February 16, 2013

• More System Changes

  This installment should bring us up-to-date on the changes made to my system over the previous month's time.

  Interconnect Changes

  XLO Signature 1.1 ==> Shunyata Antares  ==> XLO Signature 1.1
  While the 1.5M XLO Signature 1 interconnect on my BDP-95 was enjoying a brief vacation on the West Coast for an audiodharma Cable Cooker treatment, I switched in a 1M Shunyata Antares IC in its place.  The Antares has been one of my favorites for the last couple of years and excels at sound staging and conveying the music's emotional content.  Upon hooking-up the Antares I noticed that transients were not quite as sharp and clear as with the XLO S1.1 although the bass was more prominent and the mid-range more fleshed-out.  Images, also, were more rounded and solid, less two-dimensional.  To use a tubular analogy, the XLO S1.1 are like a Siemens 6922 while the Antares is more in the vein of an Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8.  The treble range was handled more ably, however, by the XLO interconnect. 

  Upon returning from its spa treatment and after settling in, the XLO S1.1 produced a sound that was not quite as prominent in the bass as the Antares but was tighter.  Strings now had more "bite" without any stridency.

   

  Power Cord Changes
  

  Original Taipan Alpha ==> Blue Circle BC 68 ==> Original Taipan Alpha
  I had been running my Quad 989 speakers with a pair of Taipan Alpha power cords and decided to re-introduce what I'd been formerly using, the BC 68 power cord/conditioners.  The change was in some ways similar to the switch from the XLO S1.1 to the the Antares.  Transients were a bit duller, bass more prominent, sound staging better, and picture quality improved when watching cable or playing video discs or streaming video over the BDP-95.  The improvement in video quality is a side effect of the BC 86 Noise Hounds that are incorporated into the BC 68 power cords.  Each one carries the equivalent of two Noise Hounds and it most definitely has a positive impact on the video quality of components that are plugged into the same electrical circuit.

  Eventually, however, I switched back to the original Taipan Alpha's on the Quad speakers for the same reason I ultimately prefer the XLO cables over the Shunyata:  more air, detail and treble.  I did put one of the BC 68's on my Music Hall CD 25 and it's remained there ever since.  It replaced a Shunyata Venom3 power cord and seems to have a more even frquency response in this particular application.  It also has some, although not all, of the video benefit returning to the scene.

   

  Switched Taipan Alpha Helix from BDP-95 ==> CA200 and Original Taipan Alpha from CA200 ==> BDP-95 
  Based on a suggestion from my West Coast audio advisor, I switched power cords between my Universal/Blu-Ray player and integrated amp.  Quite honestly, I didn't think it would work well, but as usual, his suggestion was right on the money.  The CA200's sound became smoother without losing any detail while the BDP-95 was more detailed without becoming etched or strident.  I don't know how he does it.
  

   

  Another Megamount
  

  Music Hall CD 25 
  I placed a Megamount over the drawer mechanism of the modified CD 25 player and the results weren't as noticeable as they'd been when I had done the same to the Guardian Pro 6.  The sound stage may be a bit wider but I haven't noticed any real change in frequency response or timbre.  This may be due to the fact that the CD 25 had a good deal of vibration damping material applied to its innards as part of the modifications done by ModWright.

   

  Router Connections

  Wireless ==> Ethernet ==> Wireless 
  Although I was quite enamored with the AudioQuest Forest Ethernet RJ45/E interconnect when I first hooked it up to my BDP-95 player, the bloom eventually wore-off of the rose and I went back to wirelessly connecting the two.  As a sanity check, I once again went to a wired connection and determined in short order that while the wired connection did have some benefits, I ultimately preferred the more detailed wireless connection.
  

    

  CA200 as Preamp and the Return of the Premier 140
  

  The final and remaining change has been the re-introduction of the Premier 140 into the sonic equation.  I'm using the CA200 just as a preamp connected to the amplifier via a Nordost Red Dawn cable and the 140 is connected to the Guardian Pro 6 via an original Taipan Alpha power cord.

  Since the Megamounts are pulling duty as weights on the Guardian and the CD 25, I'm using some ebony footers under the amplifier.

  Group Shot                                                                                         Pair of Footers
       
  

  As almost always, there are pluses and minuses to this change.  The sound stage has become more enveloping with better defined images and there is a humanity to the sound that I've never been able to achieve with purely solid state equipment.  On the downside, detail is marginally not as good, upper treble is slightly depressed, and the deepest bass is not as authoritative.

   

  But until the bug hits me again, that's the way it's going to be.

  • 11:48 am
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