[DaveC113]

Hi Alan, thanks for your detailed write-up, I appreciate it! 

Your review is exactly what I've come to expect. I totally get what you mean when you hear an improvement that you didn't think could be improved. Power is often like that, the power conditioning gets rid of slight noise/haze that didn't seem recognizable before, and this makes the sound more relaxed as there is less noise/harshness, which causes fatigue and tension in the listener. It also provides better clarity so you can hear more of the music, more resolution and detail connects you to the music to a greater degree.

There are also benefits to plugging your entire system into the power conditioner wrt grounding and associated noise, see the sticky on power for details. Having a power conditioner that doesn't muzzle your amp(s) is a big benefit!

All in all, there are other products that do a reasonable job with power conditioning but none have the SurgeX's patented series surge elimination technology and very few use the quality of parts I do, none for the same money. The upgraded SurgeX units are really the deal of the century for power conditioning/distribution.

[econalan]

Thanks for the follow-up, Dave. Power tour is on its way to usp1.

[xsb7244]

Dave,

I know you have a lot on your plate, but have you started working a little on your future speaker?

[DaveC113]

Dave,

I know you have a lot on your plate, but have you started working a little on your future speaker?

Yes! I have a prototype for the mid/high driver arrangement that has been done for a while now and plans to get a test box for the woofers done very soon. I have several woofers to test and choose from, then I will come up with a final design for the enclosure. Right now I plan on having an active version with dsp/driver correction/eq available and a passive version with 1st order crossovers for the purists. Right now the sound I am getting is fantastic, I can't wait to finish the woofer selection and get the prototype done! 

The speaker will have a large waveguide/horn and I am working on having a composite mold made for it. These days composites have all sorts of different properties, some of which will work very well for this purpose. There are epoxies with visco-elastic properties and fibers such as basalt rock fiber that will have better damping properties vs carbon fiber. It's likely it'll end up a mix of basalt and carbon fiber with several layers arranged to form a constrained layer damping system. This will be a very high tech waveguide but the truth is in a speaker like this the material the horn/guide is made of is very important. I was going to use turned wood and have considered stacked ply... but there are some serious drawbacks to going that route. The composite mold is expensive but not as expensive as turned wood or stacked ply after a certain volume has been achieved. The composite horn is also likely to sound more neutral than wood, which does add some of it's own sound when used for audio. It's a nice sound but I prefer no sound character at all if I can achieve it. The composite mold also allows/encourages me to lower the price so I can move more volume, which is good for everybody. 

I'll have more details and maybe start a thread on it when the prototype is complete. I plan on hiring some help so I don't get swamped during the holidays, last season I was not able to work on the design for months because I had a lot of orders to fill. This is a good thing for sure, but I had no time to work on the speaker.

[xsb7244]

Dave,

Please launch your speaker thread now.  It could take a year or more to finish your speaker.  It would be great to see you document with words and pictures each step of the process of building the speaker.  To make a speaker you are proud of, I am sure there will be ups and downs as you go thru the process.  Dave you make cables that people want to buy because you are so good at it for the price and quality.  Are you sure you want to enter the arena of speakers?  A big undertaking to be sure.  High risk high reward?  Will your speakers be the same philosophy as your cables?  I can't wait to see your speaker thread.  Best of luck Dave.

[usp1]

I received the SurgeX and the three power cables. I am hoping to get some quality time this weekend to listen to them.

[DaveC113]

xsb, I appreciate the interest but the speaker will have to be judged on the result. It's fairly unique and there's too much I don't want to share publicly. I can say it's a constant directivity design starting under 400 Hz with omni low frequencies. The polars look awesome. The goal is to combine the cohesiveness of a small full-range point source with the dynamics of a large speaker. Clarity, resolution, speed and soundstaging are also strong points. Especially soundstaging, it's the best I've ever experienced which points to a lot of good things going on. I will make sure I post a preview once the design is finalized. 

usp1, good to hear the gear arrived safely, I look forward to see what you think!   

[jtwrace]

The polars look awesome.

Post them.

[DaveC113]

Post them.

Lol, let's wait until they are ready to go, I don't want to post info that may change slightly later... I will wait and measure the final prototype.  I do appreciate the interest though! 

[jtwrace]

Lol, let's wait until they are ready to go, I don't want to post info that may change slightly later... I will wait and measure the final prototype.  I do appreciate the interest though! 

What software are you using for the Polar Plots?  Where are they being done?  Obviously it's not trivial. 

[DaveC113]

What software are you using for the Polar Plots?  Where are they being done?  Obviously it's not trivial.

It's not up for discussion right now. Let get back on topic please. Thanks! 

