Power cord recommendations: RM150 - RM300

Bimmerman.

Save money. Buy a good condition used Krell.
Krell KSA-300S would be very nice indeed. You can temporarily use your 300i as a preamp.

KSA-300S, Hmmm... Now that one motha Krell that will drive any speaker at any load. But do you think the 300i as a pre would do it justice? The 300i does not even have balanced pre-outs. And then my Minima Amator would suddenly become the weak link in my system. And then i'll probably need the Wadia CD player, 3 phase electrical and eventually a new house with a ballroom with proper acoustic treatment for the Focal JMLabs grand Utopia to come alive and.....

Nah, i'll keep my humble setup till my ship comes in.

Mr Wong, You don't happen to have a 300s for sale do you?

Haha!

But bimmer, I thought you were looking for a 'proper' Krell just now?

My dealer/friend gets used Krell once a while. Sure, I can keep an eagle eye out for you. Having said that, I -think- he do have an FBP-200 in the shop right at this moment....

My suggestion of using the 300i as the pre is only for temporary period. Of course eventually you would get a proper matched preamp, like the KCT....

But seriously, I always tell my friends - and myself - this is the lesson of life, we need to be positive and we -will- upgrade slowly but surely.

WongKN,

If I were a rich man i'd come pick you up right now and we'll go for an 8 course dinner, then massage and spa, then we head on to your dealer/friend to pick up a proper Krell, that KCT thingy, Wadia CD, some decent speakers.....

But alas... i'm just a poor man with an "improper" salary so the KAV-300i is relatively "proper" for me and my meagre budget. A 300iL would be more of a logical upgrade for me. Though I feel I really need Electa Amators instead of the Minima Amator.

Thanks for the advice, no 8 course dinner but teh tarik and roti telor can ah?

Ah ! Roti Telur is one of my favourite snacks !

Sometimes my dealer/friend will have used Sonus Fabers for sale as well. He -was- a Sonus Faber dealer previously. So if I ever see a pair of used Amators, I will be sure to let you know ! Amators are a lot easier to get. It's the Sonus Faber Extrema that is the really rare ones.

bimmer,

300iL how muchie nowadays?

If u already got the KAV-300i, why bother with 300iL or even the 400xi.

its like changing from a E36 to E46. Not really an upgrade in class.

But going from a 323ci to a 645i (in your language) .. Now, thats upgrading !

BTW, if one doesn't mind dealing with that Solehah character, he might still got that KSA-300S for sale ?

Also, You got ready buyer for your KAV-300i already.... car-o-scope's been hunting for one high and low.

Yup.. the 300iL sounds like more suitable to a peasant like me. hahahahahaha..

But still pls answer my question above ya..

You guys are giving very good moral boost and encouragement to bimmer.

u are another sh!t stirrer lah. hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Shhhhhh.... Ok la.. I am just trying to help out though I am just the 'keh leh feh'..
At the same time also want to look for some info mar..

WongKN wrote:Ah ! Roti Telur is one of my favourite snacks !

Sometimes my dealer/friend will have used Sonus Fabers for sale as well. He -was- a Sonus Faber dealer previously. So if I ever see a pair of used Amators, I will be sure to let you know ! Amators are a lot easier to get. It's the Sonus Faber Extrema that is the really rare ones.

Mr. Wong, you referring to Adrian? Yeah, bought some stuff from him before. Gave me a vintage Sonus Faber brochure and gave me good advice about my Minima Amator. He told me the first generation is worth keeping as it has the best wood. Expecially since mine is the "no holes" model. No holes meaning it lacks the mounting holes for the original stands. He had a pair of Electa Amators there at that time and offered me a good exchange deal too. Also, he had a Sonus Faber Musica with a lucky serial number. I don't think i'd want the Extrema. At 100Kilos each i might as well look for some floor standers. And I don't think my KAV300i can drive these.

car o scope wrote:bimmer,

300iL how muchie nowadays?

300iL about RM6-7K used. But good luck trying to find one in KL.

mugenfoo wrote:If u already got the KAV-300i, why bother with 300iL or even the 400xi.

its like changing from a E36 to E46. Not really an upgrade in class.

But going from a 323ci to a 645i (in your language) .. Now, thats upgrading !

BTW, if one doesn't mind dealing with that Solehah character, he might still got that KSA-300S for sale ?

Also, You got ready buyer for your KAV-300i already.... car-o-scope's been hunting for one high and low.

Actually it was Adrian who told me that the 300iL is the one to get when I was looking for the 300i. In fact I'm currenly in his long waiting list of people waiting to buy KAV-300i/300iL. But he never did call me back so I finally imported it from Singapore. But no lah, with all the tweaking i've made I think my 300i sounds pretty impressive now. Of course until someone poisons me by bringing over a 300iL or Ayre or something like that

But one thing i'm quite sure about is i'll definately stick with integrated amps for the near future. Hmmm... Gryphon Tabu comes to mind.

isnt gryphon tabu is a bit outdated?
& its rated 100w/ch which is 40% lower than 300i
if its under one class, u can observe lacks of evrything

bimmerman wrote:Silclear arrived 3 days ago.

