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We use the Tune Method to evaluate performance

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ThomasOK
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Post by ThomasOK »

OK, time for Session 2. (I bet you thought I’d make you wait for weeks.) ;-)

As in the previous tests I cleaned the connectors of the in place cables and used the cable to the Radikal for the comparisons. Still in Mono for the same reason (woofer not back yet). I also used the same music, starting with “Maiden Voyage”. First off I decided to compare the stock Longwell WT to the Tongyuan/AT/V/H just to reacquaint myself with the setup and differences after the Longwell had a few weeks to burn in connected to the Radikal. At first something seemed a little off as the system didn’t sound as musical as I remembered it. Then I looked up and realized that I had moved the Radikal to a Tor shelf to facilitate some preamp comparisons (which I never quite got around to). So I move the Radikal back to the Mimer and now we’re cooking! The system sounds as good as I remember it and, as they were last time, the Tongyuan is good but the Longwell is better. More subtlety to the playing, the trumpet and tenor sax sounding better when playing together and easier to hear each one. Easier to follow the piano, cymbals and drums. On to more comparisons.

Longwell stock with a few weeks normal burn in vs. a fresh Longwell stock. (All the Longwells used in this comparison are the With Text direction for the wire that was found superior in the first session so I’ll be dropping the WT from this point on.) The Longwell with no natural burn in is not quite as smooth and relaxed and has a bit less depth to the notes. However, it still has the majority of the characteristics of the burned in stock Longwell and it still betters the Tongyuan just as the other Longwell had when it had no burn in. So no surprises here.

Longwell stock vs. Longwell/H, both fresh. Ahhhh! This is the ticket. With the Hubbell in place you breathe deeply and really relax into the music. The music is more subtle yet more dynamic at the same time. There is better flow and the notes sound more precise with more tuneful sounding harmonics. It is hard to write while listening as you just want to listen! A quick comparison with the Longwell stock with a few weeks burn in shows that the Hubbell AC plug more than compensates for the burn in advantage. When the Longwell/H fully burns in connected to the system it should be really sweet! As it is I certainly find it to be my top performing power cable.

Longwell/H vs. Longwell/H/V. Now it is confirmed. It’s not that the Vidared cable sounds bad but the same cable/plug with virtually no burn in sounds more musical. It allows purer, more natural sounding notes to come through the system. There are better harmonies and better dissonances as well. It is more relaxed yet with finer texture.

Longwell stock vs. Ta Hsing stock – neither burned in. (I decided to throw a Ta Hsing into the mix to see how it fared without the Vidar burn in I have used in all previous cable comparisons. I wondered if it would change its ranking and just how it would compare.) The Ta Hsing is quite good – musical with good flow. But the Longwell is a bit quieter and more on tune – especially on difficult notes or complex harmonies. It sorts out the difficult passages better.

Ta Hsing stock vs. Tongyuan/V/H. The Tongyuan is still better than the Ta Hsing despite the Vidar. It still flows a bit better and has more nuance to the notes.

Time to switch over to Steely Dan’s “The Last Mall” (not the least reason being that Debbie is likely to kill me if she hears the first minute of “Maiden Voyage” one more time tonight).

Ta Hsing stock vs. Tongyuan/V/H again. Yep, the Tongyuan is better. More dynamic pace, more nuanced notes, voices sound better. Everything is more polished. It makes you want to dance more.

Tongyuan/V/H vs. Longwell/H. Here it is…Steely Dan in the living room with the Longwell/H in position. Must dance…have to turn it up and get up and boogie… Whew! OK, I know which cable is best – which one does it for me. Longwell With Text, Hubbell AC plug, no Vidar…but I only have one??!! Let’s see Longwell no/H but with a few weeks burn in on the system connected to the KK/2. Now it’s even better although not as big an improvement as the source. Still if this bass guitar gets much more tuneful and powerful I will have a hard time believing it. Longwell no/H and no burn in at all connected to my single ATC100 and it’s even better yet (although not as big an improvement as the preamp). Hey, I have one more Longwell WT still in the bag! I’ll connect it from the wall socket to the input connector on the CablePro distribution block. Oh, oh! I can’t write now – I have to dance even if I am forced to do it in the chair. I must get up and dance…I MUST! Whew! Again! The song’s over so I can write again. Now the whole system is gelling and swinging. Looks like I need several more Longwell WTs and a bunch of Hubbell AC plugs!

