ExtremeSkeptic
30th March 2008, 10:23 AM
I'm writing this for James Randi's skeptic forum. I have made a huge discovery and now I know why power cables change the sound of audio systems, it's because of the vibrations inside them.
Since the Nordost Valhalla power cables remove low-level detail to make everything appear cleaner and smoother, I had to switch to stock cables to get better sound. Stock 18awg power cable wrapped in ERS Paper was better than 16awg Valhalla wrapped in ERS Paper. I was using stock cables between PS Audio's power conditioners; Quintet-Premier and Premier-DAC. However, between the wall and Quintet I found that Oyaide 037 connectors made a huge difference which made the Valhalla better overall than stock cable.
Stock power cords wrapped in ERS Paper sound great to me, I think it's because they are thinner which makes it sound faster and edgier, but also harsher. Thick cables always sounded muddy and boomy. They had less resolution and more body, but that extra body came from the boominess, it didn't come from more information in the music, everything just blended together which made everything appear bigger.
The differences are huge between power cables, but I found that they only change the flavor of the sound, they don't improve it. I liked the sound of the 6awg PS Audio xStream Statement because the bass was heavy, but the boominess was fatiguing after half an hour so I had to unplug it fast and keep using the 16awg Valhalla. I liked them both but I liked Valhalla the most. I wished I could get both flavors at the same time, it would be perfection to get the best of both worlds. But was it even possible? Since the flavors between power cords are so different, it should be possible.
Vibration isolation is 95% of the sound in my system, I'm using Magix magnetic levitation feet under the components and books on top for mass dampening the internal vibrations, the improvements were huge! Since the AC power is vibrating it would make sense to mass dampen the power cables too. So I got a few Genesis power cables to try if it works, and it does!
______________________________
March 17 2008
I received the Genesis power cables and they were very heavy and like with all gear, they made my room smell differently, so I left them in my room for a day before plugging them in. I don't want the smell to interfere with my impressions.
______________________________
March 18
1) Changed the 1meter 16awg Valhalla+Oyaide 037 cable between wall and Quintet into a 9feet 6awg Genesis.
First impressions: Fuller sound with more information. More subtle movements in the soundstage, everything is moving around instead of staying at the same place. There is more bass and it has more information in it, it's not muddy but it makes some of the background bass transients less apparent. The highs are very silky and liquid, it sounds very analog.
2) I experimented with removing the Premier Power Plant and using only the Quintet for my DAC. I daisy chained two Genesis power cables and plugged them into the Quintet, I didn't like it because it sounded empty and edgy. Then I added the Premier between those cables and got more resolution. I didn't like the Genesis for my DAC, perhaps because it was too warm and I needed to get used to it.
3) Added the 4th Genesis between Quintet and CD transport.
First impressions: It used to sound very thin with the stock power cable, but after I changed to the Genesis I got instant synergy! There was more body and resolution. The 4th Genesis I added made as big improvement as the 1st.
Impressions of full Genesis setup: It sounds both heavier and tighter than before, there's a new world of low-level detail and those sounds are very quiet. The decay continues forever...there are many tweaks where you can get this same effect from, but they all tone down the surface layer of the music to make the deepest layers more apparent, it makes it sound grey, muddy, lifeless and slow. The Genesis doesn't do this, it improves the deepest low-level details while increasing the clarity and speed on the surface.
Everything sounds very analog like, it sounds very sharp but there isn't any edginess. It's both smoother and sharper than before. I don't hear any weaknesses, it just increased the resolution. Vibration control for power cables is the way to go, I'm keeping the Genesis in my system!
______________________________
March 19
These cables are crazy. It sounds like listening to a completely new audio system, I didn't know that improvements this big were possible in audio. Normally when upgrading audio components you just make little side steps into different flavors but there aren't any real improvements.
I haven't found any components in the signal path that improve the sound, they only make it sound worse. But when having Genesis power cable in the signal path, it gives a real improvement to the sound! I still don't hear any weaknesses with this cable.
