For tonight anyway.
I've had my Von Schweikert VR5 Anniversarys for a couple of months but been busy with travel for work and so I haven't fully optimized their placement in the room. Meanwhile, I've been playing with tubes and power cords, etc. This is a report on power cords and tubes that put me in the dimension of balance between texture, 3D, tonal balance, and relaxed music presentation from top to bottom with no digital glare.
I have been rolling around in tubes, and decided that my Sylvania 5u4GB/VT244 (1940s) are the best for my system (beat out EML meshes and GZ34 metal plates). I have settled on the Tung Sol 6SN7WGTA (but probably want to swap out the round plates a bit more to make sure since they were eliminated with a different rectifier).
This evening's revelation is around power cables. A couple of weeks ago, I scored 4 lessloss power cables. I first put one upstream of my PS Audio Power Plant Premier (PPP). Things were sounding pretty good. Then I installed all 4--one from the wall to PPP, one from PPP to Modwright Transporter, one from PPP to BAT VK31SE. I also ran one between PS Audio quintet (unfortunately, the PPP couldn't handle the power amp) and BAT VK75SE (with PS Audio Signature from the wall to PS audio quintet). This sounded pretty dynamic, but I noticed a thinning out of the sound--I left it like this for a week.
Tonight, I decided that the lessloss cables needed to be in different places because I wanted to eliminate the thinness and bring back the richness. I put the LessLoss cables between the wall outlets (acme cryo treated) and the PPP and Quintet. I then installed the PS Audio Statements between the Quintet and VK75SE and between the PPP and transporter and PPP and VK31SE.
This combo really added richness, weight, beauty and balance---while still retaining detail, punch, realism. Wow....wow... again.
For tonight (and probably for at least a week), I won't mess with this setup because it sounds too good.
For those of you with more experience, I'm curious what I should try next.
Mike