Well, that’s the report. For myself I have verified that the Hubbell makes a worthwhile improvement on the Longwell just as it has on other cables and that the Longwell WT is superior to any cable I have put it up against. I have also proved to my satisfaction that Vidar burn in is not a good idea for these Linn power cables. Unfortunately it still leaves a couple of questions. It seems over time that I managed to put every single Tongyuan cable I posses (and I have a bunch) on the Vidar machine. So I can’t compare a Tongyuan that hasn’t been Vidared to the Longwell. From what I hear I believe the Longwell would still win but I can’t be sure. If I get a chance to get my hands on a non-Vidared Tongyuan I will compare it as well and report my findings. The other questions also have to do with the Vidar burn in. Does it wear off? If so how long does it take? Nordost says that it does wear off and it is good to put the cables on the machine once a year. If this is the case it should have worn off my Tongyuans by now as they were done several years ago. Something else I could confirm with a stock Tongyuan cable. And of course, does this relate to using the Vidar on interconnects and speaker cables? This is something I will also have to investigate when I have time (but don’t hold your breath). At this point all I can say is that the Vidar system seems to be counter-productive with the power cables Linn supplies. Nordost recommends it for their power cables and they use radically different construction form Linn supplied power cables so I don’t think you can make any broader generalizations based on my findings.

What I can say is that the Longwell WT cables are really good and with a Hubbell plug they are even better. My system gets an unexpected but welcome update – and it’s cheap! That’s what I call a great outcome.
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Post by ThomasOK »

I finally had the time and cables on hand to do the final installment of this Linn power cable comparison. Here are the cables I used for the final comparisons:

Longwell/Hubbell no Vidar
Longwell/Hubbell with Vidar
Longwell stock no Vidar

Tongyuan/Hubbell no Vidar
Tongyuan/Hubbell with Vidar
Tongyuan stock no Vidar

After a very thorough search of all my power cable hiding places (I didn’t realize I had so many) I managed to dig up a couple of TONGYUAN Linn power cables that had not been Vidared. I installed a new Hubbell AC plug onto one of these Tongyuans so I would have a direct comparison to the Vidared Tongyuan and the Longwell.


In the first stage of this test I listened to a stock The US Longwell vs. a stock US TONGYUAN both with no Vidar. I found the Tongyuan to be pretty close to the Longwell and sounds a little more powerful in the bass. The Longwell was still more tuneful and boogied a bit better, textures of everything but the bass were more nuanced sounding like better played instruments. Interestingly, fitting the Hubbell AC plug restored the balance in the bass and made the Longwell unquestionably superior. This was my next comparison and the Longwell with the Hubbell AC plug just pulled things all together: tunefulness, boogie factor, texture, finesse, freedom from fatigue and power all in one beautiful sounding cable.

Having done these tests and run out of time and energy I waited a couple of days and completed my testing by comparing the Tongyuan and Longwell both with the Hubbell AC plug and with and without the Vidar burn in process. Here are the results:

Tongyuan/H vs: Longwell/H. The Tongyuan is very good, bass maybe a touch heavy and less textured but it is easy to see why I like this cable. Musical and fun. The Longwell, however, is definitely better. Everything is easier to follow and boogies better. Cymbal sound, guitar overtones, rim shots, bass texture are all more tuneful, balanced and the instruments all seem to fit together better.

Interestingly, on first listen the Longwell sounds almost a touch thin in the bass in comparison but as the music goes on it becomes obvious that the bass goes deeper, has more power in the lower notes, and is more textured and musical throughout the range. It reminds me of some LP12 upgrades that clean up the bass in a way that almost makes you think the bass in insufficient until you her some real bass notes and find how much better it is.