2nd impressions: I'm hearing true smooth transparency. Normally with other gear and tweaks you can either get smoothness/muddiness or edginess/transparency. They are just different flavors but they have the same performance overall. But with the Genesis power cable I hear the best of both worlds, it sounds both smoother and more transparent than ever before! I'm hearing new ambient sounds which makes the soundstage huge! Those new ambient sounds are clear as well. Some of the sounds have decay that is audible for many seconds longer than before. I have never heard improvements this big before!
______________________________
March 20
The improvement was so huge that it sounds like listening to music for the first time. All my albums sound completely different now, it's very confusing. There are so much new low-level detail in the recordings it's crazy. It's like I need to learn my reference albums all over again. I don't have any reference albums anymore because all albums sound new to me.
3rd impressions: All the complex passages that used to be veiled aren't veiled anymore. There are new transient melodies within those complex passages and it makes the music sound even faster. There are a lot of new stuff going on in the music which makes it sound more realistic.
The bass is the biggest I have ever heard, and it's also the tightest! It sounds like the bass is on steroids! With other tweaks you can make the bass bigger and tighter if you add boominess with one tweak and edginess with another, but it removes information from the music which makes the bass too round and solid, it sounds like the bass transients are little balls, it's boring and lifeless. But with the Genesis power cord, hair has started growing from those balls, the bass is alive! The bass has a lot more information in it which makes it appear bigger and faster. Each of the bass transients are unique. It's very addicting to listen to it.
Everything is distinct but still more emphasized than ever before. Even with tweaks that remove bass to make the highs more emphasized, the Genesis still has clearer highs than any other tweak. All the sounds are separated from each other but they are still joined together because there is more information around those sounds. Since each sound is of a different volume it makes it sound even more distinct.
Warm-up impressions: Comparing to yesterday, the 2nd day of warm-up gave more blackness, clarity, speed and dynamics.
_____
Transport comparison Valhalla vs Genesis
I still use a modified Nordost Valhalla power cord for my computer and it took a long time to fine tune it to make it sound like real life. I have a Genesis plugged into my CD transport (dCS) so it's easy to switch back and forth.
The CD transport used to sound too smooth and using Valhalla with it made it sound horribly veiled, so I had to use stock cable with it which made it sound too thin. Others with the same DAC and CD transport as me also said that stock cable sounds better than aftermarket cables because there is more low-level detail.
I liked my computer better than the CD transport even when it was 100 times cheaper. The Valhalla veiled the brightness of the computer which made it sound clean and smooth, but the side effect was that it veiled all the low-level details which made it sound bigger, and the jitter of the computer made it sound sharper. The computer was both heavier and sharper than the CD transport. But now with Genesis plugged into my CD transport, it sounds both heavier and sharper than the computer, and there is more low-level detail than with the stock cable!
I had planned to sell my CD transport because it was too smooth and thin, but the problem was fixed after I plugged a Genesis power cable into it. It got heavier and sharper with more low-level detail. The best of both worlds!
______________________________
March 22
I like the Genesis power cable, it's pretty good, I'm not hearing any sound signature from it. It increased the resolution, extended the frequencies, made everything bigger and tightened the transients. The Genesis power cable is the only audio component that I like, all the other gear I have tried have never been good value for the money. I think this cable is as good for the price as Magix levitation feet and ERS Paper.
4th impressions: Bass transients used to sound like they came from the same spot in the soundstage, but they are always moving around a few cm in all directions, this makes the music sound faster and more musical.
It doesn't sound like listening to a recording anymore, it doesn't even sound like listening to headphones anymore. Other tweaks have given a similar effect but they colored the sound and they all removed low-level detail in the process. But with the Genesis power cord, the low-level detail is what has improved the most.
I'm surprised how open this cable sounds like, I was expecting it to be very closed in and fatiguing, but the higher resolution reveals all the subtlest ambient decay sounds which makes it sound more open. The Genesis gives true openness to the sound! I no longer need to color the sound with other tweaks to get enough openness and realism to the sound, the Genesis does this better than anything else because it doesn't add any weaknesses.
