The Electra 5.2 Power Cord – Another Look

[jimtranr]

Bottom Line: I'll get another Electra in November for my Oppo. And once I determine a complementary surge suppression scheme for the WW Matrix I've ordered to replace the current original-version Shunyata Hydra, I'll get yet another Electra to connect the Matrix to the wall with it. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does.

Background:

Faced last February with the prospect of having to vacate my dedicated listening room in favor of other priorities, I embarked on revamping the living-dining room A/V environment to accommodate our primary-system audio electronics (and, if I could swing it with She-Who-Has-The-Final-Say, at least some of the dedicated-room's Tube Traps). In March, I took advantage of my local dealer's decision to concentrate solely on repair work to acquire his closeout demo Paradigm S3's, floorstanders ideal in both footprint and performance to populate the “new” primary listening room. That same month, I also installed PS Audio Power Port Premier AC receptacles for all the equipment but the SOTA turntable, which is powered via a Power Port Classic. Then in May, I landed here on AA, where I got invaluable guidance from ASC's Michael Adams on how to configure my problematic room with a trapping arrangement that, with some subsequent tweaking, has made me all but forget the dedicated room.

As a fixed-income retiree who sensed what was coming and got out of the market in 2005, I'm pretty well fixed (stuck?) in the value-at-mid-price-level groove ( rut?). By July I'd read enough on the Wireworld forum here to give Equinox 6 IC's a try. Did they ever deliver. So, when I read Matt's intro evaluation of the Electra 5.2, I was primed for another toe-dip in the WW stream, especially following my last trap location tweak of a few days ago, a tweak which increased perceived system transparency.

I ordered an Electra from Ivan, and it arrived here last evening (fast). This morning I ran it from the Hydra to the c-j Premier 17LS line stage, replacing a decade-old Shunyata Sidewinder which in turn had supplanted a Tara Prism PC. This allows me to hear what it does (or doesn't do) regardless of program source. (Unfortunately, since the c-j MF2500 has a captive power cord, I couldn't try it out on the power amp.)

Listening Evaluation:

A couple of caveats. First, since the Electra is connected to a power conditioner that does its own thing with incoming AC, this evaluation does not necessarily indicate the full performance potential of the 5.2.
And second, these observations were made in the first six hours of the Electra's “cooking” cycle in this system. If my past experience with cables is any guide, it's only going to get better. Which should be interesting, since I'm already convinced that I got my money's worth. And then some.

Since I spent much of yesterday listening to a variety of CD's, SACD's, and LP's to assess the changes wrought with last week's addition of a 9” Tube Trap to the top half of the room's front corner, I listened today to much of the same program to ascertain what, if any, differences I could hear—and whether whatever came out constituted an improvement with the Electra installed in place of the Sidewinder. This included my standard “system torture test,” the Tchakarov/Sofia Festival Orchestra/National Opera Chorus reading of Borodin's “Polovtsian Dances” from Prince Igor (a 1987/89 Sony CD); Jane Monheit's Come Dream with Me CD (N-Coded Music, 2000); the Fiedler/Wild Gershwin collaboration (RCA SACD reissue); Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd Jazz Samba (20-bit Verve CD reissue); Eugene Ormandy's Prokofiev Fifth Symphony (Columbia 6-eye LP); Tortelier's deFalla Three Cornered-Hat (Chandos CD, 1990); and Eugene Goossens' Respighi Feste Romane (Everest 20-bit CD reissue).

It was obvious right out of the gate with soprano Jill Gomez's way-in-the-back solo in the opening passage of the deFalla that the Electra had cleared a current-delivery logjam. More body to her voice and to her accompaniment, more breathable space in the venue and around her, snappier transients, and more foundational solidity. The Borodin upped the ante with even better layering and differentiation in the vocal choirs than I'd heard yesterday, and the raucous orchestral and vocal climaxes (they were loud! by listener design) were rendered with deceptive ease suggesting that the amp was loafing. Jane Monheit's deliciously delivered nuances were even more evident, while the opening bass drum strikes in Gershwin's Concerto in F rumbled with a previously unperceived solidity.

This last point deserves comment. There's more information evident at both frequency extremes. It means that there's not only more foundational heft or more sparkling highs but in the latter case there's more upper harmonic content present so that the timbral presentation of instruments and voices is more natural.

As noted, this is just the first six hours. I can't help but wonder what more's in store.

Jim

[Masterlu]

Just wait, it gets even better!

[chessman]

Jim, it does get better. Mine steadily improved until the 100 hour mark. Keep reporting your results. I would be interested to hear if your experience is similar to mine.

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by chessman

Jim, it does get better. Mine steadily improved until the 100 hour mark. Keep reporting your results. I would be interested to hear if your experience is similar to mine.

Randy, it better is getting, of that no question there is.

The yodaizing aside, what I hear at around 25 hours is a much airier, more dimensional presentation. The mids and top have become so liquid that I swear that whatever's in that soundfield is making bedroom eyes at me.

[chessman]

Originally Posted by jimtranr

Randy, it better is getting, of that no question there is.

The yodaizing aside, what I hear at around 25 hours is a much airier, more dimensional presentation. The mids and top have become so liquid that I swear that whatever's in that soundfield is making bedroom eyes at me.

Instead of better electrical flow, I think the improvement is from the design feature blocking all but 60 H waves. Line conditioning in a cord. But I am a lawyer, not an engineer, so that may be all wet.

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by chessman

Instead of better electrical flow, I think the improvement is from the design feature blocking all but 60 H waves. Line conditioning in a cord. But I am a lawyer, not an engineer, so that may be all wet.

I think that's precisely what it is--clearing out all the extraneous noise you don't "hear" until it's gone, much as Tube Traps clear the standing wave/reflection mud out of the room. Which is what I meant, though in rereading it I can see that my "current-delivery logjam" terminology was inapt or at least confusing. So I don't think you're all wet.

[Masterlu]

I'm pretty excited to experience what the Plat Electra's will do for me.

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

I'm pretty excited to experience what the Plat Electra's will do for me.

I don't doubt it, Ivan, given the magic the basic Electra works here. And I'm looking forward to next month and another one for the Oppo.

Jim

[Matt]

Congrats on the new cable
Glad your enjoying it

[jimtranr]

With about 125 nonstop working hours logged in, the Electra 5.2 appears to be fully "baked." All the positive sonic attributes initially indicated at six hours remain, but to a more highly defined degree. Of particular note is what I'd call--and here I'm stealing a phrase someone coined back in the 1960's to describe Joan Baez's voice--the "achingly pure" rendering of instrumental and vocal tonality across the full range of the frequency spectrum. Play anything from a halfway decently to superbly engineered recording, and the presentation reeks of a tangible, almost eerie "presence."

What that speaks to, of course, is the extent to which AC line noise pollutes what we hear emanating from our speakers. Not just dynamics, not just spatial cues, but the orchestrated notes-on-the-page heart-and-soul of the music itself.

So if this is what just one Electra tethered to the line stage does, what's another one going to do when I connect it to my digital player? A rhetorical question, I suspect. And need I say that I can't wait?