Best Power Cord for preamp?

[tima]

Originally Posted by Robert_Anderson

On my EAR, the Crystal Dream betters the Anaconda, but they both are superb.

Hi Robert is that the Crystal Cable Absolute Dream ?

[Robert_Anderson]

I wish! I spent a ton of money on the Dream, which I don't regret, now there is the Absolute Dream, which based on the Dream, if I had the money, I would be comfortable buying unheard!

[tima]

Wow - the Dream, the Absolute Dream, I can only guess whats coming.

... now you've got me humming show tunes.

This is my quest, to follow that star...

[Robert_Anderson]

Every time I reach the summit, something better comes out. My income no longer supports the stars, just the atmosphere!

[crwilli]

HOLY $)&@@$)(

In total, they cost more than my two '13 cars!

[kev313]

Originally Posted by Robert_Anderson

Every time I reach the summit, something better comes out. My income no longer supports the stars, just the atmosphere!

yep. That's why I quit super expensive new digital. My esoteric separates were outdated long before I felt that I got my money's worth. Today's digital models are outdated in 6 months. Professional reports of budget DACS hanging with the best. Blah. I'll take my 8 year old Zanden dac with a USB / spdif convertor to my MacBook and do low Rez PC digital all day. Wake me up when dsd is over. Or figured out. In the meantime, I'll do dsd the old fashioned way. SACD.

[kev313]

Originally Posted by kev313

yep. That's why I quit super expensive new digital. My esoteric separates were outdated long before I felt that I got my money's worth. Today's digital models are outdated in 6 months. Professional reports of budget DACS hanging with the best. Blah. I'll take my 8 year old Zanden dac with a USB / spdif convertor to my MacBook and do low Rez PC digital all day. Wake me up when dsd is over. Or figured out. In the meantime, I'll do dsd the old fashioned way. SACD.

Sorry for the hijack!

[CGabriel]

Originally Posted by Mike1998

Curious, what hardware do you use in your system? Heard good things about your cables...

Since we are a manufacturer and we are involved in constant research, our listening systems can vary but the following will give you a rough idea.

The Room:
The room is a suspended room within a room, custom designed and built by studio acoustic engineer Tom Brown. The floor is floated with vibration isolation pads. The walls are isolated and do not touch any part of the buildings structure. So, the listening room is essentially a sealed room within a building. The walls are faceted to distribute resonate vibration modes. The walls are double and triple thickness. The front of the room is a reflection free zone. The back and side walls are lined with solid wood custom built diffusers. There are two gasketed doors to seal the room. The ventilation to the room has an acoustic baffle system to eliminate acoustic resonant interaction with the room acoustics. The room has a very smooth frequency response with an ideal impulse decay response. There is a measured 40db drop in noise level from inside to outside the room. The room was designed with two adjoining rooms that are isolated from the listening room. One of these rooms is the control room where all of the electronics are located. So, we can setup the room with only the speakers in room. There is another recording control room at the opposite end where our recording console and equipment is located. We have the ability to set the room up for reference listening and alternatively for recording sessions.

The Power Distribution System:
Since we make power distribution and conditioning products it was important for us to have a stable reference power system. It starts with an electrostatically shielded isolation transformer. Our factory is in an industrial park and we wanted to isolate the reference system power from large power surges and sags from our neighbors. This transformer is located on the side of the building is actually larger in capacity than the transformer that feeds power to the building. This is necessary to ensure that the transformer has sufficient impulse surge capacity to prevent DTCD limiting to the reference control room. The isolation transformer feeds a sub-panel located in the control room. It has a surge protection system installed in the panel with dedicated circuit breakers so that we can turn them off for reference listening. There are 3 dedicated power circuits that feed the interior of the listening room. There are 5 dedicated power circuits that feed the control room. All of the dedicated lines are run in rigid conduit and all equal in length to eliminate potential ground loops. All of this was installed by my sister who is a master electrician.

The Power Distribution:
We use a variety of production and prototype power conditioners and power cabling.

