• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

AudioQuest NRG-X3 Review (AC Power Cord)

Rate this product:

  • 1. Waste of money

    Votes: 324 89.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 29 8.0%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 4 1.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 7 1.9%

  • Total voters
    364

Bleib

Major Contributor
Joined
May 13, 2021
Messages
1,253
Likes
2,252
Location
Sweden
Not a very expensive cable, but it is if compared to say a Topping D10s DAC.
 

CinDyment

Active Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2022
Messages
282
Likes
215
@DWI , Galen Gareis spouted a bunch of impressive sounding nonsense, referenced standards that had nothing at all to do with the topic, talked about noise figures and shielding while again referencing standards totally unrelated to the topic but most of all provided 0 technical paper analysis of the problem (that requires real application numbers and relating to audibility) provided no measures of related values to even support his OPINION and worse, provided no application tests to prove his assertions. The only numbers he provided unrelated generalities.

It was textbook baffle them with BS because other than 1 or 2 participants everyone was eating it up while a few called him on it and he just responded with more paragraphs of meaningless bafflegab.

Keep in mind many of his patents have little to do with cable performance and frankly he has done nothing to validate the position of authority he claims because it's not the cable it is what you can prove the cable does.
 
Last edited:

Killingbeans

Major Contributor
Joined
Oct 23, 2018
Messages
4,089
Likes
7,547
Location
Bjerringbro, Denmark.
Or, as above, ASR could engage with cable manufacturers and try and understand what they are about.

But we already know what they are about. They completely disregard the placebo effect when they do their "testing" and thereby legitimize any and all claims. They throw any notion of probability out the window.

There's absolutely no reason to waste time on trying to understand things that has a vanishingly low chance of being relevant.
 

AdamG

Proving your point makes it “Science”.
Moderator
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 3, 2021
Messages
4,636
Likes
14,918
Location
Reality
Thread Notice: This is an Official Product Review Thread. Please keep your comments and conversation rooted in the product reviewed and/or the test results of the review. Off topic posts removed and a reply ban handed out. Please and thank you for your understanding.
 

Spkrdctr

Major Contributor
Joined
Apr 22, 2021
Messages
2,212
Likes
2,934
DWI, I don't think you are getting what everyone is saying. So, I will take a stab at it. Regarding power cords such as the one in this review. Amir "in effect" has engaged with them by reading their official website and reading what the cord is supposed to do. Then Amir sets up a test to check it out. He finds, "wow, this cord is electrically the same as 14ga or 12ga lamp cord that is dirt cheap and sold everywhere. If he called the company and asked as many have done before, they tell you we tested it up near 100Mhz range and observed a 10% reduction in the cord picking up frequencies in the 50 to 75Mhz range. Then you hang up and say to yourself, "What in the heck are they doing at those frequencies in relation to 60hz power? So, it has been verified many times by people over the years. Nothing changes, you ask them a down to earth question, and they go off on a voodoo science tangent and talk about stuff that bears no relation to home audio at all. It is obfuscation, misdirection and lies all packaged to sound sciency (made up word) to the uneducated. So, there is nothing else Amir can do.
Amir tries very hard to stick with science. But 95% of audio marketing and sales is all lies and voodoo science.
 

TheBatsEar

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
3,084
Likes
4,962
Location
Germany
@amirm mentioned that he would be willing to test a much pricier cable.

Please don't waste you time, mate. There are so many awesome and quirky devices out there to get surprising results.
No need to die at cable hill.
 
Last edited:

tungt88

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
7
Likes
11
Location
Rego Park, NY
The reality is that whatever you think about these marketing practises, they aren't going to go away; and
Amir/ASR's arguments based on measurements isn't going to have any impact at all on the wider audio buying public. It's just one point of view shared by many members of this forum.

I saw that in response to Amir's numerous threads about the PS Audio P12, someone kicked off a pro-Amir thread on Pinkfishmedia, a very popular forum for your average audiophile. @Purité Audio spent a lot of time defending ASR's approach, but generally people aren't interested in a measurement-based approach and quite a few don't like the attitude either. One post seemed to sum it up: "My equipment would probably give Amir a cardiac arrest but then again, I actually listen to it."

