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Wireworld Cables A World Of Difference |
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Thread Tools | Display Modes |
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Electra 7 Power Cord Feeding a TEAC UD-501 DAC
Bottom Line for those averse to TMI (this is a looooong essay):
The vast majority of upgrades I’ve installed in my audio systems over the years have effected incremental improvements in perceived performance. Not this one. Replacing my DAC’s stock power cord with the Wireworld Electra 7 was transformative to the point of mind-blowing. Right out of the box. The Listening Environment: While the bedroom system here is technically “secondary” (and requires me to flop on the bed as my listening chair), it's gotten the lion’s share of playing time lately, owing to the presence of a flat screen in the main system’s living space and my spouse’s consuming interest in such compelling spellbinders as “The Property Brothers”, QVC’s at-all-hours culinary hardware offerings, and the cloying “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” soap operas play-acting at “reality”. Given its frequency of use, and despite its limitations due to unavoidable furniture placement and foot-traffic patterns that preclude optimum speaker positioning (as evidenced in the diagram), I decided to see if I could bump the system’s perceptible performance up a notch by substituting a Wireworld Electra 7 for the stock power cord feeding AC to my Uptone Audio ReGen’d TEAC UD-501 DAC. My sole program source is a laptop-connected external USB drive that stores CD rips and high-resolution (24/88 through DSD128 and DXD) downloads. My primary listening fare consists of classical, jazz, and film scores, with occasional toe-dips into vocal standards, Broadway musicals, opera, and choral music. The system itself is detailed in my signature block below. The Audition (with a Contextual Detour): I began my audition of the Electra 7 right out of the box Ivan sent via UPS—in other words, with no burn-in and no settling time. For the first selection I picked a DSD128 reissue of one of RCA Living Stereo’s true sonic gems, Morton Gould’s reading of his own ballet score, “Fall River Legend”. I loaded the score into JRiver, clicked the play icon, and plopped down on the bed. It took maybe 10 seconds into the first track to realize just how far down I’d lowballed my expectations with “up a notch”. What I heard was not the proverbial lifting of a veil typical of most upgrades I’ve installed, but rather a wholesale blowing down of the bedroom’s front wall. Hyperbole? Well, let’s take a second to explore what we mean by “soundstage”. It’s typically expressed by its boundaries, specifically how far they extend laterally and fore-and-aft. If we make a system change that expands those boundaries…whoopee. If greater image focus and specificity accompany that expansion to the point of appearing holographic, so much the better. And if we detect better frequency extension and a more detailed presentation in the bargain, we’ve really hit the jackpot. Well, perhaps. Then again, maybe it’s just a “close” that doesn’t quite approximate horseshoes or hand grenades. If you’ve ever peered into a loaded ViewMaster, you’ve been rewarded with a three-dimensional image that’s sharply defined throughout. Or if you’ve ever put on the special glasses required to watch a 3-D movie and gotten your eye poked with a written-into-the-script arrow or a spear, you’ve experienced a semblance of tactile reality. In both instances, the images are holographic. But do you feel the space within them, that sensation of palpable “air” that actually puts you in the picture? With the Electra 7 in place, the most immediately noticeable effect with “Fall River Legend” was the massive infusion of human-breathable air into the performing space (Manhattan Center), which not only expanded the soundstage boundaries but gave the whole presentation you-are-there life. Gould’s orchestra became a reach-in-and-touch-someone three-dimensional entity to the farthest reaches of the now-expanded stage. With that, its output became tonally richer and far more nuanced than I’d ever heard in this system. Brass evinced “body” expressed in capital-S sonority; strings, resinous bite and liquidity; winds—well, I’ve never heard a reproduced bassoon so “gutsy”; percussion, tight, to-the-nines decay-resonant, and shirt-flapping impactful. No subtlety, no “incremental” here. This was out-and-out transformative. But was it a one-off? To test that, I next put on a different composition conductor, ensemble, recording venue, label, and recording team—Aaron Copland’s “Danzon Cubano performed by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in Philharmonic (later Avery Fisher) Hall on Sony (originally Columbia), SBM’d 16/44. It was easy to detect the change in venue, but the end result was