Warm-up impressions: After 2 days of warm-up it didn't sound smooth and open enough, there was too much blackness and whiteness in the sound which emphasized the sounds on the surface. But after 4 days of warm-up the problem is gone. It sounds very smooth which makes the soundstage deeper. These are the same differences as warm-up of the system makes (but some of them could be from the cables burning in as well). These cables are very revealing and show the improvements of system warm-up.
I have noticed that with many components in the system the warm-up period isn't consistent because different components need a different warm-up period. So sometimes it could sound very edgy and sometimes very smooth, but the low-level detail is constantly improving.
____
I compared Genesis vs the stock+ERS Paper cable for my DAC. The first time I tried the Genesis it was warmer than the stock cable, but now the stock cable is warmer than the Genesis! Burn-in made a huge improvement in clarity!
Stock: I hear problems with the transients, it sounds too grey, thin and warm. Weight and clarity is missing.
Genesis: Transients are both heavier and clearer. The greyness and lifelessness is gone. Everything moves around more which increases the realism. Everything is more distinct... It sounds like the distinctness of a colored Valhalla analog cable, except it doesn't remove the low-level detail to get the illusion of that distinctness. The Genesis gives more low-level detail and true distinctness!
After 4 days of burn-in. I guess this cable is better than I thought.
______________________________
March 23
My Premier Power Plant used to have only 3 Magix under it instead of 4. Today I put the 4th Magix under it and got more dynamics. The Genesis are revealing cables...
Then I put a Magix under the Genesis power cable for my DAC (it used to press against the floor). I was surprised that isolating the power cable from vibrations gave so much more dynamics!
Impressions of Magix under Genesis: More detail, space, blackness, low-level detail and clarity.
Next it was time to try ERS Paper for the Genesis for my DAC, I was surprised again.
Impressions of ERS Paper around Genesis: There are more transients all over the place, but it sounds too grey and lifeless. It doesn't sound black and white anymore because that whiteness/edginess has transformed into more information in the music. The new transients are very quiet and it's hard to hear them if the listening environment isn't quiet too.
______________________________
March 26
I removed the ERS Paper around the Genesis for my DAC. I thought it was going to sound better, but it just sounded edgy and empty which emphasized the transients. The music is supposed to sound fuller and drier with more resolution.
Then I re-arranged my system so that I could change my 2m Valhalla headphone cable into 1m. I also made a few little tweaks which would increase the resolution even more. I was expecting the shorter headphone cable to sound better even when it didn't have any ERS Paper anymore. Then I listened to my system and it sounded broken, it had not sounded that bad for many months. It sounded very thin with the low-level details veiled. I searched around trying to find the problem, I checked all the settings but after an hour I gave up.
Then I started wrapping my headphone cable with ERS Paper, after the first few sheets I didn't hear a difference. But after I had finished the wrapping the problem was fixed. ERS Paper is crazy.
Then I wrapped my DAC's Genesis again. The improvement was equally huge.
Impressions: Bass is HUGE. Having K1000 headphones from XLR outputs (6vrms) of my DAC now has way more bass size than when I used a Krell KAV-500i power amp (the Krell is the amp that gave me the most bass because of the huge Toroid. Toroids benefit the most from MWave4 manipulation (P300 Power Plant) which boosts up the bass by toning down the midrange). But with the Genesis + ERS Paper, the bass size doesn't come from coloration, it comes from higher resolution.
I have the pre-amp and amp bypassed and I get more body than dedicated gear just because of the Genesis power cable wrapped in ERS Paper. Since pre-amps and amps aren't needed anymore, the Genesis is worth more than high-end gear.
___
Before the Genesis was burned in it sounded smooth and analog like tubes. But after 4 days it opened up and it didn't sound warm anymore, there was higher resolution and it revealed the EMI infecting the cable. But wrapping it with ERS Paper made it sound warm again while increasing the resolution further. I have never heard warm sound like this before...I usually hate warmth in the music and do everything I can to make it sound colder (tubes sound like a nightmare to me). But this time with the Genesis + ERS Paper, I'm not bothered by the warmth because there isn't any dullness in the music, there is just pure resolution, and that is how resolution should sound like, it should sound warm!