Tried it on my power plugs and female IEC socket first. Yes, huge improvement! Better transparency, detail and speed is immediately realised. After a few hours, more so. Bass boominess almost all gone despite my speakers being rather close to the rear wall.

Next, valve pins. Wowzers!!! Fine treble details i've never heard before. I can now place and separate different musical instruments in their own space and time. Vocal performances seem to gain emotion and expression.

Next, RCA connectors and banana plugs. Did not percieve any big changes in sound but then again i'm already using Kimber KCAG so perhaps my interconnects were never the weak link.

Well, that's it folks. Silclear works as advertised. My thanks to forum member Tin for sharing the secret. I now don't feel the immediate need to upgrade my CD player to a Wadia or swap my KAV-300i for a proper Krell.

Great news that Silclear works. Kudo to tin. Maybe should also try it on the fuses too.

azri wrote:isnt gryphon tabu is a bit outdated?
& its rated 100w/ch which is 40% lower than 300i
if its under one class, u can observe lacks of evrything

power rating alone is no basis to judge how powerful an amp is.


Ongaku is "ONLY" 27Watts but it will blow the balls off most japanese brand budget milo-can 100W amp.

yup the Tabu is old but that's the point. Can be found for less money in the used market.

applied silclear on my krell speaker output fuses this morning but benefits are starting to get a lot less obvious. I guess there is no more electrical contact bottlenecks coming from source and amplifaction.

Then i applied silclear to my speaker bi-wire binding posts and it brought about clearer mids without some slight haze which i had previously gotten accustomed to. Treble also took on a more free rangeing nature with zings and twinkles eminating in free space to the front and rear of the speakers. I also polished the jumper spades which are silver and have oxidized slightly.

will report as i make more pleasant discoveries! Gotta go now, Nokia E90 battery running low. Maybe i'll silclear the battery contacts too. Haha!

so, krell wasnt really the leader in audio engineering eh? eheheh

Bimmermann,

Glad You have found my recommendation useful.

For best results;
1.use a tiny amount.

2.Preclean with Deoxit gold or Kontak[which is my personal preferance,because it does not leave a tiny ptotective layer] like deoxit....please note ,it is KONTAK,which is British and not KONTACKT;this is important....

3.Precook aLL your cables with AudioDharma cable cooker...

4.Put it on EVERY connections .YES the fuses will benefits tremendously from it....


Have you change your receptacles to the OYAIDE yet?make sure it is the cryoed and cooked version..................

Here is another 'secrect' tought to me by a Japanese audiophile[yup the Silclear is being sold in Japan by crateloads i was told]

When you have just applied the Silclear,do not put it on immediately,'dry' it first using Acoustic revive negative ion generators.The results? /....try it for yourself,and let us know..

So, what power cords you all are using now?

Mine's the one with brown, blue and green+yellow stripe colour wires inside. Really.

Tin,

Thanks for the step 2 recommendations but Yikes!!! It's starting to sound a little expensive already with AudioDharma, Acoustic revive and Oyaide coming into the picture. With my existing gear it's already sounding like it never did before. I guess from here on it's only the last 5% before my system reaches it's full potential and i'm already perfectly happy. Again, thank you for sharing the secret.

Today I have pinned the weak link of my system to the biwiring posts. The 4 pieces of gold (or copper plated in gold) Sonus Faber provides is not cutting it and I really need to biwire or at least get good jumpers to do the job.

I don't have a branded power distributor but at least it's all Nema sockets and connectors native to where Krell was born. Yes, there is a huge difference between Nema and British. I believe Schuko will also make a huge difference. My power cords are cryoed and material is copper casted as per Ohno's instructions. Nema connectors are red copper of unclear origin (probably china) and not cryoed, just coated with a thin layer of Silclear. And already they perform like never before.

My immediate task now is to address the issue with the biwiring posts. If I need to bi-wire, ouch! Any recommendations anyone???

Cheers!

bimmerman wrote:Tin,


Today I have pinned the weak link of my system to the biwiring posts. The 4 pieces of gold (or copper plated in gold) Sonus Faber provides is not cutting it and I really need to biwire or at least get good jumpers to do the job.

My immediate task now is to address the issue with the biwiring posts. If I need to bi-wire, ouch! Any recommendations anyone???

Cheers!

I recently paired my Concertos with QED Silver Aniv. XT wire. Sound is fantastic. I am thinking of replacing those nasty posts with more QED Silver Aniv. XT for that "last inch". Wanna go approach CMY audio together so mebbe the guy can cut us like 1 meter or so, then we'll split it evenly and mebbe buy some good plugs or spades as well for termination.

I still got some leftover WBT silver solder from yesteryear. Perfect for the termination job.