[DaveC113]

Here's a pic of the SurgeX SEQ with an updated faceplate, fingerprints are gratis  . I can customize it fairly easily... make it in any color you want, engrave your name on it, etc...

[usp1]

I just finished my stint with the goodies that Dave was so kind enough to share. Thank you so much for doing this Dave! The cords look very nice and are very flexible!

My system consists of a Marantz SA8004 CDP feeding via digital coax to a Benchmark DacPre and into a McCormack DNA2 dlx which drives Gallo Reference 3.1s. All interconnects are OCC copper. For this test, I used the following CDs: Chesky Jazz Sampler 2; Jennifer Warnes The Hunter; Regina Spektor Begin to Hope and Dire Straits Brother in Arms.

My first experiment was to replace the amp power cord (currently a Acoustic Zen Tsunami) with the PL11 cord. Since this was my first experience with higher priced power cords I was expecting to be wowed but I could perceive no difference. I switched between the AZ, the ZenWave and a Pangea AC9SE cord but I could hear no difference. (Keep in mind that this may be due to the limits of resolution of my system or my ears) In a way I was relieved that I could not hear any difference as I was dreading the upgrade cycle.

For my next experiment, I had to reconfigure my system a little bit. In my current system, the amp is powered directly from the wall from one outlet and the rest of the system is powered through an APC S15 power conditioner/backup. Putting the amp on the APC makes it sound dull and lackluster. Because of this there is a very faint hum that I can hear if I put my ear close to the tweeter. Also. when I power up the system the inrush of current to the amp causes the APC backup to come on for the first 30 seconds or so. I reconfigure my stem to run from the SurgeX. Now the amp and preamp were on the SurgeX but I left the Marantz on the APC. Several immediate and noticeable changes. The APC backup did not come on so no whoosh at the beginning. Second, the tweeter was dead quiet - no hum of any kind. And lastly, the harder bits to describe. Perhaps because of the lower noise floor everything seemed to be a little bit better. I could hear more tiny details in the music and the sound stage seemed to be more layered.

As a third experiment, I went back and tried using the AZ and Pangea cable with the SurgeX instead of Dave's cables. Once again I could not discern a difference.

So, in summary, the SurgeX was a very positive addition in my system. And although I could not hear any improvement when I added the power cords, I did not detect anything negative either. Also, the cords look pretty cool!

Thanks again Dave for giving me this opportunity to try out your power cord. The tour now continues to Ron in AZ.

[DaveC113]

usp1, thanks for the report, I appreciate it!

I'm glad to hear the SurgeX made a positive difference in your system. I'm surprised differences in power cables don't seem to be audible, but I guess it's one less thing to worry about. 

On the SurgeX, I'm sure a lot of the benefit comes from being able to plug everything in to one power distribution point. For the reason check out my sticky post on the subject, it points out why this is the case. Lowering the noise floor makes for better clarity and resolution, so I feel it's very important. Using the system I detail in the sticky post and building my own amp and preamp keeping this info in mind has resulted in a system with no noise even with your ear right up against the drivers in a 95 dB efficient system. 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=128309.0

[Early B.]

I wasn't on the tour, but I do have a super quick review of a SurgeX that Dave modded for me.

I have great power conditioning (UberBuss), but no surge protection. Since my locality has frequent brownouts and such, I needed to address this issue. However, I was very reluctant to introduce another component, especially one that would negatively impact the sound. After speaking with Dave, he suggested that I grab a used SurgeX off ebay and he would mod it for me. OK, I did that, and Dave offered several options for mods. At first, I didn't want to spend a lot of money to mod a "cheap," used surge protector, but after my experiences with the Furutech GTX receptacles, I realized that if I want to "do no harm," I need to outfit the SurgeX with some really high quality materials. The first thing was to replace the single receptacle unit with a GTX-Gold that I happen to have lying around. Dave replaced the power cord, IEC, and caps. Once I got it back, I plugged it up, let it burn in for a few hours, and sat down to listen. I was stunned by the fact that not only did the SurgeX not do any harm, but it actually made my system sound significantly better! I wasn't expecting a cleaner sound, more detail retrieval, more realism, etc. Sure, it cost a bit more than I budgeted, but once I plugged it in, the cost didn't matter.

If you need surge protection, I would wholeheartedly recommend that you chat with Dave to work out a SurgeX solution.     

[DaveC113]

Thanks for the report, Early B.!

I am happy to be able to offer a power conditioning and surge elimination solution that does not have a negative effect on the sound of every system it has been used in so far, including the VSA room at RMAF 2014 that won best sound of show in the cost-no-object category by TAS. In this room it made a massive improvement that contributed to winning this award. In other systems, and in a typical installation, the results won't be so dramatic because the incoming power is far better than at an audio show, but it almost always makes for a more relaxed and easy to listen to presentation.