Tongyuan/H vs. Tongyuna/V/H. No question that the non-Vidared Tongyuan is more musical and tuneful. The music is more relaxed, has better harmonics and flows better. When you play the non-Vidared Tongyuan you don’t want to stop the song to make the switch, the Vidared version is not as engaging. The thing to note here is that this Tongyuan/V/H was Vidared (as were most of my power cables) in June of 2007 – almost 5 years ago. So it does appear that the Vidar process does not wear off – at least not completely unless over a very long time.

Longwell/H vs. Longwell/V/H. The Vidared Longwell/H has that “hyper-detail” quality that pushes things like triangles, cymbals, rimshots and some voices unnaturally forward. The voice becomes aggressive and edgy, things don’t flow as well and the boogie factor just isn’t there. A quick comparison of the Longwell/V/H vs. the Tongyuan/H finds the Tongyuan definitely more enjoyable to listen to than the Vidared Longwell/H. As mentioned earlier you don’t want to stop the music to switch from the Tongyuan/H – you have no trouble switching away from the Longwell/V/H. And you REALLY don’t want to switch away from the Longwell/H. Ever tried to lift the stylus from the record while you’re still dancing? Not easy! So the Vidaring of the Longwell (which was done just a month ago) has a bigger negative effect than the positive of the Longwell being a better cable. I do think that the Vidaring does wear off some as the freshly Vidared Longwell was more actively annoying with the harsh voices and instruments than the Tongyuan that was Vidared 5 years ago. From this and the earlier tests it is also apparent that the improvement the Hubbell plug brings to these cables is also overcome by the negative of the Vidar process on Linn power cables.

So to give my ranking here, these are my cable preferences with Linn US power cables:

Longwell/Hubbell no Vidar
Longwell stock no Vidar
Tongyuan/Hubbell no Vidar
Tongyuan stock no Vidar
Tongyuan/Hubbell with 5 year old Vidar
Longwell/Hubbell with 1 month old Vidar
Longwell stock with 1 month old Vidar

The Tsa Hsing stock came in a bit below the Tongyuan/Hubbell with Vidar. I didn’t directly compare the Tsa Hsing stock to the Vidared Longwells so I can’t say for sure but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more musical so my guess is that it would end up 6th on the list. Other cables such as Baohings and earlier Linn and non-Linn cables that I have tested previously would be below these. (You can find more detain on my tests of some of the earlier cables on the second page of this thread.)


It should be noted that the Longwell version you want is the one with the text reading from the AC plug to the IEC connector or With Text as mentioned in the earlier parts of this comparison. I also want to mention that the cable situation from Linn seems different in the US than in Europe. I have not seen the mix of different cables during the same periods that Fredrik mentions in his latest updates. For the US market Linn seem to include one type of cable until they switch over to another type with little or no overlap. Because of this I have never seen a “new” Tongyuan cable from Linn. All the Tongyuans I have and have seen are probable at least 10 or 12 years old. They were followed in the early part of the 2000s by Baohings, which were replaced by the Tsa Hsings near the end of 2007. These have been replaced in the last few months by the Longwells. So it seems like Linn either buy a 5+ year supply of US power cables or at least take a look at new possibilities every decade or so.

So I expect we’ll be seeing the Longwells from Linn for a long time in the US and I have to say that is OK by me. It is, so far, the most musical cable I have found – especially when teamed up with the Hubbell AC plug. Although this latest round of tests was all conducted mainly on the Radikal I did a few of the comparisons on the Tundra and found similar benefits. This also brings up an interesting thing that happened during the time of these tests. After the first part of this last batch of tests I was doing some listening just for the enjoyment of it (I should try this more often!) and I put on Kind of Blue. The music was really enjoyable but I found myself thinking that I wondered why the bass was so weak in the mix – it just didn’t sound balanced with the other instruments. I had already noticed that the bass power and quality had improved noticeably with the Hubbell plugs so I tried rearranging the few Longwells I had with Hubbells already installed by moving a couple from source components to have one into the power strip, one to the Radikal and one to the KK/2. This made things better and I continued to listen to side one. When that ended I took the two Longwell cables from the ATCs and installed Hubbells on them (properly torqued, of course) so that the entire record playing chain had the Longwell/Hubbels and proceeded to listen to side two. Well what about that? The engineers did know what they were doing! The bass sounded to me now to be perfectly balanced with the other instruments and the quality of the bass instrument and the playing of it were now at a level I had never heard before (and I have heard this piece a lot). Kind of Blue is always beautiful, relaxing and lyrical music but it was now a step above: pure musical bliss!
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Post by The FlatEarther »

