A few new additions to my system

[prem]

The last couple of years, I experimented with spruce planks as equipment support, spruce as tuning blocks, Belden 8402 ic, WE 16 awg speaker cable, Duelund 16 awg speaker cable, WE 18 awg power cable. The experiments were fairly successful and yielded a nice natural, organic sound. Reasonably resolving but highly enjoyable.

Now with the impending arrival of EMT 950 which comes with its own isolated floor stand, I am once again moving to a higher resolution, more transparent sound where I will use some of my earlier learning to ensure musicality.

With my previous last year attempt I was getting very good tone and presence but dynamics and transparency were just about ok.

Now my objective is to maintain tone and presence and improve low level information retrieval to increase dynamic agility and transparency.

To achieve this I will be adding SRA Isobase platform under my David Berning amp. Also will be changing my speaker cable to Polk Audio Cobra.

Interconnect will continue to be Belden 8402 or the supplied EMT cable. Power cord will also be the supplied stock cords with the equipment. I have added EP 2750 and EP 2050 to my power line at the mains to clean up the incoming power and the ground. Hence will be reverting to simple stock power cords which the designers themselves used while designing the equipment

Let’s see how this experiment goes

 

[jai1611]

Good luck with the changes Prem. What was the thought process behind the Polk speaker cables? Seem quite different from the other cables you've been trying

 

[prem]

Hi jai1611, the cobra speaker cable is considered one of the most revealing, neutral, transparent cables ever made. The cable has probably the lowest inductance of any cables made till date. But this can happen only with very high capacitance. This high capacitance blew up a lot of poorly designed SS amps leading to the withdrawal of the speaker cable from the market.

The cable has 144 copper strands, each individually insulated. 72 has greenish color insulation and 72 transparent insulation. Each transparent and green strand are tightly twisted. So the cable has got 72 such tightly twisted pairs and is a very complex design.

Terminating this cable is a nightmare because the insulation of 144 strands has to be burnt off and you have to be super careful that all the strands with green insulation are twisted together and all strands with clear insulation are twisted together. If you get even one strand wrong you’re going to blow up the system

This design is not a commercial one so never got copied or made again. What the Cobra design achieves is it has an impedance in single digit which kind of matches with the single digit impedance of speaker. Other than Goertz no other speaker cable in the market has impedance in single digits but Goertz does not have the inner detail retrieval of the Cobra. Goertz achieved this with a different patented design. When you manage single digit impedance, resolving power increases

My Berning amplifier is very comfortable handling such a cable design. In fact David Berning uses the Cobra for his personal listening.

I have been on the look out for Cobra. I finally found a reliable source who will also terminate it for me

 

[dheerajin]

Hi Prem,
Are you going to use multiple cobra cable in parallel as described in this thread
http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-SpkrCab.html

 

[reignofchaos]

My Berning amplifier is very comfortable handling such a cable design. In fact David Berning uses the Cobra for his personal listening.

I have been on the look out for Cobra. I finally found a reliable source who will also terminate it for me

Good luck with the cobras. These have been called amp killer cables for good reason. Please be careful about who terminates it for you. One mistake and the amp will go poof!

I had tried the Goertz Alphacore many moons ago. To me, it sounded a bit bass shy and slightly forward sounding. Honestly not my cup of tea! Maybe it was an amp mismatch but I tried three amps and the results were the same each time.

 

[Naturelover]

Seems to be rather a mystical cable . Did you consider the Coincident in Dheeraj's link?

 

[surfatwork]

Good luck with the cobras. These have been called amp killer cables for good reason. Please be careful about who terminates it for you. One mistake and the amp will go poof!

Why? If there is an output short, speaker protection should just kick in.

 

[haisaikat]

Why? If there is an output short, speaker protection should just kick in.

I agree and can be easily checked for continuity with a cheap multimeter

 

[prem]

No dheerajin, will start with a single run. See if I like it. May then consider more runs.

 

[prem]

Naturelover, the Coincident is inspired by Cobra. I believe Mr Blume of Coincident used to have Cobra cables before he designed his own.

Coincident costs USD 2400 for a 8 ft pair. Cobra around USD 350. If I like Cobra might think of Coincident. I am in discussion with Mr Blume.

 

[prem]

reignofchaos, yes I shall be very careful. Thanks for the concern. This cable, like the Goertz, is probably not for everyone and not for all systems. The Cobra is supposed to be much superior to the Goertz. My confidence comes from the fact that Berning uses it with his amp

 

[arj]

Good luck with the cobras. These have been called amp killer cables for good reason. Please be careful about who terminates it for you. One mistake and the amp will go poof!

I had tried the Goertz Alphacore many moons ago. To me, it sounded a bit bass shy and slightly forward sounding. Honestly not my cup of tea! Maybe it was an amp mismatch but I tried three amps and the results were the same each time.

Did you try the 1 inch thick on (MI2) or the thinner one ?
I had the same problem with the MI2 many years back..despite using it with Klipsch speakers. I think prem is talking of the MI1 which is thinner.

 

[reignofchaos]

Did you try the 1 inch thick on (MI2) or the thinner one ?
I had the same problem with the MI2 many years back..despite using it with Klipsch speakers. I think prem is talking of the MI1 which is thinner.

I used the MI2 - the thick one.