How Much Do You Need to Spend on a PC?

I have owned or have experience with the following cords MIT Z (original), XLO, LAT, BMI Edge (entry level cord), Blue Cirlce BC 62 and Cardas Golden. For the money, the BC 62 and the Cardas Golden (I paid $200 for the Cardas, about $160 for the BC 62) are, IMO, excellent values. The Cardas is warmer, more musical in my opinion, but the BC offers very good value when compared to the Cardas at their respective retail prices. The cheaper cords I've used have tended to be more forward, edgier and less musical. On Audio Asylum, there is a lot of discussion about DIY cords and in the past week I've put a Volex 17604 re-terminated with a good quality Hubbell male end on my DVD player (which I use to listen to music). Total cost of the 17604 and Hubbell plug-$20. I had to buy an adaptor from Harmonic Tech ($45) with a small two-pin connection from the DVD player to IEC to hook up the Volex cord. The improvements were not subtle: I'd put them in the same league as upgrading from an Arcam 7 CD player to the 8 or 8SE which I used to own and that cost in the $300-$400 area. There's been a lot of talk at AA suggesting that the Volex if properly terminated is a cord capable of competing with a lot of the $300-$500 cords. Don't know whether it's true or not, but it's definitely worth $20 and betters the LAT, XLO, MIT Z and BMI Edge. A very musical cord with little to find fault with. If you want, you can also buy a quality female IEC and re-terminate at that end, possibly improving performance even further.

Thanks David and HDM. David I also have captive cords on my Musical Fidelity amp and power supply and will wait till the warrenty expires before attempting to splice in a new PC. That is if I still have it by then. And thank you Brulee (boy looks like were all caught up for the Holidays. LOL). I am off to the record store to see if I can find "ALL Things Must Pass" on CD after Tubegroover's recap of the studio band. I have a pile of rank crap to trade in for credit as well.

"All Things Must Pass" is barely a so so sounding cd.Too bad. For Tom-M;A good pre would be a place to start. Good power cords will help what you have now;but as chef Emeile might say; "Lets crank it up to the next level" is what happens with a good pre. IMO, for right now a GOOD power cord is the best small "fix" for the money.Long term, a great pre,and tubes would be my choice.Happy Holidays!!

Hi Tom...I've used a number of inexpensive cords which have improved results considerably on a fairly expensive system ($28K). I'm sure that the expensive cords would improve it even more, but I still have trouble spending more than $300 (used) on a cord (ask me again next year). I've also used the Transparents (now in my HT system). I like the HT cord for the money, esp on SS preamp, very smooth. The Wireworld is good too, tight bass,good detail. But for a little more $$ you can get a BMI Eel on Audiogon auctions which are a big improvement (esp dynamics and palpability). I have a somewhat more expensive cord on its way(Audio Magic Illusion). 'Will see if it's worth it. With the cheaper cords consider a decent power cond...I use an Audioprism Found 3, which is very good for the money and doesn't limit current in amps (have a Richard Gray on the way for try-out, too). Good luck in your search and remember, just because the less expensive cords aren't as good as the big bucks cords, doesn't mean they can't improve things a lot. PS...before trying bunches of cords I used several pretty expensive speaker cables ($1500-$2500) and ICs ($1,000+) and have now gone to middle $ stuff ($400-$1,000) that's almost as good in my system. Some can justify the extra expense, but I find it hard to justify (room treatments help more, esp Roomlenses, at least in my system).

AVguyGeorge: Then you may want to check out the digitally re-mastered version that is due out late February. That is if you are talking about the engineering. The shop that I went to today said that Harrison pulled it due to the artwork, otherwise it would have been released in November 2000.