Cut to chase, at least regarding Debra's favorite. Listened to a Richard Wagner prelude, Lyle Lovett (N. Dakota). She preferred the molded mains cable. No ABX, I just switched cables each time and she consistently preferred the unknown to her molded cable. "I know what I like," she said.
She left the room.
Debra had requested a "more clear" program. I interpreted this to mean the bass was a little thick, because both music programs have good clarity and detail. Normally main monitors are high-pass crossed @ 80 Hz. This room has horrible bass modes. For this test I ran the main monitor array center channel full range, and no sub array. I switched the high-pass back in and overall performance improved. I'll ask her to redo the test later with the high-pass switched in.
I returned to Lovett's superb studio recording (almost positively all acoustic effects are electronic, not natural). I heard what she described in the molded cable: smaller stage, closer images, more clarity, less sweet, less instrument separation. But I was not necessarily convinced of a favorite.
Returned to the Taylor CD. Again, this Best of Live CD is a great live recording. With the sub array (off for this test) bass on this CD has that huge "breathing" effect that almost makes you swallow, like falling down the peak in a roller coaster, only present on good live recordings. Huge layered stage and great natural imaging. If they added effects in the studio they did it well enough that I can't tell. In Trinaural you can envision the audience at least 75' beyond the front wall.
Only one switch was needed to confirm my preference for the SW mains cable. This time I'll describe the difference this way: the molded mains cable sounds like a smaller stat with a good portion of its rear output damped. The SW mains cable sounds like a floor to ceiling stat with its rear wave fully open. In both imaginary cases the stats are ideally setup for maximum performance.
Just for reference, I'll confirm the following later with same A-B test (same two mains cables) on my CD player. Every other time I've done similar A-B test with mains cables the SW cable blows away the molded cable, no contest. Considering Ncore results, and especially considering 2' SW vs. 6' molded lengths, it's possible, as some suggested, that "upgrades" and tweaks producing X performance increase with regular components might yield less audible results with Ncore.
I'm anxious to wrap fuses with Teflon plumber's tape. Trung highly recommends this tweak.
I finally fixed a cosmetic issue on the monitors so I can take new images and post them with description of this fairly odd ball system (Trinaural, two monitors per channel in vertical dipole array, sub array, dual use HT/music with 92" retractable perforated screen).
