MY Sidewinder AC cord progress:

Forgive me for being so long winded lately, but all I'm really doing is quoting my notes.................This will be my impressions of the BLACK MAMBA power cord on CD player, and TIFFANY T-60 power cord on power amp................................More tonal neutrality, but the midrange got kind of noisy, and could turn quite "hard" at times (it's never done that with the Tiffany cord before; a curiousity). The air between instruments was not as clear as the most recent combo (from directly above: Black Mamba-CD player/Sidewinder-power amp). However, bass extension was thankfully helped. It had more weight, but also gave up a large amount of pitch definition and upper bass "snap". I'm really missing that aspect of the Sidewinder, by far it's strongest performance feature (it's now on its way back to the Cable Company).....................The entire soundstage's depth became truncated (again when compared to the previous ac cord combo), but now at least the treble range was not being projected forward at all. Basically, there was a tad less resolution and some grain added, with less refinement, and less liquidity. The images of instruments were less distinctly defined in space, with less ambient/reverberant detail retrieval. Fine detail just didn't get resolved like the Sidewinder could do, but dynamic contrasts were better (except in the treble)........................Tonal balance was EXTREMELY even, and the timbral color of midrange instruments seemed more faithful, but less detailed and liquid. The Tiffany didn't start and stop as quick, but revealed the dynamic envelop with a more even handed approach to the entire frequency range. The Tiffany, in this combo, was slightly less fatigueing after a long listening session. I attribte this to less "hyping" of the upper bass and treble ranges.

Interesting takes Carl, I was inclined to switch my cords around based on your reference MIT cord on your CD player. I had one on my Classe and a couple of Synergistic Master Couplers on my Meridian front end. I put the MIT on the transport and WOW!! I now have the SR Masters on my DAC and amp and the SR's improved the bass in the lower octaves tremendously. I think both components improved based on the switch but I don't know which had the biggest impact. I haven't done any crictical listening yet but when I made the switch I put on a Sheryl Crow disc to settle them in and didn't get up until it was finished! Good luck on your quest.

Romies, I'm glad you heard improvements after your experiment! I've got a Synergistic Reference Coupler on the way to try next, and hope to also try the Shunyata Cobra, and an ESP Essence........I've never had so much fun evaluating cables before, and never realized that AC cords make as much difference as the cables actually carrying the signal, but they sure do! Maybe a good analogy could be a car's engine, where the AC cord would be like the fuel line/fuel injection for the engine...since it would have total effect on the engine's performance. The interconnect and speaker cables would be the drivetrain, and the speakers would be the wheels/tires.

No doubt! It is amazing how much difference power cords make. I'll be real interested to hear what you think of the SR Reference - I hear it is a big improvement over the Master Couplers it's also twice as expensive. Hey, what's your final take on the MIT cord on your CD player? Is it a keeper or what. Later.

So far, it's a keeper, yes. I bought it, and have had it six months.