______________________________
March 29
I tried the Genesis for my old Cary CD transport and it improved it as well. This cable works for everything!
______________________________
I can't think of anything else that improves the sound other than Magix, ERS Paper and Virtual Dynamics cables. They all increase the resolution in the music.
All the amps and sources I have tried have been a waste of money because they worsened the signal, that's why there are so many different flavors between different components. The Virtual Dynamics cable is the only "component" in the signal path that improves the sound instead of worsens it. The reason for that is vibration control inside the cable. The conductors are always vibrating and when using different materials to build the cable you can get many different flavors, but what really gives a neutral sound is by finding a way to reduce those vibrations instead of only altering them. This is what Virtual Dynamics does, they try to fix the problem of the AC signal while everyone else tries to sell different flavors.
I rather choose a neutral cable than a colored cable. A neutral cable is the same as what comes from the wall, but it's just neutral, it doesn't fix anything. A colored cable like the Nordost Valhalla power cord veils the sound to make it smoother and more musical, but it removes low-level detail while adding boominess to make it appear like there is more body.
The Virtual Dynamics cables use neutral conductors while adding vibration dampening around the conductors. It reduces the vibrations of the cable which gives better sound. Their cheapest cable has their simplest form of vibration dampening, and their best cable (Genesis) has their most advanced form of vibration dampening.
After I put the Genesis into my system I have found that vibration control is 99% of the sound. The vibrations are everywhere which means that you can add different flavors to the sound.
I like stock cables more than Nordost Valhalla ($3000) because the Valhalla veiled the sound. The Virtual Dynamics is the only aftermarket power cable that improved the sound in every way possible. I haven't heard any weaknesses with it at all. Virtual Dynamics is the best audio manufacturer I know of, and that includes amps, sources or any other audio gear. The Genesis power cable gave a lot more for the money than any other component change I have ever done. There is no comparison.
http://a243.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/9/l_fd929809476f67e24cb6c055380eea6a.jpg
Since the Nordost Valhalla power cables remove low-level detail to make everything appear cleaner and smoother, I had to switch to stock cables to get better sound. Stock 18awg power cable wrapped in ERS Paper was better than 16awg Valhalla wrapped in ERS Paper. I was using stock cables between PS Audio's power conditioners; Quintet-Premier and Premier-DAC. However, between the wall and Quintet I found that Oyaide 037 connectors made a huge difference which made the Valhalla better overall than stock cable.
Stock power cords wrapped in ERS Paper sound great to me, I think it's because they are thinner which makes it sound faster and edgier, but also harsher. Thick cables always sounded muddy and boomy. They had less resolution and more body, but that extra body came from the boominess, it didn't come from more information in the music, everything just blended together which made everything appear bigger.
The differences are huge between power cables, but I found that they only change the flavor of the sound, they don't improve it. I liked the sound of the 6awg PS Audio xStream Statement because the bass was heavy, but the boominess was fatiguing after half an hour so I had to unplug it fast and keep using the 16awg Valhalla. I liked them both but I liked Valhalla the most. I wished I could get both flavors at the same time, it would be perfection to get the best of both worlds. But was it even possible? Since the flavors between power cords are so different, it should be possible.
Vibration isolation is 95% of the sound in my system, I'm using Magix magnetic levitation feet under the components and books on top for mass dampening the internal vibrations, the improvements were huge! Since the AC power is vibrating it would make sense to mass dampen the power cables too. So I got a few Genesis power cables to try if it works, and it does!
______________________________
March 17 2008
I received the Genesis power cables and they were very heavy and like with all gear, they made my room smell differently, so I left them in my room for a day before plugging them in. I don't want the smell to interfere with my impressions.
______________________________
March 18
1) Changed the 1meter 16awg Valhalla+Oyaide 037 cable between wall and Quintet into a 9feet 6awg Genesis.