Speakers:
We have several different listening rooms including the factory refererence room and several in home systems including mine and Grant's and several beta testers. We have used many different speakers over the years but these are those that are currently being used: Magneplanar 20.7, Magneplanar 1.7, Wilson Max 3, Wilson Sasha, KEF Blade, KEF LS50, Ayon Falcon,

Amplification and preamplification:
Audio Research REF250, Audio Research DS450M, Audio Research integrated, Constellation Centaur, Devialet, Rowland, Bel Canto, Cary Audio, Audio Research REF5, Audio Research REF2SE, First Sound (custom built) preamp, etc

Source
Audio Research CD8, Mac mini, Bel Canto DAC, BelCanto Ref Link, dcs Pucini, Kronos turntable, rebuilt AMPEX tape deck w/Bottlehead electronics.

[Ritmo]

Caelin - As usual, very informative. Great to get some visibility to your R&D environment and test systems.

PS - My next upgrade is to get the Anaconda speaker wire... Any updates to the line at this level planned this year?

Thx!

[Coopersark]

Originally Posted by CGabriel

Since we are a manufacturer and we are involved in constant research, our listening systems can vary but the following will give you a rough idea.

The Room:
The room is a suspended room within a room, custom designed and built by studio acoustic engineer Tom Brown. The floor is floated with vibration isolation pads. The walls are isolated and do not touch any part of the buildings structure. So, the listening room is essentially a sealed room within a building. The walls are faceted to distribute resonate vibration modes. The walls are double and triple thickness. The front of the room is a reflection free zone. The back and side walls are lined with solid wood custom built diffusers. There are two gasketed doors to seal the room. The ventilation to the room has an acoustic baffle system to eliminate acoustic resonant interaction with the room acoustics. The room has a very smooth frequency response with an ideal impulse decay response. There is a measured 40db drop in noise level from inside to outside the room. The room was designed with two adjoining rooms that are isolated from the listening room. One of these rooms is the control room where all of the electronics are located. So, we can setup the room with only the speakers in room. There is another recording control room at the opposite end where our recording console and equipment is located. We have the ability to set the room up for reference listening and alternatively for recording sessions.

The Power Distribution System:
Since we make power distribution and conditioning products it was important for us to have a stable reference power system. It starts with an electrostatically shielded isolation transformer. Our factory is in an industrial park and we wanted to isolate the reference system power from large power surges and sags from our neighbors. This transformer is located on the side of the building is actually larger in capacity than the transformer that feeds power to the building. This is necessary to ensure that the transformer has sufficient impulse surge capacity to prevent DTCD limiting to the reference control room. The isolation transformer feeds a sub-panel located in the control room. It has a surge protection system installed in the panel with dedicated circuit breakers so that we can turn them off for reference listening. There are 3 dedicated power circuits that feed the interior of the listening room. There are 5 dedicated power circuits that feed the control room. All of the dedicated lines are run in rigid conduit and all equal in length to eliminate potential ground loops. All of this was installed by my sister who is a master electrician.

The Power Distribution:
We use a variety of production and prototype power conditioners and power cabling.

Speakers:
We have several different listening rooms including the factory refererence room and several in home systems including mine and Grant's and several beta testers. We have used many different speakers over the years but these are those that are currently being used: Magneplanar 20.7, Magneplanar 1.7, Wilson Max 3, Wilson Sasha, KEF Blade, KEF LS50, Ayon Falcon,

Amplification and preamplification:
Audio Research REF250, Audio Research DS450M, Audio Research integrated, Constellation Centaur, Devialet, Rowland, Bel Canto, Cary Audio, Audio Research REF5, Audio Research REF2SE, First Sound (custom built) preamp, etc

Source
Audio Research CD8, Mac mini, Bel Canto DAC, BelCanto Ref Link, dcs Pucini, Kronos turntable, rebuilt AMPEX tape deck w/Bottlehead electronics.

Caelin,
VERY Impressive room and power set up! Some of your equipment choices mirror my secondary system, and that may be why it absolutely SINGS with Shunyata power conditioning/distribution! If I am ever out your way, I will want an audition!
Best,
Rob