my fantasy comes true!

hamonic tech fanstasy ac-10 - perfect cord to power up richard gray

maybe i am the only one who dabbles so much on the power cord for richard gray. not happy with the stock cord, i replaced it with 2nd hand harmonic tech ac-11 and wow! the improvement is worth the RM500 i spent on. look, this is an example where cheap cables DO stand out more than costly ones.

being greedy, i tried powering up the richard gray with my ps audio xstream statement. no good at all! the ps audio "drags" down the sound. very sluggish. the thick 6-gauge power cord does not mean it will carry current more efficiently. hypothesis failed. back to the drawing board.

my ARC LS25MKII preamp also hates the ps audio, again resulting in a sluggish and draggy sound. looks like ps audio only works for digital source. so that's where i keep it now, hooked onto my meridian cdp.

i tried some other cables like fadel art, audience and JPS. none suits the richard gray as well as the harmonic tech ac-11. so owners of richard gray, please take heed of my advice.

then kc brought his harmonic tech fantasy AC-10, a step higher than my AC-11, to my house to pit against my brandless cord i bought from absolute hi-fi for RM450(another point to prove that, budget cord DOES work for me). yes, the fantasy is so refined, with exquisite highs and good lows but the mids are too soft for my liking. it takes away the BIG SPOTLIGHTING effect from my centre image/vocalist's mouth spot. in this respect, the brandless cord is better. though rougher and less refined, the brandless cord has presence and ruggedness that NO cord can touch or come close. so, it has to remain.

then we pitted the fantasy against ps audio xstream statement for my meridian. suprising results! the refinement of fantasy does not work here. my system prefers the weightier and rougher but solidier foundation of ps audio. so, it goes to show that ps audio is a great cord in the right place.

bouyed by kc's experiment with his harmonic tech fantasy ac-10 plugged to richard gray, i took a gamble to upgrade to fantasy (RM1,400) and lo and behold, the performance jumps by 3-5 percentage points (note. that's a lot to me, mind you). the mids are still soft but they are not so obvious now, compared to powering up the preamp.

so my final power cord combi:

richard gray - harmonic tech fantasy ac-10 (RM1,400)
meridian cdp - ps audio xstream statemen (RM2,400)
ARC LS25 preamp - absolute hi-fi brandless cord (RM450)

this gives me the best sound (all-time-high score, like what martin colloms like to say) i can ever muster out of my humble system.