the same in terms of soundstage expansion, image sharpness, instrumental body, tonal definition, transient quickness, and, above all, that same sense of almost-touchable air filling the performing space. That close-to-you-are-there phenomenon repeated itself with opera (Alexander Borodin’s “Prince Igor”, Sony, 16/44, with much improved layering of the male and female vocal choirs in the “Polovtsian Dance with Choir”), Broadway (Leonard Bernstein’s final iteration of “Candide”, DG, 16/44, ditto on the layering) and filmscores (Robert Farnon’s “Captain Horatio Hornblower”, Reference Recordings, 16/44; Jerome Moross’ “The Jayhawkers”, Milan, 16/44; and Richard Rodgers’ “Victory at Sea”, RCA, 16/44). For solo vocal in a more intimate studio recording venue, I put on Jane Monheit’s “There’s a Small Hotel” from her “Home” album (16/44). There was no artificial space enhancement here, but Monheit’s image was sharper and her tonal inflections better defined to the point where she could have been in the room (and I’d have been in a lot of trouble—I live in a shared space, remember). How about a soloist singing to an audience in a larger venue? For that I selected Sarah Vaughan’s outing with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in “Gershwin Live”, recorded live in the Chandler Pavilion (CBS, 16/44). Sarah’s subtle vocal nuances (not least in the lowest registers) were far more clearly in evidence and she was more differentiated from the now-better-delineated orchestra behind her than I’d heard pre-Electra 7. My Take: Feeding the TEAC DAC with the Electra 7 is easily the most significant upgrade to the bedroom system since I converted what are supposed to be sleeping quarters into a mini-Stonehenge of four-foot tall GIK megaliths. That round of room treatment transformed the problematic room into a considerably more listenable space. The Electra 7 has gone beyond that, transforming the listening experience itself to the point where quality-engineered recordings all but put this listener in the performers’ laps. Too bad my Sonographe amp is captive-corded, or I’d slap an Electra 7 on it in a heartbeat.
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Jim Bedroom: Aurender N150-->Bryston BDA-3-->EMIA Elmaformer Cu passive line stage-->conrad-johnson MF2500-->Paradigm Studio 20 v.5 Wireworld Eclipse IC and SC Shunyata Delta D6, Alpha XC, Delta NR v.2, Alpha USB; Altaira CG Hub Stillpoints Aperture II; Ultra SS; Ultra Mini GIK Monster; 242 Butcher Block Acoustics Maple Platforms Last edited by jimtranr; 08-12-2018 at 04:03 PM. |
#2
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Thanks for the review and your observations!
I've experienced much of the same changes in my system when upgrading the OEM power cords to WW products.
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Michael 4K QLED|Aerial Acoustics|McIntosh D100 - MC501 - MX151|Bluesound|Schiit|Wyrd4Sound
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#3
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Wait till you move to silver electra and then platinum electra
apogee |
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Have always found the first place to put a new power cable/IC is in digital gear. Whatever power 'grunge' it cleans up is most apparent in the digital domain as opposed to analog. The Silver 7 is a great cable to show this.
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Glenn... Canton Reference 9 Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 & MR88 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B, ST-J75 & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag |
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Quote:
Power, power, power...does amazing things channeled properly, happy to read the excitement! |
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What I should have mentioned in the original post--the Electra 7 is outfitted with the upgraded plug and IEC C13 female connector.
I like the bedroom-system Electra 7-to-UD-501 combination so well that I've just ordered another Electra 7 with upgraded connectors to feed the UD-501 in the main system. Happiness is.
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Jim Bedroom: Aurender N150-->Bryston BDA-3-->EMIA Elmaformer Cu passive line stage-->conrad-johnson MF2500-->Paradigm Studio 20 v.5 Wireworld Eclipse IC and SC Shunyata Delta D6, Alpha XC, Delta NR v.2, Alpha USB; Altaira CG Hub Stillpoints Aperture II; Ultra SS; Ultra Mini GIK Monster; 242 Butcher Block Acoustics Maple Platforms |
#7
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I recall a few years ago when I added Silver Electra 7 power cords that it also changed my 2 channel system. Seemed as though the voice of the female singer focused and raised up about two feet in the room to where she could be standing. That is what started me in replacing all my cables in the room to WW. Good read.