First impressions: Fuller sound with more information. More subtle movements in the soundstage, everything is moving around instead of staying at the same place. There is more bass and it has more information in it, it's not muddy but it makes some of the background bass transients less apparent. The highs are very silky and liquid, it sounds very analog.
2) I experimented with removing the Premier Power Plant and using only the Quintet for my DAC. I daisy chained two Genesis power cables and plugged them into the Quintet, I didn't like it because it sounded empty and edgy. Then I added the Premier between those cables and got more resolution. I didn't like the Genesis for my DAC, perhaps because it was too warm and I needed to get used to it.
3) Added the 4th Genesis between Quintet and CD transport.
First impressions: It used to sound very thin with the stock power cable, but after I changed to the Genesis I got instant synergy! There was more body and resolution. The 4th Genesis I added made as big improvement as the 1st.
Impressions of full Genesis setup: It sounds both heavier and tighter than before, there's a new world of low-level detail and those sounds are very quiet. The decay continues forever...there are many tweaks where you can get this same effect from, but they all tone down the surface layer of the music to make the deepest layers more apparent, it makes it sound grey, muddy, lifeless and slow. The Genesis doesn't do this, it improves the deepest low-level details while increasing the clarity and speed on the surface.
Everything sounds very analog like, it sounds very sharp but there isn't any edginess. It's both smoother and sharper than before. I don't hear any weaknesses, it just increased the resolution. Vibration control for power cables is the way to go, I'm keeping the Genesis in my system!
______________________________
March 19
These cables are crazy. It sounds like listening to a completely new audio system, I didn't know that improvements this big were possible in audio. Normally when upgrading audio components you just make little side steps into different flavors but there aren't any real improvements.
I haven't found any components in the signal path that improve the sound, they only make it sound worse. But when having Genesis power cable in the signal path, it gives a real improvement to the sound! I still don't hear any weaknesses with this cable.
2nd impressions: I'm hearing true smooth transparency. Normally with other gear and tweaks you can either get smoothness/muddiness or edginess/transparency. They are just different flavors but they have the same performance overall. But with the Genesis power cable I hear the best of both worlds, it sounds both smoother and more transparent than ever before! I'm hearing new ambient sounds which makes the soundstage huge! Those new ambient sounds are clear as well. Some of the sounds have decay that is audible for many seconds longer than before. I have never heard improvements this big before!
______________________________
March 20
The improvement was so huge that it sounds like listening to music for the first time. All my albums sound completely different now, it's very confusing. There are so much new low-level detail in the recordings it's crazy. It's like I need to learn my reference albums all over again. I don't have any reference albums anymore because all albums sound new to me.
3rd impressions: All the complex passages that used to be veiled aren't veiled anymore. There are new transient melodies within those complex passages and it makes the music sound even faster. There are a lot of new stuff going on in the music which makes it sound more realistic.
The bass is the biggest I have ever heard, and it's also the tightest! It sounds like the bass is on steroids! With other tweaks you can make the bass bigger and tighter if you add boominess with one tweak and edginess with another, but it removes information from the music which makes the bass too round and solid, it sounds like the bass transients are little balls, it's boring and lifeless. But with the Genesis power cord, hair has started growing from those balls, the bass is alive! The bass has a lot more information in it which makes it appear bigger and faster. Each of the bass transients are unique. It's very addicting to listen to it.
Everything is distinct but still more emphasized than ever before. Even with tweaks that remove bass to make the highs more emphasized, the Genesis still has clearer highs than any other tweak. All the sounds are separated from each other but they are still joined together because there is more information around those sounds. Since each sound is of a different volume it makes it sound even more distinct.
Warm-up impressions: Comparing to yesterday, the 2nd day of warm-up gave more blackness, clarity, speed and dynamics.
_____
Transport comparison Valhalla vs Genesis
I still use a modified Nordost Valhalla power cord for my computer and it took a long time to fine tune it to make it sound like real life. I have a Genesis plugged into my CD transport (dCS) so it's easy to switch back and forth.