Great thread Tom and very interesting. Well done for the hard work and thank you.

Based on this thread I spent the last couple of hours going through all my cables finding all the volex ones. Luckily, I had 3 exact ones from when I lived in Germany with Shucko Euro plugs. I cut these off and soldered on brand new UK MK plugs bypassing all the fuses. (don't need them anyway as my house is completely on RCB breakers).
Next I sacrificed one older Volex by cutting the mains IEC connector plug off and soldering this directly to my distribution board replacinng the stock nothing special cable that came with the block. I also had one more short cable 1m long Volex and I used this for my Lingo.

Next I plugged them all into the board, starting with the Naim CDS nearest the incoming cable, then the Naim Supercap for the Naim 52, then the Naim 250 and lastly the Lingo so as to keep any undesired Lingo effect out of the other components as much as possible. (though I'm skeptical about this!).

Well, straight from the off, with everything from cold the Naim CDS sounded so improved I had to check I had not got the Akiva in the groove!
So next I put on the Linn, everything was so much easier and tuneful. It made me realise that there had been some hash in the system somewhere which was now gone completely.

So many thanks to all of you for this thread.

Lastly, Tom a question please. Is the current Linn supplied cable the one with the longwell wire and would this be the same in the Uk. If yes, the I'll go and order some from good old Peter at Cymbiosis who looks after my LP12 and if yes, do you have the part number from your records please.
Thanks
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Post by ThomasOK »

The current UK cord SHOULD be a Longwell of similar, but not the same, construction. The wiring used in the US is different as it passes 120 Volts, compared to 240 Volts in the UK and Europe, so it doesn't need as high a voltage capacity. US cable also is made with different thickness of wire as it is measured in Gauge rather than mm2 and the color coding of the wire itself is different. These do lead to small musical differences. If you look at the thread in this section as to the best European power cable you will see that Fredrik and others have done some research here as well and he finds a recent version of the Volex with Tongyuan to be most musical with the Longwell also being good if the wire is faced in the right direction. The UK cables are likely to be the same construction as the European ones except for the AC plug so these findings may relate to you better.

Fredrik also states that you receive different cables at different times with European Linn products. What all this means is that, if you order a cable from Peter you may or may not receive a Longwell from Linn. You might want to see if Peter stocks spare Linn AC cables (as I think is likely) and which ones he has. I'm sure he'd be willing to let you look through stock to find the type and direction you are looking for if he has it. The Linn part number for the UK AC cable should be CONN 011 and Linn does not normally change the part number on these to reflect different brands or wires. The price on all three Linn power cables: UK, Euro and US are the same so the price should be reasonable in the UK - I would expect around £20.00. If you try this let us know what you find to work best.

You might also want to try plugging your Lingo in first to the power strip to see whether that is more or less musical than how you have it now.
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Post by The FlatEarther »

Tom, once again a very helpful and informative reply. I spoke to Peter yesterday and he reccomended ordering 3 brand new Naim standard leads for the CDS Supercap and 250 and a new Linn cable for the Lingo. He said in his experience the Naim cables sounded really excellent on the Naiam kit. Consequently that is exactly what I have done and as that way Naim will send 3 identical cables. Peter will send them to me when he receives them. I'll post the results once I have done the change.
Many thanks
Warmest regards as always.
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Post by donuk »

The FlatEarther wrote: I cut these off and soldered on brand new UK MK plugs bypassing all the fuses. (don't need them anyway as my house is completely on RCB breakers).
Flat
Hi Flatearther, I am sure this is good practice sonically, and I agree there is no need for a fuse on a plug when you have circuit breakers.
The thing that worries me - and perhaps I am too careful - is what happens if you have an electrical fire, and an insurance company refuse to pay because they claim you rendered the equipment dangerous? I would love to do away with my fuses, (without moving abroad). What do others think / do?
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Post by lejonklou »

I always follow regulations. Safety goes first.

