- Leviton 20 Amp Isolated Ground Duplex Outlet
Industrial grade AC outlet, firmly grips plugs
- Nanotec Systems #308 "Wonderful" Power Cable
Amazing nano particle coated copper 12 gauge power cable. Used from wall outlet directly to Arcam receiver. Furutech FI-11-N1 (G) IEC and FI-11M-N1 (G) AC connectors.
- Shunyata Research Venom HC
Delivers a lot of current to Venom PS8 power strip from wall. Quiet with good pace and timing. Long breakin, have patience.
- Shunyata Research Venom PS8
Clearly a step up from the Wiremold power strip it replaced. Everything is much, much better after long breakin period.
- Shunyata Research Venom Defender
Plug-in power conditioner. Significantly reduced hum in analog system. Provides blacker backgrounds across the board in system.
- FURUTECH FP TCS21 cable/Rhodium connector power cord
This is a great high purity “Triple C” copper 14 AWG cable with Cryo’d Copper/Rhodium connectors from SONARQUEST. Extremely revealing without being analytical. Connects Bluesound Node to Shunyata Venom power strip. Using Cryo’d C-7 adapter from Voodoo Cable to connect with Node.
Bluesound Node is a remarkable source. Interface is very good, and sound quality is exceptional for all file formats served from SSD hard and flash drives (but avoid conventional USB hard drives as sound is mediocre to horrible). Streams pretty much any service you choose. The internal DAC in the Node is competent, but less accomplished than the file serving and streaming functions. Combined with the Chord Qutest DAC it’s the best sounding digital source I have had in my system so far. Overall hifi bargain.
- The Chord Company Signature Super ARAY
This coax cable is a critical part of my digital front end. Digs details and timing out of the Bluesound Node and Chord Qutest that are astonishing. Much, much cleaner bass, but makes everything better. Worth the investment.
This deluxe wall wart from iFi made a shockingly big difference in the performance of their SPDIF iPurifier2 in my system. In the same league as the improvements from the custom linear power supplies feeding my DAC and phono preamp. Well done iFi.
- iFi audio SPDIF iPurifier2
Connected via coax cable from the Node to the Qutest at the dac end, this device deserves some discussion. I was initially having some handshaking problems between the Node and the DAC, and read somewhere that the iFi’s SPIF iPurifer had solved the issue so I decided to try it. Turns out the handshake problem was the result of a faulty BNC adapter, but there’s something going on with this little device.
According to iFi audio, the SPDIF iPurifier2 puts the signal through “4 comprehensive stages - isolation, regeneration, a memory buffer and re-clocking.” Whatever. And iFi claims “The result is a fully-restored SPDIF signal without jitter. The sound quality now has greater warmth, resolution and dynamics.” What I found is that the iPurifier2 added some liquidity and connected musical events together in both time and space such that the paint by numbers hyper detail of the Chord was presented in a more realistic, natural and convincing way without a noticeable loss of dynamics. It is uncanny, and it is great. I don’t know if this device is correcting deficiencies in the Node or the Chord, but I’m inclined to think both. YMMV, but I love it and the little reclocker is staying put.
ONE CAVEAT: this significant improvement in sound quality was only achieved after replacing the stock iPower wall wart with iFi’s iPowerX, which adds another 100+ bucks to the package. The iPurifier2 performance in my system with the stock power supply was underwhelming, and had I not decided on a whim to try the iPowerX, I probably would have returned the reclocker.
- FURUTECH FP-S35TC PC-TripleC/Rhodium Power Cord
This is a great high purity copper 12 gauge cable with Cryo’d Copper/Rhodium connectors. Extremely revealing cable without being analytical. Connects Linear Power Supply SE feeding Chord DAC to Shunyata Venom power strip.
- Main Cables R Us Linear Power Supply
Power supply upgrade for DAC with Rodium AC outlet, Furutech Rhodium fuse and silver DC cable. Major improvement over stock switching supply.
New to system. Still getting handle on what it brings to the table.
- Nanotec Systems #207 Music Strada IC
Very neutral and reasonably priced IC. With Furutech rhodium RCAs from Qutest DAC to Arcam AVR.
Very good sounding silver plated USB cable.
Consumer product that works as surprisingly good transport for redbook set to output "raw bitstream" data. Very good Bluray sound and video performance too. TG for economies of scale in manufacturing and distribution!
- DH Labs Glass Master Toslink Digital Optical Cable
Best sounding optical cable of the four I have tried, including from Chord, Audioquest, other glass cable and something recommended by Steve Nugent, the designer of Empirical Audio Overdrive DACs. And it’s not really close. Connects Samsung BD-H6500 to QuteHD.
HDMI cable with excellent sound and video performance. Samsung BD-H6500 to Arcam receiver. Noticeable improvement over other cables I’ve tried.
- Mapleshade Anti-Vibration Kit
2” Air-Dried Maple Vibration Control Board with low triplepoint brass feet and isoblocks used with Thorens TD-150 mkII. Increased treble and midrange clarity with more subtle detail, tighter bass, longer decays and better timing for more toe tapping. OMG!
Using tonar perspex mat, Mapleshade vibration kit and Ortofon LW 7N headshell leads. All adds up to enhanced spatial definition, transients and bass. Shocking presence and jump factor from this old table.
Good match for Thorens TP13A arm. Fast, detailed, flat frequency response, good bass and tracking at 33 or 45rpms plus Nagaoka midrange magic. This cartridge is crazy good - best I’ve had in my system to date.
- Audiomeca P-90 OCC single crystal copper hifi power cable
Very good cable. Improvement over much more expensive cables from Shunyata, Isotek, Furutech and others. Super well-made audio bargain. Works well both on dac and now for linear supply feeding phono pre.
- Swagman Lab Signature Edition Linear Power Supply
This is the upgraded 18V linear power supply for the Pro-Ject Tube Box DS. Ridiculously large improvement over stock switching mode power supply. Quieter, more organic, layered and natural sounding with much better bass. Cleaned up sound of whole system including digital, presumably by eliminating Pro-Ject SMPS.
- ProJect Audio Systems Tube Box DS
Coherent and natural sounding phono pre. Excellent with Swagman SE linear power supply, captures subtlty and nuance in midrange along with deep bass and shimmering highs. Good match with Audio Technica AT 150Sa cartridge. Rolled pair of Gold Lion ECC83 in for stock tubes. Wow! Touch, dynamics, tonal balance and sound stage all improved. Using with Audio Selections small metal cones on small bamboo board. Will stick with this pre for a while.
- Black Shadow RCA Interconnect
Silver coated mil spec OCC copper wire, Teflon dialectric, with silver plated copper connectors. This is a great cable! Transparent, fast and neutral RCA cable. Replaced Nanotec #207 RCAs, which is an excellent affordable RCA.
Best sounding AV receiver I could find for 2-channel listening under three grand. Improvements elsewhere in system reinforcing how good and transparent to source this unit really is. Two channel analog stereo mode with all digital circuits shut down is wonderful. Good Blurays sound awesome in 5.1.
- Furutech FP-314Ag-II and NCF Rhodium connecters
Silver plated OFC alpha processed stranded copper power cable with rhodium connectors. Huge improvement in video clarity. Sharp audio. Amazing cable makes difference with Fire Box, but it does. Connects Swagman lps and B&W subwoofer to Shunyata power strip.
Digital subwoofer. Fast and deep. Operates equally well on both line level and hi level inputs, but low, low bass capability requires careful cartridge/arm match.
21' bulk wire runs from Audio Advisor terminated on both ends with Pangea Xtreme banana connectors. Well-articulated soundstage and good overall tone. Faithfully reports what it receives from upstream across frequency spectrum.
Wall-mounted 2.5 way MTM speakers, times 3. Singing in this set up overall - especially male and female voices.
40 foot runs. Used for rear speakers. Neutral.
2 way wall-mounted speakers (rear) times 2. Very nice little speakers.
This is an awesome Plasma TV. Will mourn when it wears out.
Good for late night listening. Very nice headphones that report faithfully what’s going on upstream in the recording chain. Well recorded voices are to die for, but the very deepest bass is on permanent holiday.
- Swagman Lab Linear Power Supply
Replaces wall wart for Amazon Fire TV Cube. Overkill? Keep switching supplies out of my system. Period.
Remarkably good sound and and video performance from this little “smart” device.
Reasonably priced HDMI cable. Closest I have tried to Audioquest Vodka which costs significantly more than this. Picture is nearly identical, sound is very close, a bit warmer than the Audioquest. Connects Amazon Fire TV Cube to Arcam receiver.
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