Some great press has been coming in from Rocky Mountain Audio Fest! Here is a show review from enjoythemusic.com.
2016 RMAF Show Review by Enjoy the Music
October 31, 2016 by
Why Power Cords Matter (Part 2 of 2)
October 4, 2016 by
By Paul Speltz
In last month’s newsletter, I presented my theory as to “why power cords matter” to the music. Here I will take that thought one step further and discuss Power Conditioners.
Many power cords make lateral changes, making the music sound “different”. You may have experienced this yourself at some time. Aspects of the component’s sound makes slight changes, some for the better, some for the worst. With those power cords, I believe much of the outcome has to do with how lucky you are with creating synergy between that particular component and that particular power cord.
Using our “first five feet” design model (as discussed HERE), I theorize that a properly designed power cord has the opportunity to help get the noise generated in the component’s own power supply out of the component (so it does not get into the music). Part of why I believe this theory holds true, is because early on, we found that with our power cord design, it sounds better when plugged directly into the mains AC wall socket. It seemed as though when plugging our power code into a power conditioner, it’s capabilities are notable reduced. How could this be the case?
My thought is, power conditioners that are filtering noise on the AC mains by adding series impedance in the noise frequency spectrum, goes both ways. In other words, if the power conditioner adds an electrical “softness” in the path between the AC mains and the component, that means that same electrical softness is there on the same path from the component back to the AC mains. The theory is, that electrical softness is reducing our power cord’s ability to dump away the noise generated in the component’s own power supply.
The other common side effect of this electrical softness is a reduction of dynamics. For me, musical dynamics is a big part of the difference between live music and playback of recorded music, so I want all the dynamics I can get.
Like Don reported in his findings (as shown HERE), all but two customers have ever reported getting sonic benefit with their power conditioner when using our ANTICABLES Power Cords. In working with those two exceptions, it comes to find out, in both cases their power conditioners were actually power regenerators. This makes total sense because power regenerators are not going to have that electrical softness that a passive power conditioner has.
The Pros
If you have on your system’s “wish-list” to add a power conditioner to get better sound, you can re-budget those funds towards getting properly designed power cords. Or, if you already have an expensive power conditioner and find with our power cords you get better sound without it, you can sell it off to help pay for the new power cords.
The Caveat
Power conditioners are multi functional. Each power conditioner design can do any single or different combination of these functions: passive noise filtering, spike protection, over voltage shutdown, voltage and current meters, power up sequencing, over current fuses, power regeneration, transformer isolation, balanced power, etc.
If your purpose for your existing power conditioner is only to improve the sound, and if you find that with our ANTICABLES Power Cords you get better sound without it, it will be easy to abandon it. If your power conditioner’s purpose is to try to protect your equipment from power surges, yet you find that with our ANTICABLES Power Cords you get better sound with it, you will have to decide between improved safety or improved sound.
From the experience our customers have brought to me, if you want the protection of a power conditioner without the sonic compromise, try our power cords with a power regenerator. And yes, our customers have also reported getting even better sound when running their power regenerator with our Level 3 Power Cord.
The Sales Pitch
We invite you to discover why our Level 3 Power Cord have become our top selling product, by trying one in your system. Like all of our products, it comes with our 30 Day Trial Period, our 60 Day Upgrade Option, our Buy Back program, and our 5 Year Warranty.
We think you will really enjoy them.
It’s All About the Music: Mikaela Davis
October 4, 2016 by
by Thomas Speltz
Last week I went to a concert at The Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. When I took my seat at the venue I saw that there was a big beautiful harp on stage. Excitement and anticipation bubbled up inside me as I was not expecting to see a harp. In fact, I had never even heard harp in any of the music by the artist I was about to listen to. Because I spend most of my time seeing theatre, opera, and orchestra it didn’t occur to me that there would most likely be an opening act. Sure enough, Mikaela Davis entered the stage, sat down at her harp, and took my breath away.
When she began to play her first song, My Light Is Always On, I immediately thought of the well known singer, songwriter, and harpist Joanna Newsom, but as soon as Davis started to sing I could tell that she undoubtedly had unique voice of her own. It was amazing to me how she was able to make the harp sound different throughout the piece. At times I heard a harp but other times I heard a mandolin, a guitar, a sitar, a dulcimer. “I think a harp can do anything,” Davis declares, and I’m inclined to believe her.
After her 30 minute set I was eager to hear her recorded work. On listening to the two albums I purchased from the merchandise table I discovered that Davis is not a solo performer. In both albums, her and her harp are accompanied by a small rock ensemble. At first I was disappointed that the songs were a total change of pace from what I had listened to at The Dakota. The music was missing that intimacy I loved in a voice and harp. But as I continued to listen I found myself recognizing what loved about her live performance in the mix of the larger ensemble.In exploring more of her music on iTunes, SoundCloud, and YouTube I was able to get a better picture of what Mikaela Davis is all about. Her compositions and arrangements cleverly combine elements of folk, psychedelic rock, and chamber pop and her voice reveals a wisdom and ruefulness that belie her years. She employee the harp as a pulse, a rhythm, or a texture that seamlessly integrates into the rock-band context. I hope, as I continue to follow her work, that she maintains her ambitious stride in being a singer, songwriter, and harpist.
Just Released: Level 5 Signature Series Speaker Wires
October 3, 2016 by
We are proud to announce that our newly released Level 5 Signature Speaker Wires have already won Audiophilia’s Star Component Award, and we invite you to stop in and hear why, in room 1104 at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this weekend (October 7-9).
