I took the Red pill

[W9TR]

Being an engineer, and worse than that an ex-audio engineer, I tend to lean toward the objective side of the fence. But I'm frequently surprised by gear that shouldn't sound awesome based on objective criteria but does just that.

Up until now, I've used OEM cords on all my gear. I have an excellent sounding system as-is, so I spent money on improving DAC's, electronics, speakers, USB cables, etc.

Last week, I bought a bunch of Shunyata power cords from miner, three Venom 14 1.5m and two Diamondback 1.5m. I'm not sure of the vintage of these cords, but I'm assuming they are well broken in.

A while ago, I picked up a Trifield TF2 EMF meter. It measures magnetic and electric field strength from 40 Hz to 100 kHz, along with RF field strength from 20 MHz to 6 GHz. Its not the end-all be-all as it doesn't measure in the MHz region, but it is a good start.



The first experiment was to measure the magnetic (H field) and electric (E field) strength at the power cord feeding one of my McIntosh MC 2301 amplifiers. The amplifier was warmed up for 30 minutes, with no signal applied during the test. I swapped out power cords and took measurements at the mid-point of each cable. For consistency I placed each cable parallel to the top of the TF2 meter on the seam that separates the meter case halves.

Here are the results:

• Stock OEM E Field 235 V/m H Field 42 mG
• Venom 14 E Field 4 V/m H Field 15 mG
• Diamondback E Field 3 V/m H Field 21 mG

So there is a significant quantitative reduction in radiated noise by using these cables. Especially the E field.


Then I did some short listening tests. I use a standard set of source material that included;

Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 76 Telarc CD-80051
The Art of the Balalaika, Odessa Balalaikas Nonesuch CD


I listened to a few minutes of each, then swapped out all the OEM cables feeding the three MC 2301's with Venom cables. Here is what I heard. The soundstage had more depth and height cues, and the music was more dynamic. Plucked strings on The Art of the Balalaika were crisper. Massed violins on Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 were more delineated and the soundstage was wider. Overall the improvement was not subtle - a big step in the right direction. Well worth the price of admission.

I've got more listening to do, and another couple of cords to replace - I'm thinking the YggY and C 1100 will get the Diamondback cords.

So, call me a believer!

Having this TF2 field strength meter to me is like having an SPL meter - an essential part of owning a good audio system. It is very interesting to measure the field strength around different pieces of equipment - some of this stuff radiates very little while other gear is very dirty. While I can't change out the gear, I can position it in a way that minimizes interference.

More on that later.

Tom

P.S.
There are a lot of other things I can't measure easily now, like conducted EMI and the improvement cables may make in that parameter. I do have an Audio Precision System One and will be building some voltage dividers so I can safely measure power line noise. Even then, it is limited to 10 Hz to 500 kHz, but again it will be a good start.

I know there are things I can hear but can't measure, but I do like to measure what I can and see if I hear an improvement. Of course, the trap here is that if it measures better it will sound better and that is often not the case at all.


P.P.S.
My house is fed by underground power and a dedicated 15 kVA transformer with a single dedicated circuit for all the audio gear. The house lighting and