Even if some rule appears to be silly and unnecessary, there are possible future legal or insurance consequences that you just sleep better without. There's also the chance that the rule is there for a reason, and it's not silly at all.

In addition, I find that some fuses actually improve the sound. For example, Slipsik 5.1 and Kikkin 2.2 sound better with their internal mains fuse in place, than they do with no fuse. Why? Because there is a tiny bit of resistance in it, which creates a low pass filter for the power supply. In other words, it reduces some high frequency noise from the mains.

Of the many different power cords I've used, the possibly best sounding one is a particular UK cord without connector, which I use for my small products that have non removable cords. This cord has the extra fuse in the mains plug, that neither the US or European models have. I have not tried removing this fuse (and I won't), but I just find it interesting that despite (or maybe thanks to?) this fuse, it sounds really great.
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Post by sunbeamgls »

Somewhat less accurately tested and less esoteric is my experience with standard Linn cords (UK of various vintages) against Clearer Audio Copper Alpha One mains leads.

These are relatively inexpensive in hifi terms, being around 40GBP for a 1 metre length. They come with MK Pro 3 pin UK mains plugs and a fairly standard looking non-moulded IEC. Fuses are decidedly ordinary, but provided to match your requirements - generally 3 amps for sources, 5 amps for power amps. The cable is shielded - the shielding is only connected at the mains plug end, not at the IEC cable (can somebody clarify - is this to prevent setting up some kind of horrible looping or similar?).

I found very little difference between these and the Linn cables in terms of tune dem, but there are some suprising differences in presentation.

On an AV5103 (therefore traditional power supply), the standard cable tended to really emphasise some high end percussion such as cymbals, so on a first listen they seemed to be bringing out more detail. However, swapping between the 2 and spending more time on it reveals that what's actually happening is the standard cable is supressing most of the frequency range, but not the top end - so it appears to be more detailed because of this, but its actually masking some of the rest of the signal. The other effect that the Clearer Audio cables brought was a widening and deepening of the soundstage.

With an Akurate Kontrol 0 Dynamik and with Akurate DS 0 Dynamik a similar effect is noticed, but its about a quarter of the difference - much less marked.

I'm no expert on this, but I wondered if the residual but still noticeable effect on the Dynamik powered kit was more about the shielding of the mains cables preventing fields leaking out and affecting the audio signal interconnects?

As these cables are reasonably priced, I've now kitted out my complete system (well, the important stereo bits anyway) with these.

(I'm not associated with Clearer Audio by the way, and I've not compared their products to other companies products so this is purely a view on Clearer vs standard and nothing more).
KSH/0; KEBox/2; 3x Tundra Stereo 2.5; PMC fact.12. Blogger. Exakt Design. SO measuring.
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Post by The FlatEarther »

Sunbeam,
Nice report.
Well done. It's good to hear about other examples.
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Post by Tony Tune-age »

That is a good review on power cords, and it's always interesting to discover what other people experience with different products. Glad you found an improvement!
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Post by Azazello »

Two posts deleted (sorry donuk). The method of evaluation that forms the basis of the discussion on this forum is tune dem. We are not interested in discussions or debates about what is "logically" possible according to current beliefs of our participants.

EDIT: Moved one more post here.

