Will the Cascade Digital Director or the Cascade Powerbase benefits more from a better power cord?

General
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Dear @Daniel_Francis,
I have two different power cords of vastly different quality and grades for the Cascade DAC system. Please advise whether the Cascade DD or the DAC Powerbase will benefit more from the better power cord? Or in other words, is it better to use the better quality power cord on the Digital Director or the Powerbase to get the best overall sound quality/performance?
Thanks.

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The Analog Converter Powerbase is the one that should have the best possible and cleanest power.

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Thank you very much @Jonathan_Gullman. :blush:

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Thanks, @Jonathan_Gullman for your answer, that brings to mind some more questions about the 2 cables that are intended to feed both a PowerBase and a Digital Director (no matter if the Cascade or older models like the Reference):

  • How important is it that the 2 power cords are exactly the same length?
  • How important is it that the 2 power cords are also the same brand/model?
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The Digital Director and DAC powerbase power can be totally different with no performance penalty. I would concentrate on the power quality flowing to the DAC powerbase and then I would try to make the Digital Director power as isolated as possible from the Amp/DAC power circuit. Ideally it would be on a different circuit entirely. If you have the luxury of a separate circuit for the Digital Director I would also power any sources from that circuit as well (servers, streamers, switches or transports). Power cords for either can be totally mismatched if you wish, but I would concentrate on the DAC power as the main priority. The way I prefer our system here for best performance (when I want the best performance) is to run the DAC and AMP from our 240V transformer isolated circuit and the Digital Director and server from our non isolated 120V circuit.

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If you had a second 120v (or 240v) transformer isolated circuit available to you would you use that circuit for the DD?

Thanks,
Dan

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Yes, that would be an excellent setup. Here we only have one isolation transformer but a second one for your sources and Digital Director would be great.

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@Dustin_Symanski, thanks for all the great information for optimizing the Cascade DAC performance.
Would it be better to share a dedicated AC line for both the Cascade DD and Analog Converter Powerbase OR plug the DD separately into a different normal household AC circuit?

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Dustin,

  • since the dedicated circuits tie back to the same neutral buss bar in the MDP, won’t the noise from the DD eventually find its way onto the other isolated circuits?

  • are you using a power conditioner in your listening room? If so, wouldn’t a power conditioner effectively prevent the noise from the DD from polluting the power supplied to the DAC? I have 4 dedicated circuits in my listening room, however, I’d prefer not purchasing a second power conditioner only to power the DD under the assumption that the DD shouldn’t be plugged directly into the wall without a power conditioner in between. Please advise!

Thanks,
Blake

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Hi Dustin, just received my Cascade an hour ago and am about to unbox. Any chance you’d have a minute to answer the questions I posted sometime today? Your answers could influence my installation.

Thanks,
Blake

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Noise finds its way around, but the impedance of the power system decreases toward the source. So a two pronged approach works best. Keep the equipment that is most sensitive to noise, the analog electronics, behind a system that will attenuate noise. EG a isolation transformer, a filter etc… Then keep everything else off of that quiet power circuit.

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Dustin - has anyone actually measured a difference between power cords or different circuits. I worry that we are all very susceptible to priming and confirmation effects - and that there’s no external validation evidence supporting the cable stuff. See Ethan Winer - for example.

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I don’t think anyone has done independent measurements of any cable or power cords in the industry. We’ve done some measuring for ourselves, but we won’t share our findings.

When it comes to power and noise filtering, from our own experiences and the feedback we’ve gotten around the world, there is no “one size fits all” power filtering solution. A product might work great in New York, but not in California. What works in Europe doesn’t always work in the US. The power at our office is different than the power at my home, and each needs a different solution.

In our listening room, we have a massive isolation transformer that makes a new earth ground and circuits. We run most of our equipment at 240V as well (big improvement). We also have the original non-isolated power that we can put servers and the digital director on for testing.

The isolation between the analog and digital is important. Going with a copper connection, the noise will be vastly more coupled because it’s not just chassis ground noise, but it can couple high-frequency noise. As Dustin said, the processor in a digital product has a harder time corrupting the AC due to the impedance of the AC system as you get back to the main circuit breaker panel.

Another added benefit, the fiber prevents any chance for ground loops or ground currents between the chassis. We also don’t stop with just this fiber connection. All of our input modules are isolated, but the isolation isn’t as good as a fiber connection with distance. (This is why we made the ProUSB/ProISL solution) The isolation in the module is effective, but not 100%. Our Discrete and Premier DACs also have isolation between the digital and analog circuits. Again, this isolation isn’t the same as the Cascade, but it’s a huge performance increase. The analog and digital sections do run on different isolated power supplies.

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