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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

Spkrdctr

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I understood the intent of your post. And was a good point to make.
Many people have requests for Amir to do more and more testing. Many (most) have no idea of the time and equipment it would take to test some of their ideas. Usually after a page or two in a thread where they want Amir to do many more tests, I will jump in and tell them that they are the ones who need to do further testing not Amir. After all Amir does all this for free. If he had a staff of testers and a budget to pay all of them, then he might be inclined to do more, but as it is now, he does a lot for free. Like lifting 50 pound speakers. That's a back breaker right there!
 

rcstevensonaz

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That HP-35 is a piece of history. A slide rule is like a Dinosaur for the younger crowd. It is so old it is almost inconceivable! If you tell them that the early Apollo missions were done with slide rules they would not believe it. It is amazing when you think of it.
Sorry, old thread... but great to see the HP-35 being recognized! I bought a used one in 1981... still works.
 

pseudoid

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That HP-35 is a piece of history
Original sale price was a stiff $459 at our college store. Within a week after purchase, his big Polish brother arrived at the store and I was able to trade in the old for the newer HP-45. Learning RPN paid long dividends over the decades.
SwissMicros GmbH continues to sell 'knock-offs' of a variety of HP calculators and I bought their HP-11 clone... as if I did not have two real ones!:)

EDIT: Get this:
Connectivity (PC)USB Mini-AB port for firmware update and data exchange via CDC
I still use Excalibur (32bit for Win) FREEware for desktop needs.
 
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rcstevensonaz

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Learning RPN paid long dividends over the decades.
To this day, I still cannot do even the most basic math on any calculator that is not RPN-based.

Including calculating the cost per inch of an AudioQuest NRG-X3 power cable (just to tie this back to the original thread)
 

egellings

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I have no problem doing either conventional or stack arithmetic. Still have my HP-35 and it works fine after I put new rechargeable AA sized alkaline cells in it.
 

pseudoid

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To this day, I still cannot do even the most basic math on any calculator that is not RPN-based.
Including calculating the cost per inch of an AudioQuest NRG-X3 power cable (just to tie this back to the original thread)
idem...
For those who may not speak ReversePolishNotation (RPN) :: a brief interlude, please ::
Not Infix-Notation but Postfix-Notation… later upgrading onto object-oriented RPL…
Ixnay the "Equal" [=] button concept and instead think w/the "Enter↵" button in RPN (Postfix).
202212_RPN-noEqual.jpg


The remaining way of doing keyboard-math becomes:
First# >> Enter↵ >> Second# >> Function >> 3rd# >> Function >> ....
To calculate √(25)+5; user presses 25 √ Enter 5 +
To calculate
√(25+5); user presses 25 Enter 5 +  √ 
RPN conveys mathematical expressions w/o the use of separators (brackets/parentheses), such as ((5 – 3) * 2).
In RPN notation, the operators follow their operands. Hence, removing the need for brackets to define evaluation priority.
The operation is read from left-to-right but execution is done every time an operator is reached, and always using the last two numbers as the operands.
RPN was well suited for calculators/computers, (and as being less error-prone) w/fewer characters to track and fewer operations to execute.
In 1968, Hewlett-Packard introduced the 9100A, which was an early programmable-calculator (or computer). HP called it a desktop-calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared."
There was a donated HP-9100A, in my high school's ChemistryLab. Week-in, week-out; I sat by it in class and watched it just collect dust. I finally figured out how to turn it on.:facepalm: It took me many more weeks of aimlessly punching all the keys but the display made little sense. I finally figured out how to make sense out of it without knowing wtf RPN was!
Few years later, I had to teach my EE professor how to use my HP-45 after the (aced) finals were over.

Figuring out [ummmm...] THD in decibels from ratios (or %) becomes a no-brainer (just to tie this back to the original thread).
 
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MoreWatts

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I bought a Macintosh Plus computer in ~1987 because the pop-up calculator on Macs could be an HP-12C emulator. Blew my roommates mind. The attached screenshot is a modern version of what would have been in grayscale back in the day.