Last edited by Azazello on 2013-01-05 11:56, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ThomasOK »

This is a preliminary update on another new Linn US AC cable. Several months ago Linn started shipping yet another all new AC cable with US products - quite a surprise as I think they had only been supplying the Longwell for around a year. This cable is made by I-Sheng and has different AC and IEC plugs from either the Longwell that preceded it or the Volex cables Linn supplied for many years with a few different wires. While the Longwell cables had not only Longwell wire but also the Longwell name molded into both connectors, the I-Sheng cables have I-Sheng molded into the wire but no branding on the IEC and QUEEN PUO molded on the AC plug. Like every Linn power cable I have seen from at least the earliest Volex ones forward the wire is 3x18 gauge, SVT, 105°C, 300V which I recall as being unshielded.

I haven't been able to do a full set of listening tests on equally burned in cables yet (since I no longer use the Vidar machine) so this is a preliminary report based on two new, unused cables. What I have found so far is that I still prefer the Longwell cables to the new I-Sheng. Switching between the two stock cables on my Radikal I found the I-Sheng to be good sounding but not as tuneful as the Longwell. On one piece of music I listened to (a Steely Dan tune used in many of the earlier tests above) I noticed the "more detailed" sound that tends to at first make you think you are hearing more by highlighting certain things on the I-Sheng. In particular it pushed the electric piano to the fore and also highlighted rim shots and cymbals. But it did so at the expense of the other instruments, electric guitar, bass, lower drums, vocals, etc. which sounded more jumbled and less together. The whole flow was more stilted and less enjoyable. Going back to the Longwell brought things back into balance, flowed better and allowed you to better appreciate what all the instruments were doing and the interplay between the musicians. It also had a deeper and more nuanced bass. These findings were confirmed with some other music from Porcupine Tree featuring electric guitar, electronic keyboards, bass, drums and vocals. Again with the I-Shing there was the artificial highlighting of some parts of the music at the expense of others and the bit more reticent and less tuneful bass (quite obvious on the powerful solo bass intro on one of the songs) while the Longwells had a more balanced tone, better handling of the bass and more insightful musical reproduction overall. After doing these comparisons and putting back in my normal Longwell with the Hubbel AC plug I once again found the benefits of the Hubbel plug clear with a more potent and better balanced bass and again more tuneful and flowing performance across the frequency range. I didn't do any testing against any previous cables but may do that after they are burned in, if I am so inclined.

I now have these two stock cables burning in on some other analog Linn equipment that is run 24/7. In a few weeks I will bring them both back home and compare them again to see how they fare when fully burned in. For now I have to say that I'm happy I rewired my whole main system with Longwells while Linn was still supplying them.
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Post by macrotech2 »

Does anyone know if Linn actually listen themselves to mains cables? I have a strong suspicion that they don't.
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Post by Tony Tune-age »

macrotech2 wrote:Does anyone know if Linn actually listen themselves to mains cables? I have a strong suspicion that they don't.
I was told that Linn does listen to their mains cables, but not sure to what extent. Linn has made changes in their power cords over the years, not sure if it was due to cost, or performance, or both.
Last edited by Tony Tune-age on 2013-03-18 20:16, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by mrco99 »

My deepest respect Thomas for your thorougly enjoyable and expertised post.
With such accuracy and golden ears you must be working miracles for your customer base!
If you'd ever happen to visit Amsterdam, lent me an ear ;-)
Cheers,

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Post by ThomasOK »

Thanks for the comment, Marco.

Just getting back with the promised update. I burned in the fresh Longwell and I-Sheng cables for almost two months and this last weekend had a chance to listen to them again. As mentioned in the post above these were both stock cables from Linn that were opened and plugged in at the same time. The listening test turned out to be quite interesting but not due to any change in the ranking of these two cables. Indeed I felt the musical difference between the two was similar in quality but even bigger in quantity. By that I mean that the Longwell is definitely the best AC cable I have heard in my system and the difference between it and the I-Sheng was bigger after they both burned in. The I-Sheng still had the more forward sound and the reticent bass with a less tuneful performance but the difference was big enough that I always immediately got caught up more in the music with the Longwell (I used a Jack Johnson album and the same Steely Dan track as above) and wanted to switch back to it ASAP when I was running the I-Sheng. I didn't do any comparisons with older cables but I suspect the I-Sheng is not in the league of the Tongyuan cables either. All these comparisons were carried out with my Radikal (AK) on the top Mimer shelf of the rack.

