Mark Grant mains leads
I was browsing through the Mark Grant website a few weeks ago and I came upon these:
http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/in...products_id=69
I thought... dual screened, twisted construction, quality plugs and IEC connectors and only 50 quid or thereabouts depending on length required. I also noted that this was no off-the-shelf job, he builds them from scratch.
So I gave him a call and he agreed to send me two pairs on a sale or return basis to try but he warned me that out of 100 pairs sent out to customers the only returns were those of incorrect length.
They duly arrived and I decided to swap out my best mains leads, the Music Works Cryo treated Recoil leads for these. The improvement was instantly noticeable. The first thing I noticed was bass notes, in fact all notes, had more distinctive texture, timing improved and rhythms on percussion seemed to make more sense. Beth Rowley's voice on the Little Dreamer CD had more presence, subtle inflections were more clearly audible. On The Eagles Long Road out of Eden double CD, on the track No more Cloudy Days there is an alto sax playing about half way through the track. Hmm, nice! Not only is it not taking my ears off any more there's also this lovely warble inflection on the really long note. Not heard that before.
I then spent much of the day just listening attentively to lots of discs and enjoying every moment. Long term listening without the slightest fatigue was now possible. Close your eyes and it's a turntable playing not CD.
I wouldn't say these cables were necessarily better than the Music Works ones in an absolute sense. In a full Audio Works system with the Revo rack, MIT cabling and the components that seem to happily walk the Larry Ogden/Audio Works hi-fi tight rope, the Recoil leads are probably more suitable, but in my system with more conventional cabling, lots of valves and a 3-box CD player, it's a no-brainer. The Mark Grant leads are just pure class and a bargain for the money.
I left it a few days to be sure it wasn't my imagination and got back on the phone to Mark to order 2 more.
So, how do they work?
Good quality connections and copper wire obviously help with dynamics and the dual screening (earthed braided copper and foil inside the outer insulating jacket) removes a lot of that nasty RFI which sits on much of the musical information coming off the disc as it feeds into the signal path at that critical point in close proximity to your kit. Yes the electricity has travelled 100s of miles around the national grid before entering our house, the consumer unit and the mains ring or dedicated spur but that last metre or so before entering your kit is critical and in such close proximity is more likely to be picked up by your electronics.
Whether you are comfortable with the science or not, it really doesn't matter. Those of you who trust your ears will take a punt on this. You risk paying the return postage if it doesn't make a significant improvement to your music listening experience and if this is the case then it is more likely that there is a bigger bottleneck in your system than your mains leads. Either that or you already use very high quality mains cables that cost considerably more.
If you are genuinely curious order one or two of these and try them on your CD player or DAC. It'll cost you a fiver at most if you don't derive any benefit and if you do, it'll be one of your cheapest ever hi-fi upgrades.
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Originally Posted by Steve Toy