Found this during my online searches: The Museum of HP calculators, hpmuseum.org
 

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DualTriode

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idem...
For those who may not speak ReversePolishNotation (RPN) :: a brief interlude, please ::
Not Infix-Notation but PostfixNotation… later upgrading onto object-oriented RPL…
Ixnay the "Equal" [=] button concept and instead think w/the "Enter↵" button in RPN (Postfix).
View attachment 250003

The remaining way of doing keyboard-math becomes:
First# >> Enter↵ >> Second# >> Function >> 3rd# >> Function >> ....
To calculate √(25)+5; user presses 25 √ Enter 5 +
To calculate √(25+5); user presses 25 Enter 5 +  √ 
RPN conveys mathematical expressions w/o the use of separators (brackets/parentheses), such as ((5 – 3) * 2).
In RPN notation, the operators follow their operands. Hence, removing the need for brackets to define evaluation priority.
The operation is read from left- to-right but execution is done every time an operator is reached, and always using the last two numbers as the operands.
RPN can be well suited for calculators/computers, (and as being less error-prone) w/fewer characters to track and fewer operations to execute.
In 1968, Hewlett-Packard introduced the 9100A, which was an early programmable-calculator (or computer). HP called it a desktop-calculator because, as Bill Hewlett said, "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared."
There was a donated HP-9100A, in my high school's ChemistryLab. Week-in, week-out; I sat by it in class and watched it just collect dust. I finally figured out how to turn it on.:facepalm: It took me many more weeks of aimlessly punching all the keys but the display made little sense. I finally figure out how to make sense out of it without knowing wtf RPN was! Few, years later, I had to teach my EE professor how to use my HP-45 after the (aced) finals were over.

Figuring out [ummmm...] THD in decibels from ratios (or %) becomes a no-brainer (just to tie this back to the original thread).
I use RPN calculators as well.

DT
 

Head_Unit

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Not so easy as you may think.
Stereophile will bring in 100 or 1,000 "expert" witnesses to claim they can hear things that we can't measure. Throw out all the usual attacks on DBT and how it stresses the listener in ways that he doesn't have to deal with in his preferred long term listening tests. If you've been around for long I'm sure you've heard it all and more. BS but sometimes it's hard to denounce.
As I just posted in another thread, at this point we can measure difference in electrical waveforms down to a crazy minute level, beyond what any sane person could expect to correlate to any difference.
- To those who will say "we don't know how to measure soundstage" blah blah blah I would counter that is an acoustic phenomenon in three dimensions, we're talking about electrical stuff here.
However, as we see with recent political events, and have seen for thousands of years with religions, there are people who will simply not hear what they do not want to hear. And you cannot truly reason with them.
At https://forums.stevehoffman.tv I've posted "how can you know that what you think you hear is not psychological suggestion, and not acoustic at all?" and some people get REALLY mad. Especially when I ask them "Why do you get so mad at the mere POSSIBILITY that what you hear is not real?"
 

Head_Unit

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Topping DX5 DAC AudioQuest NRG-X3 Power Cord Measurements.png


It doesn't get more identical than this.
But the FFT does NOT look identical?!? I don't see where it says which is red and which is blue, but at 2k and 2k they are notably different. Even that far down in level I'm sure after enough Kahlúa champurrado I could absolutely hear the difference o_O
 

Spkrdctr

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At https://forums.stevehoffman.tv I've posted "how can you know that what you think you hear is not psychological suggestion, and not acoustic at all?" and some people get REALLY mad. Especially when I ask them "Why do you get so mad at the mere POSSIBILITY that what you hear is not real?"
Because they have "special" ears and you just don't understand it with your tin ears. If you had special ears, you would also know that we can't measure everything. Some unknown force is at work in audio and only a select few people in the world understand it. Now, are you one of the select few? Who is going to say no to that question?
 

Speedskater

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- To those who will say "we don't know how to measure soundstage" blah blah blah I would counter that is an acoustic phenomenon in three dimensions, we're talking about electrical stuff here.
If an audiophile can hear 'soundstage' differences of electronic components in an ears only test, why then we can easily measure those differences.
 

AudioTK

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Just a few days ago, I watch Amir's review of this power cord, and it reminded me that I had posted this fun story back in 2019 on Stereophile.
AudioQuest power cord review...

Real or placebo...?

Submitted by AudioTK on March 20, 2019 - 3:30pm

This was some interesting reading on this thread from a year ago. I've read many similar articles and discussions in the past.
I'm not going to argue one way or the other. Both sides have been covered in a never ending discussion. Not going to talk bad or comment on everything else that has been said. As an electrical engineer and audio enthusiast, I find these conversations amusing and entertaining.
I'm happy with how my system sounds. I've also heard much higher end systems, and they sure did sound better. I just couldn't justify spending more on my system. I've been into car audio for 26 years and home audio for about 20 years.

