Silver Circle Audio TCHAIK 6

Philb7777

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2013
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Just received a Silver Circle Audio Tchaik 6 power conditioner/purifier about a week ago now. I've always been suspicious of the effects of power conditioners on a system. Ones I have tried in the past to clean up my dirty AC have left me less than satisfied - decreased dynamics and a more anemic, recessed sound. Not so with the Tchaik 6. I have experienced increased dynamics, lower noise floor, more detail and increased transparency. And it wasn't subtle either. With my ARC gear, TW front end and Rockport Cygnus speakers, I thought my transparency and detail was great. It is now substantially better. I can't imagine having it out of my system now. Getting a correct power conditioner for a high-end system is a must. The improvement is commensurate with getting a new preamp or new cartridge for a turntable. Highly recommended.
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,411
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Congrats. We use the Burmester 948 Reference and also found great improvements. We have also now gone to dedicated lines including a special 16amp outlet just for the amp. Great power has made a great foundation for the system. Enjoy.
 

knghifi

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2014
255
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158
I confirmed Wave Stabilizers in TCHAIK 6 are the same as in High Fidelity MC-6 and MC-6 Hemisphere power distributors. MC-6 and MC-6 Hemisphere have a 10A max so if only need one for sources, High Fidelity is a less expensive option.
 

Marcus

Member Sponsor
Oct 5, 2012
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I have experienced increased dynamics, lower noise floor, more detail and increased transparency. And it wasn't subtle either. With my ARC gear, TW front end and Rockport Cygnus speakers, I thought my transparency and detail was great. It is now substantially better.
What about the tonality and truth of timbres? Any changes? Also what about the clarity? Is the sound calmer now with less fatigue or is it more attractive and punchy? Can you listen to the music louder than before?
 

Philb7777

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2013
39
4
915
What about the tonality and truth of timbres? Any changes? Also what about the clarity? Is the sound calmer now with less fatigue or is it more attractive and punchy? Can you listen to the music louder than before?

Tonality and truth of timbers remained unaltered - in my system they were already amazing so I am glad nothing was affected there. Clarity was a huge improvement. The sound I had was always non=fatiguing, and I did notice better bass extension and punch. Micro dynamics and detail were much improved. Shockingly so and I was surprised. Lot's of subtleties on records I have heard in the past are now much more present and evident which makes things much more enjoyable for me.
 

Marcus

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Oct 5, 2012
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Thx Phil. Have you experienced big differences in sound quality in daily and evening listening before the Tchaik 6? Also, can you say which conditioners have you tried so far? I tried various PS Audio, Burmester, RSA and Camino units and although some of them can be acceptable with sources and preamps, all of them constrict dynamics with power amps. Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just trying to get a feeling of it's influence on the system's sound. I'm still searching for something that would get me to the "night quality sound" condition any time of the day.
 

Philb7777

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2013
39
4
915
Thx Phil. Have you experienced big differences in sound quality in daily and evening listening before the Tchaik 6? Also, can you say which conditioners have you tried so far? I tried various PS Audio, Burmester, RSA and Camino units and although some of them can be acceptable with sources and preamps, all of them constrict dynamics with power amps. Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just trying to get a feeling of it's influence on the system's sound. I'm still searching for something that would get me to the "night quality sound" condition any time of the day.

Marcus - great questions. I have experienced several times contrasting day and night and sometimes just the day itself when the system sounded 'off' before. This change in sound was unmistakable and usually involved less air and anemic bass. After the Tchaik 6, I have experienced none of the variations in sound of my system. I live in Oklahoma and was told buy the electrician setting up my dedicated 20A circuits several years ago that our power to the neighborhood was quite 'dirty.' I wish I would have considered the Tchaik 6 years ago - but I had the similar experience you have with conditioners - PowerWedge and Richard Gray units - it sucked the life out of the sound and dynamics went to squat. With the Tchaik 6 my entire system is plugged into it including my power hungry ARC Ref 250 mono blocks. Not one bit of dynamics decrease - intact maybe some improvement in dynamics. The Tchaik 6 isn't limiting power to my mono blocks at all.
 