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Two Channel: McIntosh C2300 preamp, MC601 amps x2, MR88 tuner, MEN220; Esoteric K-03X; Aurender N100C 4TB; B&W 802D2 Diamonds, JL Audio F113V2 x 2 on Sound Anchor Sub Stands; VPI Classic Signature Piano Black, Ortofon Cadenza Black, VPI SDS, periphery ring, StillPoints center weight, Gingko Audio ClaraVu Dust Cover CT, KAB SpeedStrobe, Dr. Feickert Analogue Protractor; Sonos with W4S digital modification to W4S Remedy to Esoteric; W4S PS1 Linear Power unit for the 2x Remedy and Recovery w/ W4S PS1 Power Cord; Torus RM20; Wireworld Silver Series 7 Electra/Starlight/Eclipse cables and WW Platinum Power Cord for Amps and Platinum USB for Aurender; KLAUDIO RCM; Steve Blinn Designs extra wide three shelf rack; GIK Acoustics panels and bass traps, StillPoints Ultra Minis under all gear and Stillpoint Ultra SS under amps and speakers. Home Theater 7.2: McIntosh MX150, MC452, MC207; B&W 803D2 Diamonds, HTM2 center, CWM7.3 surrounds; JLAudio F112 x2 subs; Panasonic TC-P65ZT60 65" Studio Master Plasma; Oppo 205; Crown FM Two Tuner; Sonos with W4S Remedy; Apple TV; Furman Elite 20 amp PFi x2; WW and AQ Cables/Cords; Salamander Synergy Four Bay Cabinet Office 2ch with McIntosh vintage refurbished gear: McIntosh MC275V6 x2 tube amps; Klipsch Cornwall I vintage speakers (1982); AQ Dragonfly Red DAC/Jitterbug/cables; PS Audio Dectet Power Center; Mcintosh C28, MC2105, MR78 (with mod), MQ101, each with original walnut cabinet and panloc (1976), MCD7008 (1996), ML1C speakers (1976); Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4002 turntable (1976) with new SoundSmith SMMC20CL cartridge (2015); Salamander double rack |
#8
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Glad you mentioned vertical imaging. I should have indicated it in my initial post, as I noticed the same thing with the Monheit and Vaughn vocals. Surprised me.
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Jim Bedroom: Aurender N150-->Bryston BDA-3-->EMIA Elmaformer Cu passive line stage-->conrad-johnson MF2500-->Paradigm Studio 20 v.5 Wireworld Eclipse IC and SC Shunyata Delta D6, Alpha XC, Delta NR v.2, Alpha USB; Altaira CG Hub Stillpoints Aperture II; Ultra SS; Ultra Mini GIK Monster; 242 Butcher Block Acoustics Maple Platforms |
#9
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An enjoyable and insightful post Jim. I’ve been waiting to decide precisely where the equipment will reside in my new room before ordering power cords, but plan to do what you are doing. Thank you for sharing your timely impressions.
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#10
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Thanks Jim - great post. The proof really is in the hearing!
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Main System: Amati Futura Mains Amati Homage VOX Center, Proac Response 1sc Rears, Three MC2301's for L,C,R MC 602 for the rears C 1100, MX 151, MCD 1100, MR 80 Nottingham Dais with Wave Mechanic Sumiko Palo Santos Presentation SurfacePro 3, RPi 4, ROON, WW Starlight Platinum USB, Schiit Yggdrasil, Benchmark DAC3 HGC MX 151, OppO BDP-95, JVC RS-500 DILA projector, 106" diagonal Stewart Luxus Screenwall Deluxe with Studiotek 130 G3 material. Lake House: Ohm F, MC 275V, C2300, MR 77, Rega P3 OnDeck: McIntosh MAC 4300v |
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