I have now had a Spectra Infinity power cord in my system for about a month and a half. This means I now have end-to-end QSA cabling in my analogue system. On the digital side, the only cabling that is not QSA is between my Taiko Extreme music server and my Chord DAVE DAC. That consists of a Shunyata Omega USB cable feeding an SRC-DX USB-to-dual coax bridge, and a pair of High Fidelity 3D CT-2 Double Helix Signature BNC interconnects. Otherwise, I am using all QSA Lanedri power cords, interconnects, and speaker cables.
What does the Spectra Infinity power cord bring to the system? Regardless of where I have placed it, this power cord brings:
- solidity and muscularity, especially to bass and percussion
- more tonal density and saturation
- even more clarity
- immediacy and realism
I've been quite happy with the three QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation power cords I've owned for most of the last year. The Spectra Infinity is a different animal, however. If I could afford it, I'd just upgrade all of my power cords.
The Spectra Infinity is a treated Sablon Prince power cord, and I owned one of these for about three years, using it primarily on my Extreme. I always thought the Prince was a great power cord on its own, with great solidity but also a darker, more relaxed presentation than my Gamma Revelation power cords. That character carries over to the Spectra Prince, so despite the enhanced clarity, density, and muscularity that you get with QSA treatment, there is still a nice dark, somewhat relaxed character to the sound. It makes for easy listening.
There is a burn-in process that continues for at least several hundred hours. Treble will open up and you will gain more air and spaciousness.
I tried the Spectra on four different components: Shunyata Everest power conditioner; Taiko Extreme music server; Crayon CFA 1.2 integrated amp; and a Paul Hynes SR5-DR48 power supply that feeds my Crayon phono stage. Regardless of component, the sound improved substantially. After lots and lots of hours of listening and continued burn-in, I ended up preferring the Spectra on my Everest power conditioner for both analogue and digital. This is what I expected going in. There were some moments of doubt early on, however, as I was quite taken by the sound I was getting with the Spectra on my Crayon integrated amp.
With the Spectra on my amp, I heard a new authoritative, dynamic sound that I was not accustomed to hearing with this amp. No one will ever mistake the Crayon for a muscle amp and I like to say that the Crayon is all about light and space. And yet . . . it was like someone grabbed the amp by the shoulders and said "Stand upright young man!" The improvement in bass alone was pretty staggering. There was incredible presence and immediacy with well-recorded music. I would have been pretty ecstatic had I just stopped right here.
Eventually, though, the Everest proved to be the best option. With the Everest the hub for all of my other components, the sound was a little darker, tonal colors were more beautiful, the whole presentation was natural and balanced, and there was a sense of calm and quiet that made it difficult to stop listening.
I should add that I preferred the Spectra on the Everest even though I needed a C15 to C19 adapter to allow the Spectra to plug into the Everest. For this purpose, I used a relatively inexpensive ($90 USD) Voodoo Cables copper adapter, which uses 10 AWG wiring. My understanding is that the Everest also uses 10 AWG copper wiring, so you could view the adapter as simply an extension of the wiring already in the Everest. With this adapter, the Spectra was far superior to the Gamma Revelation power cord that I had been using (without an adapter) on my Everest.
Given the leap in quality from Gamma Revelation to Spectra Infinity, you have to wonder what sort of leap there is to the Ultimatum. That will have to wait for quite a while as my bank account recovers.