Marcus

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Oct 5, 2012
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Great news! Really happy to hear this Phil. Thanks for the report. Will consider this PC seriously in the future.
 

stehno

Well-Known Member
Jul 5, 2014
1,585
456
405
Salem, OR
Just received a Silver Circle Audio Tchaik 6 power conditioner/purifier about a week ago now. I've always been suspicious of the effects of power conditioners on a system. Ones I have tried in the past to clean up my dirty AC have left me less than satisfied - decreased dynamics and a more anemic, recessed sound. Not so with the Tchaik 6. I have experienced increased dynamics, lower noise floor, more detail and increased transparency. And it wasn't subtle either. With my ARC gear, TW front end and Rockport Cygnus speakers, I thought my transparency and detail was great. It is now substantially better. I can't imagine having it out of my system now. Getting a correct power conditioner for a high-end system is a must. The improvement is commensurate with getting a new preamp or new cartridge for a turntable. Highly recommended.

That's really nice to hear.

What few seem to understand is that superior line conditioners (those that actually condition the AC and improve a playback system's level of musicality) are much like looking for a needle in a haystack. Most line conditioners either do nothing or induce their own sonic harm and in time past anyway it seemed the more popular the mfg'er's name, the worse it sounded.

Moreover, what few seem to realize is that a superior $5k line conditioner can make a system sound worse if any of the components have within them a cheap $5 AC filter behind the IEC inlet. For some reason piggybacking or daisy-chaining different line conditioning methodologies almost always makes things worse not better. So when the manufacturer of a $50,000 preamp installs some sleazy $5 AC filter inside the component to give his product an edge over those that attempt nothing, the owner of that $50k preamp might audition a superior line conditioner and find the sound to be worse. But it's not because of the superior line conditioner, rather it's because of the cheap $5 AC filter that most don't even know exists. In the end, the owner poo-poo's all line conditioners and then shares his findings on audio forums so then others believe all line conditioners are inferior. But I digress.

But once a superior line conditioner is discovered, listening to any system that does not employ superior line conditioners becomes too ear fatiguing to listen to perhaps any system of any caliber. After about 10 or 20 min max, the fatigue and lack of musicality is just too intolerable and frustrating, especially if the playback system's costs are well into the 6-figure category.

I've actually visited friends' homes who had inferior line conditioners that induced their own harm. After about 10 min, I asked one friend if we could try listening without his line conditioners and even he agreed the system sounded more musical without his very popular $5k worth of active line conditioners. I went home and brought back a few of my passive and dedicated Foundation Research line conditioners and the system sounded far more musical still. My friend ended up buying several Foundation Research line conditioners.

Lastly, if your new line conditioners only provide you performance gains you equate to only a single component single cartridge upgrade, you might wanna keep auditioning other line conditioners. In my experience, a truly superior line conditioners' performance gains should probably equate to no less that the most significant upgrade of EVERY component in the system.[ And then some.
 

mauidan

Member Sponsor
Aug 2, 2010
1,512
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Pukalani, HI
I agree with you about PLCs.

Uber.JPG

Checked my new custom P.I. Audio UberBuss with my Entech Wideband AC Noise Analyzer.

Calibraded the meter for a noise level reading of 100 on an AC outlet without the UberBuss plugged.

Plugged the UberBuss into the outlet and the noise level dropped to 50, plugged meter into the NCF outlet on the UberBuss and it dropped to .3.

Guess it works.

 

Folsom

VIP/Donor
Oct 25, 2015
6,024
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Eastern WA
Your imagine does not.

I think it's more appropriate to call the Silver Circle Audio TCHAIK 6 an isolation transformer.
 

Marcus

Member Sponsor
Oct 5, 2012
559
552
1,155
Checked my new custom P.I. Audio UberBuss with my Entech Wideband AC Noise Analyzer.

Calibraded the meter for a noise level reading of 100 on an AC outlet without the UberBuss plugged.

Plugged the UberBuss into the outlet and the noise level dropped to 50, plugged meter into the NCF outlet on the UberBuss and it dropped to .3.

Guess it works.
Nice results Dan. Can you describe what your UberBUSS does for the sound of your system? Thx.
 

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