Bro Mugen,

I was actually using Van Den Hul SCS12 and AudioQuest silver spades as jumpers but the only problem was the Silver spades keep oxidizing and when it happens, things get fuzzy again. Polishing them once a weak is such a pain in the @$$. Which is why I reverted back to those 4 pieces of Sonus Faber fools gold. Whoever said silver and oxidized silver have the same conductivity does not know hogwash.

I also have 2 meters (1mX2) of DH Labs Silver Sonic lying around somewhere which may do better than the VDH SCS12. But again, the tarnishing spades issue!!!

Perhaps we should look into replacing those nasty posts with WBT posts? Your spades would sit inside the WBT posts and they won't tarnish so quickly too. What do you think?

It would have taken me much longer to identify those nasty speaker posts if it weren't for a Chario. Yup, has the exact same silhoutte as my Minima Amator and similar dimensions. A spitting image almost. Some would say immitation Sonus faber but these Charios are also Italian.

You see, I borrowed a pair of Chario Constellation Lynx a week ago and it did not have bi-wiring. Plugged it in, lo and behold!!! I was hearing so much more good stuff than on my Minima Amators. I mean, I was hearing legendary Krell performance like folks talk about. I was hearing the supposed synergy between Krell and Sonus Faber sans Sonus Faber. I was hearing it on a Chario. Also I discovered how good my CD player actually was.

Could it be true??? My ears said yes but my pride in Sonus Faber told me something was not right. I could not accept this fact that the Chario was better.

How can?

It's those dreaded binding posts that's how!!!

Hey Mugen, just had an idea! How bout we just connect the jumper wires directly into the binding posts without spades. Provided your speaker cables are on bananas of course. Hmmm... I'll try it tomorrow!

actually was more thinking along the lines of having the jumpers of some switchcraft or similar type goldplated ones (not Silver). And this won't break the bank also. No need for exotic connectors.

Since the bindposts are also gold plated, it should be quite a neutral connection. Whaddaya think?

The gold plating on some of the original shunts are also peeling off already.

Yeah my speaker cables are on bananas.

But it still would not be as non-compromised as the single wired Charios. I guess the perfect option will be to biwire. Sonus faber ownership does come with a cost I guess.

But I'll try screwing in bare jumper wires into the binding posts for a more direct connection. I guess the most direct connection would be to open up your speakers and solder internally but yikes!

I'll try it out and report my findings...

obviously chario crossover beats out the amator

azri wrote:obviously chario crossover beats out the amator

Nope, it's not the crossover. It's the connections leading to the crossover.

Allow me to elaborate Azri. With the Chario, they combine the two leads coming off the crossover, to one set of binding posts and as i've recently experienceed, it will beat, a single run with jumpers to 2 sets of binding posts.

I'm blardee tempted to open up my speakers and solder the 2 pairs of leads to a single pair of binding post. Arrrrrrgh!!!

do that, hope i prove u wrong hehe

Naughty boy Azri. Trying to stir the poo again.

beemerman, what speaker cables r u using on the Sonus?

Why not just double-up with the same type cable and do a proper bi-wire job?

Cannot bro. These are Transparent Musicwave. To double up will be another RM1.8K. But it would still not be right as Transparent says you must buy their special bi-wired model with a common network and cannot ride shotgun.

So i'm back on these again for the moment. All polished up and ready to sizzle again...

Fools Gold! Sure had me fooled for years!!



Hey I wonder if it would be a good idea to have these custom made in silver and then plated in rhodium to keep out the oxydaisies. What do you think???

mebbe some silclear there would help prevent corrosion to the silver spades? hahahaha...

actually there is a trick to prevent corrosion to your precious metals.
just get some magnesium or zinc strips and wrap it around one of each side's binding posts. It won't do anything to the sound, but itself will oxidise instead of the silver or copper and gold metals thats electrically in contact with it. Do one for the +ve and one for the -ve terminal.


No black art here. Its all science. Refer to any chemistry textbook for explanation.

Rohdium is bad for sound at the contact surfaces.

Ahhh... Corrosion always attacks the weaker metals first right.

Actually if you look closely at the fools gold you can see some silclear around the inner edges.

well, i won't call it "weaker" ... the proper term is more "electropositive".

mugenfoo wrote:Rohdium is bad for sound at the contact surfaces.

Rhodium sound very hard before the 'run-in'. Requires 500 hours I was told.

mugenfoo wrote:

BTW, if one doesn't mind dealing with that Solehah character, he might still got that KSA-300S for sale ?

Geezz! Long time never see solehah posting anything for sale in this forum.

I think he's used up his 25 items limit for this month. Or he doesn't have any new stock yet. He will be back. He's not bad in the strictest sense but I really wish he will improve his attitude and the way he deals with other people.

Some say Solehah is actually a woman.

I think some forumers actually knows his real name and have called him by that name in the for-sale forum. Anyone who is curious should search that forum for his name. I think his wife also helps him with the sale so sometimes it looks as if two different persons might be dealing with the same userid.