Quote:
Originally Posted by prepress
jimtranr or Puma Cat, I am curious. How flexible are these Venom NR cords and, other than gauge, are there any differences between the v10 and v12? I was a bit surprised to see a 10-gauge cord used on a DAC, a rather small component.
I haven't had much interest in pursuing the power cord upgrade to my preamp I'd been mulling over for a while; in fact, due to schedule and lack of will, my living room still hasn't been put back together a month and a half (!) after a new air conditioner was installed. I have no access to the system and so haven't listened to it for over two months (and haven't missed it as much as one might think, btw). But jimtranr's enthusiastic review of the NR v10 may rekindle my earlier interest in that preamp upgrade. I was kicking around whether I should get the NR v12 (thinking that would be enough) or a Transparent Premium, which is only $9 more after Transparent's upgrade program. Both offer noise reduction, which I haven't considered a system problem, but I never know what having a noise-reducing PC might do. I have a Transparent HPPC on my preamp now, which is shielded but doesn't do noise reduction.
The network module on the Transparent does other things besides noise reduction, though I don't know exactly what ("among other things" is how Transparent put it). The Venom looks cool, though, and I don't necessarily have to be a completist, as all other power cords in the system are Transparent except one. So if either of you guys have insights that you could share it might be helpful once I decide to go for the change to my preamp PC.
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Hi Prepress,
Jim's given you some good input and provide mine for some additional context from a use-case scenario.
As for the NR-V10 or V-12 for your DAC, when you're referring to a "small component", my guess is you're referring that components need for DTCD: Dynamic Current Transient Delivery. While this is an important attribute for source components, its more important for components like power amps and power distributors.
I have both the NR-V10 and V-12. I'm presently using the NRV-12 for my DAC and when I use the phono stage, I swap out the Black Mamba CX I used to use for the NR-V12 (can't listen to the DAC and phono stage simultaneously). As both components are close by and easily accessible, its easy enough to do this switch.
While the NR-V10 will deliver more DTCD in an absolute sense, I don't have the data at hand to speak to how much of an improvement this would bring to dynamic transient current delivery needs of a DAC compared, say, to a power amp. Both cords are pretty frickin' amazing: after installing the NR-V12 on my DAC when it was powered by my Triton, the improvement it brought over a large gauge Black Mamba CX (with over 220 conductors) was....CONSIDERABLE. "Gobsmacked" per my post from a while back.
And, when I replaced the Black Mamba HC CX with the NR-V10, the improvement that power cord brought over the even higher-DTCD cable HC CX was in a word....staggering. I heard things on my big Dyn on very dynamic content (e.g. Prokofiev's
Romeo and Juliet ballet I've never them do in 10 years of owning them.
Overall, both (or each, depending on how you look at it) brought really significant improvements for any and all "audio attributes" you could care to name or be concerned with,
across the board.
I take from this that Shunyata has continued to make significant improvement in DTCD with their latest gen power cords over what used to be superb performers some years ago.
So, with that, I've opted to use the NR-V12 for my DAC. And, I plan on getting one for my phono stage and I would have no qualm of using one for my preamp, either, though I'm presently using the NR-V10 for that.
So, what it comes down in the end, I think, is budget. If I had ~$1000 to spend on power cords, I'd get 3 x $350 NR-V12 for my pre, phono stage and DAC, rather than spending $900 for only two NR-V10s. This is because the NR filter on each power cord provide noise suppression from noise coming back out of the components power supply to contaminate the rest of the power distribution chain, so the more you have in the system overall, the more total benefit is obtained.
If you only have the need for a PC for a DAC, you could get the NR-V10 if you have the budget for it. Personally, I'd save that $100 and put it towards the end goal of having NR-series power cords on every component.
Hope this helps.
Stephen aka PC