Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

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I'm a PC convert!

Posted by etrout (A) on December 9, 2009 at 12:03:10

Well, maybe convert isn't the right word. I wasn't convinced power cords didn't matter, I was just skeptical. But now I'm a believer.

I have a pair of Mackie HR824s. They used to be used as monitors for my very small bedroom studio. When I no longer had roommates with stereos for general listening, they became my main system speakers. At some time over the last couple of years, I lost one of the original AC cords. I'd been using something else I had lying around on one of them, the original on the other. Lately, I'd been noticing the left side sounded a bit muffled.

I did a little reading up on AC cords and decided it was probably worth getting a new set to make sure they were using identical cords. I wasn't ready(or able) to shell out a bunch of money for fancy cords, especially since I had no experience listening for differences in cords, and wasn't sure if I really believed they made a difference. So I decided on Volex 17604's, the absolute cheapest thing I could find that anyone recommended. I got them in the mail yesterday, and boy was I in for a surprise when I plugged them in.

Imaging is sort of blowing me away. Especially vertically, which is something I'm pretty into. Right now it sounds like someone has knocked down the wall between my living room and bedroom, and that Erykah Badu is standing on my bed. A sound I don't mind for several reasons;) It feels like a veil has been lifted from the left channel, which is great.

I really didn't expect this much of a difference, especially from a $6 cord. I'm going to resist the temptation to think of this as a first step to something better as long as I can, but I'm sure you know how that goes. One thing that might hold me back a bit is that I'm unsure the larger marinco/wattgate/etc IECs will fit up and into the back of the Mackies...we'll see.

I also bought a pair of Volex 17504 which are unshielded. I'm sort of assuming that they are basically the same except for the shielding(?). That way I can compare the shielded vs unshielded sound before I decide on anything more expensive. I wonder though if shielded cords might not be best for me since the powered monitors require running AC cords parallel to interconnects right up the back of the speaker stands. We'll see though, I haven't listened to the 17504's yet.

Wow. That was a lot longer than I expected, sorry about that!

Eric

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