Where things got really interesting was when I was ready to go back to the Longwell cable with Hubbell plug I had been using before I conducted these A/B comparisons. Expecting the musical improvements I am used to getting from the Hubbell plug I connected it back in and listened to the same track I was just playing. Hmmmm? I'm not sure this sounds as musical as the stock, molded on AC plug. So I go back and forth a couple times and find that I really think the stock Longwell is more enjoyable, more fun and a touch better balanced. This is surprising in light of my previous findings where I preferred the Hubbell connector. So what is the reason for this change? I have a couple of theories but no definitive answer yet. One change from when I did my last tests is that I have installed a single additional Mimer shelf using the Spruce thin board. I found this did indeed provide an increase in musicality and it is this shelf the Radikal was on. So it may be that this is allowing me to hear more of what the Hubbell is doing. But another possibility is that the connections of the plug to the wire, which are screw terminals, might degrade over time. At this point I don't know the reason but I have pulled the Longwell/Hubbells out of the system and wired it all with stock Longwells for the time being and I am really enjoying it. I plan to investigate this further but not until I have a Kandid in my system so that I am listening to as much information from the record as possible but this may be a few months. In the meantime I'd say the stock Longwell AC cable is a safe bet as a very musical sounding cable. Too bad Linn has replaced them with the I-Sheng as I'm not as happy with it at all.
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Post by lejonklou »

An update on European power cords:

As I needed to purchase more power cords, I did an evaluation of all the models I've managed to get my hands on this year. The four best ones are listed below. Sadly, there are no new brands or models in this list. Quite a few other brands - and variations of old favourite models - have been tried, but proved disappointing.

I used only the best direction when ranking the power cords listed below. It happened to be "with text" in all four cases. That is: The text on the cable can be read from the plug (wall/strip) to the connector (HiFi unit).

Interestingly, the ranking order of these four known cords is not the same as I arrived at a few years ago. I don't know why this is, but it's certainly worth remembering. Unlike Volex cords, which are unmarked, Longwell mark their cables with year. I have Longwells from 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and they all sound a little bit different. Is it a variation between specimen or related to the manufacturing year? I don't know.

From best to worst, top four, all direction 'with text':

1. Volex M2511A plug - 2.5m TA HSING H05VV-F 3G1.00mm2 cable - V1625 connector

2. Volex M2511A plug - 2.5m TONGYUAN H05VV-F 3G1.00mm2 cable - V1625 connector

3. Longwell LP-33 plug - 2.5m LONGWELL-P 2012 H05VV-F 3G1.00mm2 cable - LS-13 connector

4. Volex M2511A plug - 2.5m BAOHING H05VV-F 3G1.00mm2 cable - V1625 connector


The cords were compared powering an Akurate Radikal, a phono stage and power amps. The ranking was the same in all cases when judged with the Tune Method. Soundwise, the results are a bit different when comparing on a Radikal versus comparing on power amps. It's often easiest to compare on Radikal, but if it becomes difficult, doing the same comparison on a different type of product can clarify the differences.
Chapelier
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Post by Chapelier »

Thanks Thomas for all these tests!

I'm curious to know if there's a website where we can order those Longwell power cords Linn used to supply with their equipment in america?
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Post by Rudi64 »

Chapelier wrote:Thanks Thomas for all these tests!

I'm curious to know if there's a website where we can order those Longwell power cords Linn used to supply with their equipment in america?
Hi,

You can asked your Linn dealer to order then at Linn.
I did it that way...
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Post by ThomasOK »

Chapelier wrote:Thanks Thomas for all these tests!

