Powerline/Lite

If you don’t have dedicated mains, do that first, for less than the cost of a single Powerline. That’s assuming it’s doable in your house of course. 

But if I did not do the mains  What’s the general consensus of the VFM of the PLL ?

The PL Lite is the previous stock mains cable but with the Naim designed plug PL 'Lite' 13 amp plug.

I have them to power my PSU's, previously powered by Supra LoRad 1.5mm.   Any improvement ??? nothing that I can hear, but being smaller diameter, un-shielded & more flexible they can be made a lot tidier.

I would stick with the full fat PL for best effect. Might be worth checking flea bay and getting 2 pre loved units for the price of one new one

Local dealer is doing me a special on 4 x PLL’s, cannot justify another PL at my level. PLL’s still feel substantial and nice in black too. He’s re-terminating my NACA5 with some lovely Audioquest banana plugs, bare wires in to the ELAC’s were murder

I'm using full fat Powerlines on all my Naim amplification and sources.  On the Linn, I'm using their stock cable.  But on my active ATC speakers I'm using Power line Lite cables.   It's kind of following the 'source first' principle... all the components up to the power amp have the expensive (£600) power leads, and then the main amplification drops a price level (£100).

My dealer thinks I'm crazy not to have full fat cables on my main amplifiers (in this case ATC speakers), but he's polite enough not to say so.  But I can tell by the way his face contorts when he's talking to me about mains cables. 

hungryhalibut posted:

If you don’t have dedicated mains, do that first, for less than the cost of a single Powerline. That’s assuming it’s doable in your house of course. 

???? CALUM FERGUSON,.....This,..that Hungryhalibut says,it's the absolute first thing to do.!!
It can be done in any home,residential.

This is the basis for being able to do a good system-installation.
And probably the cheapest upgrade you will ever make ????.

There is much information about this on the forum,use the search function.

/Peder ????

If you are having a rewire anyway then yes it's a good idea.  In many UK homes though it means floorboards & floor coverings lifting up and channels cutting into brick walls for the wire and back-boxes. It's messy work, lots of dust and you'd have to empty the rooms you were working in.

Guinnless posted:

If you are having a rewire anyway then yes it's a good idea.  In many UK homes though it means floorboards & floor coverings lifting up and channels cutting into brick walls for the wire and back-boxes. It's messy work, lots of dust and you'd have to empty the rooms you were working in.

And all of that is a non-starter for me 

As mentioned P Light is the old stock Naim with the PL plug, if your swapping from old stock Naim plugs will be very little difference.

Supra strangled the sound for me, I prefer stock Naim only exception I felt was better than the full fat PL was a Chord Aray similar price, but as mentioned check flea bay.

Probably overkill to to spend £500 on power cables, but if your upgrading they will stay with you.

Personally I found power line lite a useful upgrade from original plugs. Added them for hicap dr, 200 and nap sc. Possibly the results are better if electrics in house are not so good.

Hi,

I went from the old stock leads to Powerline-Lites on my 5si combo and noted a small but worthwhile improvement all round. Compared to most other 3rd party cables out there I consider the Powerline-Lite mains cables to be of excellent value for money.

Just picked up a used Powerline, this is now connected to my XP5xs and this powers a 272, the 250dr is powered by the supplied Powerline Lite. 

Well I was a mains cable skeptic plus I haven't heard the 250dr without the PL lite (i.e. with a standard IEC lead) so not sure what this brought to the setup but the full PL on the XP5xs has added an additional layer of detail even my wife who doubted the PL has noticed a difference!!

This will be a nice stop gap until I can afford a 555dr then the PL will drop to the 250dr.

PS I have dedicated mains, 6mm to MK unswitched sockets.

I had to swap out my old stock cables, noticed that they were fraying when I took the system apart to change racks, I’m pretty sure you’re not meant to be able to see the copper ( I suspect accidental spiking at some point). I replaced them with PL Lites, I didn't expect to hear a difference, I was very surprised at the much improved noise floor, a very worthwhile upgrade. Powering Hicap (since replaced by Supercap) into 82 and a pair of 135s. 

HiFiman posted:

even my wife who doubted the PL has noticed a difference!!

I am now never sure whether people are joking or telling the truth, when telling the above. According to the infamous Hi-Fi rule:

"nothing carries any scientific weight unless your wife, etc., who didn't even know you'd done anything, came in from the kitchen and commented on how much better your system sounded. Extra points would also have been awarded for describing it like a "veil being lifted"

With a full fat powerline you can deploy it around the system to find what it does to each box and plan from there. Don’t neglect plug order if you use a block, sort this first if you find any difference. I came in at 282/250 level where it did from Rega separates where I couldn’t hear one. My first guess would be CD5xs, DAC, hicap, 200, psc but others would reverse most of that except the psc. I’d put a powerline on the CD5xs first but we don’t all hear music the same way so try for yourself.

At my level one PL into DAC, everything else (CD5XS/HCDR/200/NAPSC) on PLL feels in proportion