Have your say & ask the experts

I'm looking at my next upgrade, and my aim is to improve picture quality. Having just had Sky+HD installed, I am generally impressed with most HD images, but I'm looking to improve things even more without replacing my TV (which isn't really an option for the foreseeable future).

I bought a Tacima CS929 mains conditioner a while back, which improved picture and sound considerably, especially for such an inexpensive item. But all mains cables for the TV, Blu-ray player and receiver remain of the bog standard, bundled variety.

Do you think some Clearer Audio Copper Line Alpha mains cables for the TV and Blu-ray player would make a difference to PQ worthy of the outlay? I'd get one for the receiver but its mains cable is (stupidly) integrated and non-removable.

I understand this is a subjective issue, but I'm interested in everyone's opinions, and especially the opinions of those who own these particular cables. The input of the What Hi-Fi team would also, of course, be greatly appreciated.

 

I brought this cable for my Sony Bravia and noticed an improvement in PQ for dvd and 360 hdmi, def worth the outlay.

I tried cables and conditioners with my plasma but without visible changes, i guess my picture is allready very good to me, i guess i have reasonable clean power to my house.

Soundwise however, i did try many different mains cables and compared them for a few days. The only cable that made a great improvement was a WireWorld, an Aurora to be more specefic. I could lend this from a dealer. Allthough this dealer  has a few brands like Chord among others, he only had very good results with the WireWorlds so far. He use this cable for his own system and is in the buissiness for more then 30 years, so he must be right as i witnessed the difference myself at home. The Wireworlds use a clever design that acts like a conditioner. I allready posted about these mains cables here on What Hifi and advised them to try them out, but it seems most people here are put of and stick with brands they know, and they aren't reviewed by What Hifi (yet) i think.

Liam19:

Do you think some Clearer Audio Copper Line Alpha mains cables for the TV and Blu-ray player would make a difference to PQ worthy of the outlay?

Dear Liam19

We have many customers using the Copper-line Alpha on TVs, projectors, blu-ray players etc. and picture quality usually improves significantly. We offer a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee so you can audition for yourself with your own system and if you are not fully satisfied with the results you can return for a refund. Also it is worth bearing in mind that it is best to use shielded power cables from your Tacima to your components since unshielded power cables can pick up airborne noise after filtering thereby undoing the good work done.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Darren

Well I took delivery of a Copper-line Alpha mains cable a few weeks ago now, which I immediately hooked up to my TV (replacing the freebie that came with it) and plugged into my Tacima CS929.

While the cable itself is thick and appears to be very well built, to be honest I was pushed to see much of a difference in terms of PQ. It may be just a little cleaner, I suppose, but the difference wasn't nearly as obvious to me as that made by the Tacima.

 Now I face another dilemma. I had always planned to later fit two more Alphas to my Blu-ray player and Sky+HD box (both of which are also on freebie cables, which look particularly thin and flimsy next to the Alpha!). This would give me the peace of mind of having good cabling throughout my system, ensuring the best performance possible. But my relative indifference to the cable's effect on the TV has left me pondering endlessly whether or not I should bother to finish off the upgrade?

I suppose my main questions are:

1) Could fitting an Alpha to my Sky+HD box improve picture and/or sound quality?

2) Would fitting an Alpha to my Blu-ray player potentially improve sound quality in particular, since it is my player decoding HD audio tracks and converting them to multichannel analogue?

3) Could fitting a Figure 8 adaptor to the end of an Alpha (a necessary addition for use with the Sky box and Blu-ray) affect the cable's performance?