I'm curious to know if there's a website where we can order those Longwell power cords Linn used to supply with their equipment in america?
Unfortunately not that I have been able to find. Linn has replaced them with the I-Sheng ones, at least in the US, so I can no longer get the Longwells. Linn only supply whatever is the current cable so the only other chance is to find a dealer that still has some old stock. Honestly, I don't know many dealers who stock much in the way of Linn power cables. Many would rather sell you some expensive 3rd party cable. We stock a decent number here as I have in the past demonstrated to customers that a Linn power cable often improves the musicality of other products, Rega amps and CD players being a good example. So we do tend to sell a fair amount of Linn AC cables.

I did check at one time to see if I could order the cables directly from Longwell but they did not respond to my requests. Fredrik and I have discussed the possibility of ordering power cables we both find to be the most musical but it looks like you won't get much attention if you don't want to order 10,000 or so - a lot more than we would have use for. So far I haven't found any other place that might sell small quantities of the same Longwell cable as they seem only to sell to manufacturers.
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Post by Chapelier »

Thanks for your response! And I understand that 10,000 cables is a little bit excessive :D
MidLinnCrisis
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Post by MidLinnCrisis »

Hi All
I was asking about Linn stock cables and was directed here. All my Linn components have been purchased used so I am never sure if I am getting a stock Linn power cable, not to mention I wasn't sure what one would look like anyway!
After reading through this thread I went to my box 'o power cords and took down all the markings on the cable ( I did not think to mark down what was on the plugs). I have rearranged some of the markings to make them easier to compare:
YEH YANG E92770 SVT 75º AWG18X3C VW-1 CSA TYPE SVT LL58352 FT2 60º 0 444016 [72”]
BAOHING (UL) E159216 SVT 3X18AWG VW-1 CSA TYPE SVT LL112007-1 LF [77”]
CHUNG KWANG E94024 SVT 75º AWG18X3C VW-1 CSA TYPE SVT LL65965 60º FT2 0 544001 [72”]
LONGWELL-P (UL) E55333 SVT 105ºC 3C/18AWG 300V VW-1 CSA TYPE SVT 105º FT2 (N.M.) [72”]
APOLLO (UL) E55351-4 SVT 75º 18AWGX3C VW-1 CSA TYPE SVT LL34977 FT2 60º [72”]
I-SHENG (UL) E88265-K SVT 18AWGX3C VW-1 CSA TYPE LL81924 SVT 60ºC FT2 [72”]
I-SHENG (UL) E88265 SJT 75º 18AWGX3C VW-1 CSA TYPE LL81924 SJT 60º FT2 O 444027 [81”]
I-SHENG (UL) E88265 SVT 75º 18AWGX3C VW-1 CSA TYPE LL81924 SVT 60º FT2 O 444027 [96”]
I also had two other cords with no lettering on the cable itself but this on the plugs:
PENCOM USS 15A MADE IN ENGLAND [77"]
PENCOM USS 15A MADE IN ENGLAND VOLEX [77”]
I included the length in case this helps wit identification. So, from what I have read so far it would appear that the BAOHING and LONGWELL might be Linn stock cables. Anything else ring a bell with anyone?

Thanks, Brian
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Post by lejonklou »

MidLinnCrisis wrote:I was asking about Linn stock cables and was directed here.
Good advice. Welcome here Brian!

Yes, the Baohing (marked Volex on the plug, I assume?) and Longwell cables could have been supplied by Linn. Or by me! They are likely to sound better than most of the others. Keep them!

Linn now supplies I-Sheng in North America, so any of your three I-Shengs could be from them as well. I have tested two I-Shengs and found them OK but not as good as the Volex and Longwell cords. Thomas OK agrees with me, according to his post above. I notice your three are different in length and this has a clear effect on performance. Compare them and keep the best one!

I don't know anything about Yeh Yang, Chung Kwang, Apollo or Pencom. You could either give them a listen or contact Thomas OK and ask him to supply you with the best he's currently found (I believe they are Longwells), at least for the most important units in your system.
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Post by rowlandhills »

Brian - are you looking for UK, Euro or US cables?
KRDSM, Tundra to 242s
Silvers, K400, Hutter rack
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lejonklou
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Post by lejonklou »

Those are all North American cables, rowlandhills.
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