Martin Appel of Audiophilia.com stated their “detail, resolution and transparency were off the charts”, and that they have a “life-like realism that was truly astonishing“.
We accomplished this by rolling our excellent ACElectrum™ Silver/Gold alloy metallurgy, proven in our upper level interconnects, into a much larger gauge wire to handle the current demands of speakers.
The outcome was so sonically successful, Martin Appel said they “got the musical timbres of instruments as correctly as I’ve ever heard“.
These new Level 5 Signature Speaker Wires are so good at resolution and dynamics that he went on to say, “This recording has massive dynamic swings from the quietest passages to full orchestral/choral crescendos and the 5 Signatures handled the performance without congestion, blurring or smearing. In other words, you get all the music, all the time“.
Mr Appel boldly closes his review by flat out stating, “If problems occur with the sound, it’s coming from other pieces in your audio chain, not these speaker wires.”
You can read the entire review HERE.
…and you can hear them in room 1104 at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest October 7th – 9th.
We are also sharing a lobby booth with Spatial Audio and Red Dragon Audio, so be sure to stop in to say hello.
Level 3 Power Cords have the effect of going from a 4-cylinder to an 8-cylinder engine!
September 1, 2016 by
To piggyback on our “ANTICABLES Lab” article, “Why Power Cords Matter” we wanted to share a few words from Don B., a customer who is thoroughly enjoying his listening experience — more now than for the past two decades, thanks to ANTICABLES Level 3 Power Cords (and Level 4.1 XLR ICs)
We received a few notes from Don as he received some of the products – as well as a final round-up, below.
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Aug 17th
The Level 3 Power Cord has me laughing and enjoying my system immeasurably more right out of the box! By the way, I took your suggestion to bypass my power conditioner.
The detail, tonal balance, depth and width of soundstage, and bottom-end are all significantly way improved. Who knew my speakers were capable of such deep, deep bass and crystal clear highs. Albums that I thought were a little disappointing in the sound department are actually dazzling!
Finally, using the ANTICABLES power cord on my DAC/preamp meets my fullness requirement!!! The true sound of the Level 4.1 Reference Plus Xhadow is singing like never before.
Don
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Aug 22nd
Today, I received the second Level 3 Power Cord which I plugged into my amplifier. My first Level 3 power cord is attached to my DAC/Preamp.
Two albums that I thought were poorly recorded…now I will use them as reference test records. Those albums are full of nuances and dynamics that were not produced by my previous power cords that cost 6 times what the ANTICABLES Level 3 Power Cords cost!!!!
With the addition of your power cables and Reference 4.1 balanced XLR interconnects, my system has improved very significantly – I get goosebumps listening to my system. The soundstage is deep and wide with a highly stable image that sounds like I attending a live event.
Don
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August 30th
The Level 4.1 Plus Xhadow XLRs are like a powerful vacuum cleaner that get every morsel of recorded sound.
OMG, the Level 3 Power Cords have the effect of going from a 4-cylinder to an 8-cylinder engine!
Again, thanks for producing such high quality products at more than reasonable prices!
Don
– – –
Paul,
Ever since I bought my first separate preamp and power amplifier combination back in the early 1990s my main hobby has been listening to music. Through the years I learned that different components to include power cords and interconnects were instrumental to achieving the sound that I enjoyed. Moreover different combinations of preamps, power amplifiers, and interconnects tend to respond best to various genres of music.
Thus, my audio system is a hybrid of various components that are interchanged to go with the genre of music I am playing. If I want a more lush and silky mid-range image I tend to use a tube preamp and bloomy amplifier. When I want to listen to a brassy hard-driving album with lots of pizazz, shimmering highs and thunderous bass, I use a solid-state preamp/power amplifier combination.
As well, I use different types of interconnects to feed my electrostatic speakers depending on the genres of music that are playing. My various interconnects were viewed as separate components because they ran anywhere from $1700 to $4000.
However, all changed when I purchased my first set of interconnects from ANTICABLES! Once the Level 4.1 Reference Plus Xhadow balanced XLR interconnects were inserted into my system I found that I did not need to switch between my preamp and power amplifier combinations to get goose bumps as I listened to various genres of music. I was hearing harmonics and nuances not previously heard on albums that I have owned for over 20 years. I was astonished at how much music I had been missing without the ANTICABLES interconnects.
Since the Level 4.1 XLRs were such game changers, I decided to try the Level 3 Power Cords within weeks. I wanted to try the Level 3 Power Cords immediately after hearing the impact of the Level 4.1 balanced XLRs but I wanted to let the interconnects burn-in fully before making another ANTICABLES purchase. Basically I wanted to let my ears determine if I was taken with just a different sound or a truly better sound!
Since I am retired and listen to music an average of 5 hours per day, it did not take long to conclude that the ANTICABLES interconnects were better than my other interconnects that were 6x more expensive!!!
When the Level 3 power cord was inserted into my DAC/preamp component I went gaga. The volume controls did not change but the dynamic range; forwardness of the music and harmonic balance resulted in goose bumps popping!
Long story short, I purchased a second Level 3 Power Cord for my Class D amplifier and was blown away with the increased clarity of the sound! My wife who knew nothing about what had been replaced came into my listening room and said, “…the music is really clear…keep whatever you bought…”