I consider online gambling one of the biggest evils, but there husband of my wife's best friend runs one of the largest such business in the USA. It's not for me to judge him or people who gamble.
For sure, they will not go away (just resurface under another guise, in a best-case scenario). We see this in all matter of businesses/sports/activities/etc.
But, sites like this one are a great aid for those that want some concrete, objective-based data to help make their (subjective) purchases, audio-wise: and I consider that a big win for that type of consumer (and, given by how this website is doing in terms of web popularity/views, it's working out pretty well).
We've come a long way already, from the days in which Tyll Hertsens seemed to be (practically) the only well-known guy in the "headphone audiophile" world that used any kind of objective measurements & reasoning (and even he got lots of grief: some of it deserved, but much of it not).
 

DSJR

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 27, 2020
Messages
3,314
Likes
4,427
Location
Suffolk Coastal, UK
I don't listen to the gear any more (well, I do the speakers as I'd hear nothing otherwise ;) ). The MUSIC however....
 

57gold

Active Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2021
Messages
100
Likes
84
About 400 posts ago I suggested that a test be run using a "real" high end power cable, versus a rebranded standard cable with AQ on it. The folks at Shunyata sell cables to studios, music engineers...Dark Side of the Moon was remastered using their stuff!


Don't use one now but @20 years ago used one on a Theta Gen Va (it had some kind of dust/material in the insulation) and I heard (or joined in a delusion with family members who heard the same impacts) that the Gen Va sounded significantly better, less harsh and clearer highs (cymbals started to sound like cymbals as opposed to bright artifacts) and imagining improved. In any event, my point is that the test that starts this thread proves nothing, because the AQ cable tested was nothing but a repackaged standard cable.

The Cable Company lends cables as will other dealers. Shunyata makes numerous claims about their cutting edge, superior engineering that can be debunked versus the marketing BS claims of AQ.
 

BDWoody

Chief Cat Herder
Moderator
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
6,948
Likes
22,625
Location
Mid-Atlantic, USA. (Maryland)
...and imagining improved.

That's my guess too.

About 400 posts ago I suggested that a test be run using a "real" high end power cable, versus a rebranded standard cable with AQ on it.

Have you arranged to send one in? That's how it generally goes around here.
 

57gold

Active Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2021
Messages
100
Likes
84
Nope, don't have one. Swapped out the Theta for a Wadia 861 and that for a Mytek dsd192 and then a B+.

Said sayonara to the Shunyata many moons ago. In my world of self delusion, it seemed to do great things for the Theta, which was early stage digital playing 1980s mastered CDs (kinda nasty in spite of the engineers' promises of "perfect sound", some of the same folks that say cables don't matter) and didn't move the delusional audio needle on the Wadia, so it found a new home.
 
Last edited:
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area
About 400 posts ago I suggested that a test be run using a "real" high end power cable, versus a rebranded standard cable with AQ on it. The folks at Shunyata sell cables to studios, music engineers...Dark Side of the Moon was remastered using their stuff!
I have a personal conflict there. I know the founder of Shunyata. Been to their local factory and they were super nice and kind to me. They also do fair bit of objective analysis and own an Audio Precision analyzer like mine.

Of course if someone sends me their products then I will fairly review it. But I prefer to not go and buy their products to test.
 

pkane

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 18, 2017
Messages
5,632
Likes
10,205
Location
North-East
I have a personal conflict there. I know the founder of Shunyata. Been to their local factory and they were super nice and kind to me. They also do fair bit of objective analysis and own an Audio Precision analyzer like mine.

Of course if someone sends me their products then I will fairly review it. But I prefer to not go and buy their products to test.

Then you should definitely test this one:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ke-oil-department-top-this.19045/post-1145285
 

CinDyment

Active Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2022
Messages
282
Likes
215
About 400 posts ago I suggested that a test be run using a "real" high end power cable, versus a rebranded standard cable with AQ on it. The folks at Shunyata sell cables to studios, music engineers...Dark Side of the Moon was remastered using their stuff!

I worked with "music" types in the past. They are a rather delusions superstitious lot. Most, even "engineer", and I mean recording and sound engineers, not engineers in the EE sense, can barely screw in a light bulb.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area

pkane

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 18, 2017
Messages
5,632
Likes
10,205
Location
North-East
That would be fair game. We would have to pony up 5% of its cost to rent one. That is $150 so not too bad. Who wants to contribute toward it?

The list price is actually $3495 on TheCableCompany website, so 5% will be $175. I'll put up $100 for science sake, if someone else commits to the remaining $75 :)

The pure poetry and the amazing research in the description of that cable @ thecableco is something to behold! It includes quantum tunneling design along with 6 months of painstaking blind testing and about 50 other claims ;)


1649332165434.png
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom