Has anyone ever put a powerline on a cd transport. I have a teac VRDS701T into a NSS333 NPX300 and it sounds wonderful but that little voice inside my head says it could be even better. I have a powerline light on it at the moment but wonder if the full powerline would be even better.
Also using a basic Blue Jeans Cables rca to bnc coax cable and wonder if something like chord epic x coxial cable or similar would bring any meaningful improvement. Any experiences that could help?
Thanks, Mario
Yes, we have a Powerline on our Moon 260D CD transport and it made a profound improvement over the previous Chord C Power cable that was also very good indeed for the low cost (ÂŁ60). We also have a Chord Epic X digital coaxial cable from the transport to our Chord Qutest DAC and again a profound improvement over the previous Chord Clearway cable.
So yes, well worth it IMO on both counts.
Powerline on CDX2.2 was substantial improvement over Russ Andrews Powerkord Evo 300.
That’s very useful Pete, I thought maybe not for the powerline as there is no analog output stage with a transport, and only a stream of ones and zeros, but I guess the way the powerline works removing microphonic vibrations would also benefit the two toroids in the 701T. Thanks for your input!
A “profound” improvement? On a CD transport?
Astonishing.
Perhaps it is astonishing to you, but I don’t find it astonishing at all. I’m curious to know why it astonishes you though, if you don’t mind sharing? Have you tried it yourself incidentally?
No problem. The Powerline does reduce microphonic vibrations as you say but I think that’s probably over simplifying the situation. It’s just an excellent sounding power cable. We have Powerlines on our CD transport, Moon amp and also a spare one is on our Sony TV.
Remember the CD transport is critical in creating a low noise digital data stream to the DAC. Many manufacturers, including Moon and Naim, go to great lengths to mechanically isolate the CD mechanism to improve sound. So really it makes perfect sense that the Powerline should work very well here.
Simple, Pete. A CD transport doesn’t output an analogue signal, and it’s digital output (i.e. the bits that it reads ) aren’t going to gain anything through a power cord upgrade. No, I haven’t tried it myself, but I’m willing on this one to go with the science.
I appreciate you’ll disagree, but I don’t want to get into a long debate about it. Just offering an opinion.
I’m intrigued to know why a power lead can improve something outputting an analogue signal, but not something outputting a digital signal. I’m no physicist, merely a humble zoology PhD, but you say you follow the science, which is always good. Where in the literature does it say that power leads cannot affect digital outputs? If true, it would mean that manufacturers could use any old el cheapo cable.
That is entirely sensible. I don’t follow though how you think that anything outputting a digital signal benefitting from a power cord upgrade is against science? If you could explain your reasoning here I would be genuinely interested to know. What you seem to be saying in effect is that it’s pointless using a Powerline on any digital source with a digital only output. That doesn’t make sense to me on ethier scientific grounds or indeed wide experience, which is that it does make a significant improvement. But of course if you haven’t tried it and you are for some reason convinced that it is against science then how would you know? I don’t want a long debate either and I’m just giving you my opinion.
Indeed. We’re all grown ups here and I thought we had long got past the stage of “it’s just 1’s and 0’s so nothing affects it”. Apparently not though.
@learningtofly , I feel you have still things to learn apparently.
What I said in my first comment was that I was astonished that you/Pete found the difference to be “profound”, and I stand by that. A CD transport is essentially just reading 1’s and 0’s (it’s the DAC that does the heavy lifting) so power cord upgrades are going to be fairly immaterial within that context.
I’ve just benchmarked my thoughts against a couple of AI engines, and I appear to be correct from a scientific perspective. Again, I didn’t say that a profound difference was impossible - just that i was astonished by it.
That’s it from me - nothing further to add, save that opinions aren’t required to be aligned. here or anywhere.
In my own experience it’s one of those things which varies from box to box.
From my own trials, yes changing power cable made a difference in sonic presentation to every one of my Wiim, Eversolo and Auralic streamers, the SA-12 sacd player and my 30/35 year old Rotel and Philips CDP’s (a bottom end MCRU cable works wonders on those, though less noticeable when used as transports only). However it doesn’t matter what I plug into my T+A TT, it changes not a jot!
I still remember the day TomTom James came over and popped a couple of Powerlines on my naim boxes when they were a new thing back in the day. The jaws on half a dozen forum members in the room dropped. As did their wallets…
I have found other power cables such as from Atlas and Puritan can work just as well as, if not better than, Powerlines on non-naim kit.
Don’t we all.
Jamie, I’m only talking about CD transports (just to make that clear…).
Understood.
Thanks for explaining your reasoning. Just a few points I would like to make in response to some of the things you’ve raised. Please don’t feel that you need to answer, you’ve already implied that you don’t want to discuss further and I respect that. I would like to make them all the same for the interest of others (If anyone is interested!) and because I think they are points worth making, and for further debate if anyone feels so inclined.
The implication here is that the transport is fairly insignificant and that it’s the DAC that is mainly responsible for the final result. Whilst I would agree completely that the DAC is vitally important, so is the transport. As far as 'just reading 1’s and 0’s", well, yes, that’s what digital technology involves. I don’t understand why you assume then that a power cord upgrade is going to be fairly immaterial within that context. It seems like quite a bizarre thing to say and devoid of any reason or logic. Why won’t it make a difference? Explain me the science that leads you to this conclusion.
Incidentally Naim and Moon, to take two manufacturers, go to great lengths to ensure that the CD mechanisms in their players are mechanically isolated. So do you believe that this is also a waste of time since it’s essentially just reading 1’s and 0’s? One wonders why they bothered to go to such lengths. Could it be that they found it sounds better that way?
AI engines work by trawling the internet for any information about what you request, whether it’s right or wrong is not possible to determine without doing proper further reseach. For example, if enough people have said on line in different places that jumping off a tall building is an excellent cure for a hangover then that’s what AI will come up with as being a good hangover cure. That’s just the way it works. OK that’s an extreme example, but the principle is the same. You really can’t place any credence on what AI says. It’s an interesting toy but nothing more.
Yep, as mentioned elsewhere I recently added a Pioneer S703 CDP to see how its stable platter mech would serve as a transport only into the DAC.
In practice it’s distinctly better than a Rotel and a Philips of slightly older vintage doing the same thing and imo beats an Audiolab 6000T too…It’s still there!
Interesting. I recall from the very early days of CD there was a Pioneer transport that was very highly favoured by quite a few reviewers. Can’t remember the model number. I remember though hearing one in the Hi-Fi Answers room at the Bristol Hi-Fi show many years ago with my girlfriend (now wife). I can’t remember the DAC but the amp was the Hi-Fi Answers DIY valve amp kit that was available then. Speakers were an unusual small stand mount that had a sloping front baffle so was triangle shaped from the side. Again I don’t recall the make. I was heavily into Linn and Naim at the time and it looked like a fairly uninspiring system but I remember being absolutely bowled over by it. Easily the most musical sound at the show. The room was also full of Peter Belt devices. Make of that what you will. Anyway the experience fair shook me up. I thought at the time that Linn/Naim was the only way. I remember also that it was demonstrated by John Bamford who was on the Hi-Fi Answers staff at the time and is very sadly no longer with us. Many happy memories of reading his reviews.