Well, I finally did it. I contacted John today and ordered three 6' Silver Reference power cords. I realize I made reference to impending purchases over a month ago, but here's the deal.
The Monday following my last post in this thread, I sent my speakers back to SP Technology for "correcting" and didn't get them back until 4 days ago (Fri, 14 Jul). At the time, I was auditioning a pair of prototype PCs (hereafter referred to as the "über" cables) from a relatively well-known company. Since they were only about half-way through their recommended break-in period, I left them in the system when the Timepieces returned.
This was to be the final comparison before making my decision. Had I chosen to keep them, I could have purchased the über cables at a small fraction of their eventual retail price, and the opportunity to evaluate and compare the cable with the Silver Ref was much too good a deal to pass up.
So the Timepieces arrive, and they're all I'd hoped they'd be. Gone was the extreme excess energy in the highs, the honkiness and the hardness I'd heard before. The sound was so much smoother and more organic that I had to call Bob to tell him how pleased I was with his efforts.
But a short time later, things began to change. I knew a lot of the crossover components were new, so a few sonic speed bumps along the way was not unexpected. But considering the issues I'd had before, this was troubling.
The highs began to slowly make their presence a bit more known. Over the next 3-4 hours, the sound went from relaxed and enjoyable to beyond annoying. At volumes much above a whisper, the highs seemed to penetrate our skulls and explode. Listener fatigue seemed less of an issue than survival. It was
BAD!
Sooooo....having been through speaker break-in before – but never anything like this – I began to investigate.
I was using borrowed speakers cables (Straley’s), so I replaced them with a tried-and-true copper speaker cable I know to be neutral to very slightly warm.
No change.
So I scramble around and find my old twice- (or is it thrice-?) modified battery-powered ack dAck!, thinking that maybe replacing the SB2's DAC might improve things a bit.
No such luck.
By this time I'm calling my friends, asking if they've had similar experiences with speakers, and seeking suggestions for my next move. I got everything from "get a tube preamp" to "give it a month or two and see if it improves."
A month or two of skull-splitting highs was *NOT* an option.
Though it really hasn’t been that long from a minutes and hours standpoint, my banshee of a system combined with extreme frustration has just about driven me insane. Just as my severely diminished logic and reasoning is leading me to believe that I need to either (1) replace my entire system, (2) send the speakers back, or (3) grab an axe from the shed and have a field day, I decide to replace the über cables with the Silver Refs…you know…the ones that haven't been used the past-month-and-a-half. I didn't expect much in the way of improvements because the über cables were pure copper (usually warm, if anything), and the company's previous PC offerings were all stellar performers. I fact, ALL their previous cables were excellent, without exception. Never, *EVER* were any of them the slightest bit bright, much less capable of the insanity-inducing laser beams currently wreaking havoc with my skull and its contents.
You know where this is going.
Within seconds of firing up the system, I called for my wife to come back into the house (she was out watering plants or some such nonsense). I paused the track (Tommy Emmanuel's
Can't Get Enough from
Midnight Drive) and waited until she was properly situated in the middle of the sweet spot. After listening for…ohhh...I'd say 10 seconds....she turns to me, eyes wide, obviously incredulous. "It sounds GREAT! WHAT did you DO?!?"
Black Sands power cords, I tell her…the Silver Refs.
She stares at the system, eyes still wide, her jaw swaying with the music somewhere between her ankles and her knees.
I say I'm going to buy them.
She says do it.
So I did.
That's why it took so long for me to pull the trigger, and it's also how I arrived to the point of essentially not having a choice.
All the things I said before about the Black Sands PCs still stand. They're the best I've had in my system, and are far and away the best high-performance bang-for-the-buck PC you're likely to find anywhere.
FWIW, I told John today that his PCs are WAAAAAAAAAY under priced for the performance they offer. Come to find out I wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know, so if you're on the fence, I suggest you act before it's too late.
Lastly, if you own a Butler Audio amplifier, please…seriously, please…take one of the Black Sand offerings for spin in your system. I strongly suggest that you (and your amp) have a great deal to gain via the purchase of a Silver Reference power cord. Between my experiences and those of Lonewolf, I think my assertion is a lot more fact than opinion.
