Gramophone Dreams

Before I spin this 23rd edition of "Gramophone Dreams," I must ask: How many of you are using zip-cord as your speaker cables? RadioShack interconnects? Those black universal 18/3 power cords that come standard with virtually every audio amplifier?

AudioQuest Storm Tornado/High-Current power cord
A few months after I wrote about AudioQuest's Niagara 1000 power-line conditioner ($1000), my friend Sphere asked if I'd ever then removed the Niagara from my system, listened, and still thought it improved the sound.

I had not. So next morning I removed the Niagara and plugged everything into two plastic power strips from Home Depot. Instantly, the sound became darker, thicker, fuzzier. Also warmer, more relaxed, and—maybe—more enjoyable. Low-level hash returned, but so did a greater ease of musical flow. The tones of voices and instruments affected my feelings more. I liked this naturalness enough that I didn't reinstate the Niagara.

One day, John Atkinson came by, noticed that I wasn't using the Niagara, and asked why.

"Right now, I like my music better without it." When he left, he took the Niagara with him.

A month later, I acquired a single Triode Wire Labs Digital–American Series power cord ($499/up to 5'), which I installed between my DAC and one of the plastic power strips. The difference seemed subtle but positive, so I left it in. After a while, I wondered: If the Triode cord helped the sound of my DAC even when plugged into a $7.99 plastic power strip, what might it do when plugged into AudioQuest's $1000 Niagara?

I wrote to AudioQuest's CEO, Bill Low, and told him that JA had stolen my Niagara. A few weeks later, a new one arrived, along with a second box containing two extremely stiff, three-conductor (braided), Storm Tornado/High-Current power cords. They cost $949.95 for a 1m cord. Groan. But the Storm Tornados came packed in a hard, pro-audio–style carrying case the perfect size for carrying a dozen or so LPs. Repurposing is even better than recycling.

With power cords and conditioners, it's reasonable to expect clearer, less fuzzy, less noisy sound. Likewise, it's reasonable to expect "blacker" backgrounds. But when I plugged AQ's new, nearly $1000 power cord into the back of a Pass Laboratories XA25 stereo power amp and that plastic Home Depot strip, what I heard was far more than less fuzz and "blacker" backgrounds.

I immediately noticed a change in the fundamental shape and tone character of the music coming out of my speakers. Instruments and voices seemed bigger, stronger, more three-dimensional. A sleeping dog would have been startled by these differences.

Curious, I streamed from Tidal a series of tracks of various genres, and the next day replaced the $950 AQ cord with a generic cord. Again the change was obvious. The generic cord reduced the essence (or presence) of performers' images. Drumbeats and bass lines were less distinct, harder to follow. Dynamics seemed truncated. All precisely the opposite of what the AudioQuest Tornado did.

Next, I wrestled the Pass Labs XA25 and the heinously stiff AQ cord into an awkward-looking relationship with my stock wall socket. The character of the sound again changed, even more than the first time I'd used the Tornado.

The most exciting change caused by plugging the XA25 directly into the wall with the fat AQ cord was that music now sounded more direct, solid, and three-dimensional—more physical, more there. This increase in body was not subtle, and it was really impressive.

Conclusion #1
AudioQuest's Storm Tornado/High-Current power cord could do much of whatever it does even when connected to a cheap power strip. Plugged directly into the wall, this $950 cord did all of what it does. And what it did was anything but subtle.

I woke up early. The May sun was bright. But when I replaced the Tornado with a $1 black generic cord, it was like putting on scratched sunglasses and a wool coat on a hot day. I didn't care. Mississippi Fred McDowell singing "Wished I Was in Heaven Sitting Down," from The Alan Lomax Collection's Southern Journey, Volume 1: Voices from the American South—Blues, Ballads, Hymns, Reels, Shouts, Chanteys and Work Songs (CD, Rounder 1701), still sounded satisfying. The music was now slightly muffled, but it had a naturalness of tone and temper that seemed true to McDowell's spirit, voice, and guitar skills. I didn't need a Tornado to enjoy his music.

Conclusion #2
If you want to get closer to the sound stored on your discs and files, its force and body—if you want to "see" farther into those recordings—then you'll need the AudioQuest Tornado or its equivalent. But if all you want is to connect with and enjoy those ballads, hymns, and work songs, you're probably okay without a length of fancy wire.

At this point in my experiments, I remembered that music is beholden to pace and rhythm for its powers of seduction. I listened for extended periods with the Tornado cord connecting my amp directly to the wall, hearing no such negatives as loss of rhythmic mojo or fractures in the music's internal coherence. Actually, all of music's core strengths—rhythm, melody, tone—were enhanced.

Greedy for more insight—and more of what I was beginning to perceive as A Good Thing—I connected the Pass Labs XA25 to the AudioQuest Niagara 1000 with one Tornado, and the Niagara to the wall outlet with the other. That's $2900 worth of wire and power conditioning between a $4000 solid-state amp and a Lutron duplex outlet with verified ground and polarity.

"Sweet Roseanne," sung and played by the Bright Light Quartet on Southern Journey, Volume 1, was perfect for this comparison between the $7.99 and $2900 connections. But before I explain why, I must demand that if you are one o' them ABX/double-blind-can't-measure-it-can't-hear-it cable deniers, please don't waste your time demanding "proof" of what I'm about to say. Just repeat my own simple experiments.

I ask you to do this because I believe that anyone would hear—and probably appreciate—the dramatic increase in presence, density, and musical textures I heard when I replaced the generic cord with the Tornado-Niagara-Tornado combination. The full-tilt AQ combo clarified and strengthened the music in ways I have never before experienced with a change in components. For example, changing from a $3000 DAC to a $10,000 DAC would likely not effect as radical a change in the sound as I heard with the Tornado-Niagara-Tornado.

I like to hear microphones, and clean vibrating air between the mikes and the musicians. Well, that's exactly what I heard through all of Southern Journey, Volume 1. Vocal and instrumental textures were more vibrant and corporeal. I could count the voices in each choir. But there was something strange, something difficult to discern, that made me uncomfortable with what I was experiencing. I loved all those individual voices a lot—they hypnotized me. But now something was missing from these intimate, simply miked recordings made by Alan Lomax in the late 1950s and early '60s. Beat and boogie were full and present, but, after wrestling with my feelings and watching my mind as I listened to song after song, it hit me: The Tornado-Niagara-Tornado combo sounded too mechanical for my taste. It lacked blood and soul.

I unhooked the Pass Labs XA25 from the Niagara 1000 conditioner and returned to what I'd liked better: the Storm Tornado plugged into the amp and directly into the wall. It was a Goldilocks moment. Well, actually, it was a "Sweet Roseanne" and "Po' Lazarus" moment. The Bright Light Quartet once again appeared solid as life in front of me. The Pass XA25, always forceful and transparent, sounded even more so.

In audio playback, presence = essence, and essence = music + truth. But you tell me: How could a few short lengths of wire twisted together so dramatically increase corporeality?

Conclusion #3
AudioQuest's Storm Tornado/High-Current power cord revealed so much force and dense three-dimensional life in the sound of the Pass Labs XA25 that it would be sad to live without it.

A little foreplay
Sometime in the late 1970s, an engineer named Richard Marsh was bench-testing audio capacitors. He discovered that capacitors of equal value and voltage rating, but made of different materials, could sound different when inserted in the same audio circuit. I remember how outraged American audiophiles were. That some were willing to pay more for boutique capacitors claimed to sound better was proof to others that perfectionist hi-fi was nothing but snake oil designed to liberate fools from their money.