The CD transport used to sound too smooth and using Valhalla with it made it sound horribly veiled, so I had to use stock cable with it which made it sound too thin. Others with the same DAC and CD transport as me also said that stock cable sounds better than aftermarket cables because there is more low-level detail.
I liked my computer better than the CD transport even when it was 100 times cheaper. The Valhalla veiled the brightness of the computer which made it sound clean and smooth, but the side effect was that it veiled all the low-level details which made it sound bigger, and the jitter of the computer made it sound sharper. The computer was both heavier and sharper than the CD transport. But now with Genesis plugged into my CD transport, it sounds both heavier and sharper than the computer, and there is more low-level detail than with the stock cable!
I had planned to sell my CD transport because it was too smooth and thin, but the problem was fixed after I plugged a Genesis power cable into it. It got heavier and sharper with more low-level detail. The best of both worlds!
______________________________
March 22
I like the Genesis power cable, it's pretty good, I'm not hearing any sound signature from it. It increased the resolution, extended the frequencies, made everything bigger and tightened the transients. The Genesis power cable is the only audio component that I like, all the other gear I have tried have never been good value for the money. I think this cable is as good for the price as Magix levitation feet and ERS Paper.
4th impressions: Bass transients used to sound like they came from the same spot in the soundstage, but they are always moving around a few cm in all directions, this makes the music sound faster and more musical.
It doesn't sound like listening to a recording anymore, it doesn't even sound like listening to headphones anymore. Other tweaks have given a similar effect but they colored the sound and they all removed low-level detail in the process. But with the Genesis power cord, the low-level detail is what has improved the most.
I'm surprised how open this cable sounds like, I was expecting it to be very closed in and fatiguing, but the higher resolution reveals all the subtlest ambient decay sounds which makes it sound more open. The Genesis gives true openness to the sound! I no longer need to color the sound with other tweaks to get enough openness and realism to the sound, the Genesis does this better than anything else because it doesn't add any weaknesses.
Warm-up impressions: After 2 days of warm-up it didn't sound smooth and open enough, there was too much blackness and whiteness in the sound which emphasized the sounds on the surface. But after 4 days of warm-up the problem is gone. It sounds very smooth which makes the soundstage deeper. These are the same differences as warm-up of the system makes (but some of them could be from the cables burning in as well). These cables are very revealing and show the improvements of system warm-up.
I have noticed that with many components in the system the warm-up period isn't consistent because different components need a different warm-up period. So sometimes it could sound very edgy and sometimes very smooth, but the low-level detail is constantly improving.
____
I compared Genesis vs the stock+ERS Paper cable for my DAC. The first time I tried the Genesis it was warmer than the stock cable, but now the stock cable is warmer than the Genesis! Burn-in made a huge improvement in clarity!
Stock: I hear problems with the transients, it sounds too grey, thin and warm. Weight and clarity is missing.
Genesis: Transients are both heavier and clearer. The greyness and lifelessness is gone. Everything moves around more which increases the realism. Everything is more distinct... It sounds like the distinctness of a colored Valhalla analog cable, except it doesn't remove the low-level detail to get the illusion of that distinctness. The Genesis gives more low-level detail and true distinctness!
After 4 days of burn-in. I guess this cable is better than I thought.
______________________________
March 23
My Premier Power Plant used to have only 3 Magix under it instead of 4. Today I put the 4th Magix under it and got more dynamics. The Genesis are revealing cables...
Then I put a Magix under the Genesis power cable for my DAC (it used to press against the floor). I was surprised that isolating the power cable from vibrations gave so much more dynamics!
Impressions of Magix under Genesis: More detail, space, blackness, low-level detail and clarity.
Next it was time to try ERS Paper for the Genesis for my DAC, I was surprised again.
Impressions of ERS Paper around Genesis: There are more transients all over the place, but it sounds too grey and lifeless. It doesn't sound black and white anymore because that whiteness/edginess has transformed into more information in the music. The new transients are very quiet and it's hard to hear them if the listening environment isn't quiet too.