So, I have an interesting story.
I have the following equipment, not super high end, but pretty good stuff:
Marantz Receiver SR-5400
Panasonic Blu-Ray player (not sure the model, but only $90)
Rotel RMB-1075 (120Wrms per channel) that was on my fronts, center, and surrounds
Rotel RB-1090 that was on my subwoofer (400Wrms per channel on each voice coil)
Paradigm Reference Studio 100V.3 towers
Paradigm Reference Studio CC 570 v3 Center Channel
Energy RC-R Surround Speakers
Subwoofer is my Cerwin Vega Stroker 18D4 DVC (used to be in my car) that I made a 7.8cuft box for my home theater, tuned to 23Hz.
The subwoofer hits nice and low and tight, and it blends really well with the front towers. I had called Cerwin Vega and they gave me box and port dimensions.

So, here's my story. No judgment or opinion, just stating facts.
I have a friend that has much higher end equipment than I do, and his system is in the $50,000 range and sounds amazing. A few years ago (2014), he was telling me that I should try a higher quality quality power cord. So, he brought over a spare one that he had (can't remember the brand) that was in the $200-$300 range. He said it would help clean up the power and improve and open up the sound etc. We tried it on the Rotel RB-1090 that was powering the Cerwin Vega Stroker 18D4 dual voice coil subwoofer.
It wasn't a true A/B test procedure, but we did listen to stereo CD music for a while with the stock cord and the sound was really good. Nice sound stage, good bass. He even asked me multiple times if the center channel was on. I went right up to listen to the center (no sound being emitted) and confirmed that the receiver was set to Stereo mode, so just the towers, no center channel. So my sound stage was set up just right.

Then we swapped the stock cord on the RB-1090 powering my subwoofer for the higher quality cord he had. We didn't touch the RMB-1075 that was powering the towers. When we listened again (at the same volume and settings), he said he could hear more deeper bass and even more stage depth, more full sound. I didn't hear any change at all.

At the end of the listening session, we swapped back to my stock power cord, and he had gone home. Something didn't make sense to me. Why hadn't I heard anything different, but he did? So I played some other music, then went up to actually touch the subwoofer, and it wasn't playing! I went into my receiver's settings and discovered the Bass Mix was set to "MIX" (which means only L&R will play the low frequencies). Then I changed the setting to "BOTH" (which means L&R and Sub will play low frequencies) and viola! I heard (and felt) the subwoofer playing. And now the bass was more full and deeper than what the towers could provide.

This was not a true double-blind test because both of us knew the cord had been swapped, but it is blind in the fact that neither of us had confirmed the sub playing in the first place, nor confirmed the receiver's settings. We just assumed everything was playing correctly, especially since the bass sounded good even just from the Studio 100's.
I never mentioned this to him (if he's happy, just let him be happy). I don't have measurements (and it wouldn't matter, since the subwoofer was not even playing). I cannot explain what he heard.

Now (2019) the Rotel RB-1090 powers my Studio 100 towers, and I have two 300W Bash Amps one for each 4ohm coil on my subwoofer. I have not spent any money on higher end cables. The sound is really good, and I'm happy.

From my Marantz SR-5400 manual. for reference:
BASS MIX

• The bass mix setting is only valid when “LARGE” is set for the front speakers and “YES” is set for the subwoofer during stereo playback.
• When “BOTH” is selected, the low frequencies will be played through the main L&R, as well as the subwoofer.
In this playback mode, the low frequency range expand more uniformly through the room, but depending on the size and shape of the room, interference may result in a decrease of the actual volume of the low frequency range.
• By selecting “MIX”, the low frequencies will play through the main L&R ONLY.

Thanks for listening... HA! get it?! listening...
AudioTK
 
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amirm

amirm

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At the end of the listening session, we swapped back to my stock power cord, and he had gone home. Something didn't make sense to me. Why hadn't I heard anything different, but he did? So I played some other music, then went up to actually touch the subwoofer, and it wasn't playing!
I must say, I didn't see this coming. :) It is these sobering moments that teach one what the reality is.
 
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