Puncher wrote:

wonderfulelectric wrote:

BTW I recommend a high quality AC power cable...............

Whereas I would recommend just using the one supplied by the manufacturer - there will be no audible difference!

Have to agree! What about worrying about the 50km of underground HT cable between the power station and local substation, and then that final 0.5km of 240v?

Incidentally, had a brief demo of the A9 when visiting B&O Liverpool to look at the BV11. Incredible sound!

My wife thought it looked too much like an archery target on its tripod legs: I guess many will prefer the wall bracket.

 

Graham

i fully agree with wonderful electric re decent quality mains lead.

I use a Russ Andrews Reference Powerkord with my A8 and it makes quite a sonic difference!!

Puncher, you are welcome to pop over and have a listen. My guess is you are an engineer type and probably have no experience trying  high quality mains leads yourself - i.e. uninformed opinion. No offence old bean. 

B&O types are more fit and forget / sceptical. Just glad I have a decent main lead and enjoy the sonic benefits...

Cr@ppy mains quality is the first thing to address if you are at all concerned with sound quality. The more revealing the equipment the more important it is to clean up your dirty mains supply.

If the standard cable sounded as good I would rather use it as the RA means I have to jack the A8 up on blocks so that there is space to fit the large Wattgate plug with Fig 8 adaptor.

For the record, the sonic improvements include:

Cleaner smoother treble [bit like ALT]

Deeper and punchier bass.

More transparent sound - easier to hear into the mix and pick out individual instruments.

Less fatiguing to listen to - a removal of the electronic edge that is a hallmark of poor mains.

More natural tonality.

More full bodied - making the A8 sound closer to the BL4000S.

I could go on but you get the gist.

I have no desire to go back to the inferior sounding supplied mains cable after experiencing the difference.

 

BeoUndies wrote:

For the record, the sonic improvements include:

Cleaner smoother treble [bit like ALT]

Deeper and punchier bass.

More transparent sound - easier to hear into the mix and pick out individual instruments.

Less fatiguing to listen to - a removal of the electronic edge that is a hallmark of poor mains.

More natural tonality.

More full bodied - making the A8 sound closer to the BL4000S.

I could go on but you get the gist.

I have no desire to go back to the inferior sounding supplied mains cable after experiencing the difference.

 

Post a link to any positive, statistically significant, listening test result, from any controlled double blind test you like and we'll discuss it further.

Until then I think I'll stick with the laws of physics that have served us so well thus far.

BeoUndies wrote:

Cr@ppy mains quality is the first thing to address if you are at all concerned with sound quality. The more revealing the equipment the more important it is to clean up your dirty mains supply.

That'll be a new power station then.👍

elephant wrote:

jk1002 wrote:

most will not miss that its a single stereo speaker ......

I still wonder whether two of them operating as a stereo unit might be interesting

wonderfulelectric wrote:

Theoretically that will sound HORRIBLE. There will be tons of phase
cancellations and frequency lobbing effect. Multiple drive units operating in tandem will mainly work
in the lower frequency range say below 300hz or even lower.

Can be solved easily - use eg. an "external" Playmaker for streaming and connect PowerLink to Line-In "L"
on the left A9 and PowerLink to Line-In "R" to the right A9 (not using treble and mid of the other channel
on each speaker)

Is there any truth to the rumour that Apple are soon to release an App that cleans "dirty mains"? 👍

Opman

Puncher wrote:

BeoUndies wrote:

For the record, the sonic improvements include:

Cleaner smoother treble [bit like ALT]

Deeper and punchier bass.

More transparent sound - easier to hear into the mix and pick out individual instruments.

Less fatiguing to listen to - a removal of the electronic edge that is a hallmark of poor mains.

More natural tonality.

More full bodied - making the A8 sound closer to the BL4000S.

I could go on but you get the gist.

I have no desire to go back to the inferior sounding supplied mains cable after experiencing the difference.

 

 

Post a link to any positive, statistically significant, listening test result, from any controlled double blind test you like and we'll discuss it further.

Until then I think I'll stick with the laws of physics that have served us so well thus far.

power conditioners/ regenerators and etc used to be declared as snake oil like more than a decade ago but now it is more like a given that improvements are usually made with better quality mains. Just a switch of fuses on my ATCs yield tremendous improvements! More so than a power cable switch. It just goes to show that power upgrades are not just about a new way of marketing something they don't need but really just bringing the best out of your system. And notice how some of the demo pictures of A9 loaded on google have special shielded power cables? You did not notice a sheath over the power cable? It was so obvious! Plus the main difference between good dac and bad dac, good amplifiers or bad amplifiers are usually in the power supply. I mean most of them use the same chips and topologies for main processing. Just a simple ac filtration device can yield several db loss in noise and bring up the dynamic range. It is common knowledge and physics now. Haven't you seen before and after measurements of good isolated power supply with same amplification output devices vs one with switching power supplies? Plus ever wondered why would the Beolab5 sport old fashioned expensive transformer based power supply versus the switching power supply in the speakers in the rest of the range? 

 

wonderfulelectric wrote:

power conditioners/ regenerators and etc used to be declared as snake oil like more than a decade ago but now it is more like a given that improvements are usually made with better quality mains. Just a switch of fuses on my ATCs yield tremendous improvements! More so than a power cable switch. It just goes to show that power upgrades are not just about a new way of marketing something they don't need but really just bringing the best out of your system. And notice how some of the demo pictures of A9 loaded on google have special shielded power cables? You did not notice a sheath over the power cable? It was so obvious! Plus the main difference between good dac and bad dac, good amplifiers or bad amplifiers are usually in the power supply. I mean most of them use the same chips and topologies for main processing. Just a simple ac filtration device can yield several db loss in noise and bring up the dynamic range. It is common knowledge and physics now. Haven't you seen before and after measurements of good isolated power supply with same amplification output devices vs one with switching power supplies? Plus ever wondered why would the Beolab5 sport old fashioned expensive transformer based power supply versus the switching power supply in the speakers in the rest of the range? 

 

None of which is actual proveable evidence that a different mains cord can yield a detectable, audible difference. As an aside, the amplifiers in the BL5's are switching power supplies in all but name.

Right O! I have seen the sat dish. It looks cool, but on the legs I'm not sure? where would anybody put this? I think you would have to have a big room to sit the A9 in otherwise it will look stupid. Maybe that's just me?

So how does it sound.... To be true full I didn't think it sounded that good for £1700. You would be better off with a pair of 4000's which you can get a playmaker for free with them at the mo so no brainer! The A8 sounded better with the songs I played. As soon as you turned the vol up to 90% the A9 sounded over worked. As if it was being pushed to hard. Maybe a better power lead would of helped! lol

So over all looks good/cool but you would be better off with a pair of speakers or even the A8