______________________________
March 26
I removed the ERS Paper around the Genesis for my DAC. I thought it was going to sound better, but it just sounded edgy and empty which emphasized the transients. The music is supposed to sound fuller and drier with more resolution.
Then I re-arranged my system so that I could change my 2m Valhalla headphone cable into 1m. I also made a few little tweaks which would increase the resolution even more. I was expecting the shorter headphone cable to sound better even when it didn't have any ERS Paper anymore. Then I listened to my system and it sounded broken, it had not sounded that bad for many months. It sounded very thin with the low-level details veiled. I searched around trying to find the problem, I checked all the settings but after an hour I gave up.
Then I started wrapping my headphone cable with ERS Paper, after the first few sheets I didn't hear a difference. But after I had finished the wrapping the problem was fixed. ERS Paper is crazy.
Then I wrapped my DAC's Genesis again. The improvement was equally huge.
Impressions: Bass is HUGE. Having K1000 headphones from XLR outputs (6vrms) of my DAC now has way more bass size than when I used a Krell KAV-500i power amp (the Krell is the amp that gave me the most bass because of the huge Toroid. Toroids benefit the most from MWave4 manipulation (P300 Power Plant) which boosts up the bass by toning down the midrange). But with the Genesis + ERS Paper, the bass size doesn't come from coloration, it comes from higher resolution.
I have the pre-amp and amp bypassed and I get more body than dedicated gear just because of the Genesis power cable wrapped in ERS Paper. Since pre-amps and amps aren't needed anymore, the Genesis is worth more than high-end gear.
___
Before the Genesis was burned in it sounded smooth and analog like tubes. But after 4 days it opened up and it didn't sound warm anymore, there was higher resolution and it revealed the EMI infecting the cable. But wrapping it with ERS Paper made it sound warm again while increasing the resolution further. I have never heard warm sound like this before...I usually hate warmth in the music and do everything I can to make it sound colder (tubes sound like a nightmare to me). But this time with the Genesis + ERS Paper, I'm not bothered by the warmth because there isn't any dullness in the music, there is just pure resolution, and that is how resolution should sound like, it should sound warm!
______________________________
March 29
I tried the Genesis for my old Cary CD transport and it improved it as well. This cable works for everything!
______________________________
I can't think of anything else that improves the sound other than Magix, ERS Paper and Virtual Dynamics cables. They all increase the resolution in the music.
All the amps and sources I have tried have been a waste of money because they worsened the signal, that's why there are so many different flavors between different components. The Virtual Dynamics cable is the only "component" in the signal path that improves the sound instead of worsens it. The reason for that is vibration control inside the cable. The conductors are always vibrating and when using different materials to build the cable you can get many different flavors, but what really gives a neutral sound is by finding a way to reduce those vibrations instead of only altering them. This is what Virtual Dynamics does, they try to fix the problem of the AC signal while everyone else tries to sell different flavors.
I rather choose a neutral cable than a colored cable. A neutral cable is the same as what comes from the wall, but it's just neutral, it doesn't fix anything. A colored cable like the Nordost Valhalla power cord veils the sound to make it smoother and more musical, but it removes low-level detail while adding boominess to make it appear like there is more body.
The Virtual Dynamics cables use neutral conductors while adding vibration dampening around the conductors. It reduces the vibrations of the cable which gives better sound. Their cheapest cable has their simplest form of vibration dampening, and their best cable (Genesis) has their most advanced form of vibration dampening.
After I put the Genesis into my system I have found that vibration control is 99% of the sound. The vibrations are everywhere which means that you can add different flavors to the sound.
I like stock cables more than Nordost Valhalla ($3000) because the Valhalla veiled the sound. The Virtual Dynamics is the only aftermarket power cable that improved the sound in every way possible. I haven't heard any weaknesses with it at all. Virtual Dynamics is the best audio manufacturer I know of, and that includes amps, sources or any other audio gear. The Genesis power cable gave a lot more for the money than any other component change I have ever done. There is no comparison.
http://a243.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/9/l_fd929809476f67e24cb6c055380eea6a.jpg