level of difference in price and improvement, and as such the $1k is justified.)---As can be seen in how I've cabled / tweaked my system, I'm a satisfied customer of TG's various products, as I felt they provide excellent (while not necessarily SOTA) performance at manageable prices. The SLVR power cord is, happily, more of the same in that regard.
(And FWIW, to this day I find it absolutely ridiculous that something so simple as a power cord makes an audible, let alone a substantial, difference in the quality of my home's audio reproduction. But it does. My ears don't lie. ---Hell, I wanted power cords, ICs, power conditioners, isolation racks, etc. to not make a difference; I'd have a lot more vacation money. But instead of vacation money, I have an audio system that is starting to kick major ass, and paying the $$ for the right cables is part of the process).
Regards,
Rhyno

Product Weakness: price.
Product Strengths: see above

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	CTC BBQ
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	G&D Reference Preamp
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	G&D UTP1 transport > Entec 2.1 Dac
Speakers:	Merlin VSM-Millenium
Cables/Interconnects:	TG Audio High-Purity ICs and Home-brew silvers
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	rock, jazz, folk, classical
Room Size (LxWxH):	12 x 11 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	bass panels, room lenses
Time Period/Length of Audition:	6 weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	TG Audio Bybee-based power conditioner
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner