V14 Digital vs V12 NR on a digital component

[kennyb123]

I can be pretty darn stubborn at times. Many times both Caelin and Puma Cat mentioned that the V14 Digital can be the better choice for purely digital components - and yet it seemed too good to be true that this very affordable power cord could be better than one of their more expensive power cords.

In fairness, I thought I had a good excuse. Powering my digital component -a Chord Hugo M-Scaler (HMS) - is a Farad Super3 linear power supply - and not a SMPS. But I guess I should have known better as inside the HMS is a noisy FPGA. Swapping the V14D for the V12 NR brought a reduction in noise that was easy and somewhat surprising to hear.

There was no downside either. Bass weight was just as good or maybe even better with the V14D. The same was true with dynamics.

Another surprise came from first burning in the V14D on the cheap linear supply powering the Sonore opticalModule on the upstream side of a fiber run. Even though my streamer is “isolated” from the opticalModule with a run of fiber, I still heard an uptick in sound quality when powering its linear supply with a V14D. I’m not sure the improvement justified the price there though.

As far as my HMS powered by a Super3 - the V14D more than justified its price there. In fact I’d have to say it’s kind of remarkable that a $250 power cord could have such a positive impact.

I will be getting another V14D for the Farad Super3 that is powering my EtherRegen. The Super3 brought a very significant improvement to the EtherRegen so I’m definitely curious as to how much better it might get with the V14D. I’ll post an update to this thread once I get to try it.

I hope this report was of interest.

Ken