VooDoo Cable Infinity Power and Air Spectra Power Cords

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” (Michael Corleone: The Godfather Part III).

Yes, of course I’m talking about AC power cords. Truth be told, except for my current long-term references I have turned a blind eye to most of them. But when I began listening to active loudspeakers like the Golden Ear Award-winning ATC SCM19A’s (each driver of which requires its own power cord), I felt that old familiar tug of curiosity. Fact is, it’s tough to get any two enthusiasts to agree on why power cords do what they do. And then there are the doubters that dismiss the whole segment as nothing more than voodoo.

And then, poof, as if by magic, I was assigned to review some power cords made by, you guessed it, VooDoo Cable. The California-based wire and accessories company supplied a threesome of its latest creations, the Infinity Power, Infinity Digital, and the Air Spectra power cords.

The Infinity Power is a high-current design for amp and power conditioners. It sports eight-gauge AWG high-purity silver-plated copper conductors, individually insulated in a Teflon dielectric. Infinity Digital is the low-noise version for digital sources and preamps. It uses finer ten-gauge AWG high-purity silver-plated copper conductors. Connectors are PowerPhase gold-plated tellurium copper.

The upscale Air Spectra is designed for use with digital sources. It employs eight-gauge AWG high-purity Cryo-Alloy conductors (stranded and solid-core copper, solid-core silver, silver-plated copper, and a propriety alloy). Connectors are PowerPhase rhodium over silver-plated tellurium copper.

For EMI/RFI protection, all of the power cords are shielded with heavy-gauge tinned copper braiding and double layers of abrasion-resistant nylon and polyethylene mesh. VooDoo uses its own cryogenic process to treat each cable at -315^o Fahrenheit to structurally align and fuse the molecular structure of the conductors. My general impression of these flexible, handsome cables is one of durability and quality.

To begin, I removed my current reference Audience Au24SX power cords, and refamiliarized myself with the original equipment cords. Besides the ATC actives, the components involved were the dCS Puccini CD player and Pass Labs XP-12 preamp (review forthcoming). Four AC cords in all. Vague was the word that came to mind after I switched to the stock cords. Music had retreated behind a thin opaque veil—a little like looking through a lens coated with very thin layer of Vaseline. Images were less rooted, ambient space a bit scrambled. More telling were artifacts that suggested a coat of fine grain around the edges of vocals or the punchy brass solo of “Autumn Leaves” from the Manhattan Jazz Quintet. Plus, there was a hint of peakiness when voices or solo instruments increased in volume.

You Put a Spell on Me
Swapping the standard power cords and going full VooDoo was a little like squeegeeing the windows and grabbing a dustbuster. The impression of images sounding pinched or constricted was largely reduced. The interplay between musicians, orchestral sections, and the ambient space between sections grew just a little more open and layered—with Air Spectra, even more so.

Compared with the reference, the VooDoo power cords had a very slight forwardness that tended to close the distance between the stage and the listener. They also had a cooler overall tonal character, not laid-back or overly dry but leaning toward a more clinical and precise interpretation of the music. Transients were quick and dynamics very good. Bass response overall was extended, controlled, and exact in timbre. Instruments with deep resonant signatures, like pianos and bass viols, were full-bodied but not bloated.

As I listened to Peter, Paul & Mary’s classic In the Wind (an exceptional SACD remastering from Steve Hoffman), I was reminded of how much low-level complexity resides in this minimalist analog recording. As if breathing as one, the trio’s talent to control, blend, and balance precision harmonies is still a thing to admire, fifty years later. With the VooDoo cords in the system I was able to contemplate each singer’s work and appreciate their artistry individually, as well as as a cohesive trio. During “All My Trials” for example, Mary Travers doesn’t approach a note or “glide” into it, rather she hits it straight on and in perfect pitch. It’s also easy to hear how the threesome soften their distinctive vibratos so that sustained harmonies remain tonally clean and in sync. “Blowin’ in the Wind” was another prime example of how they modulated their volume to suit the lyrics’ emotional content.

My key takeaway from using the VooDoo AC cords was the return to concise and believable spatial orientation. It was not just a matter of being able to pick out instruments in the orchestra either—they were also joined together and stably imaged within acoustic space. When I played selections from Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, and Bruch with cellist Pieter Wispelwey, the stock AC cords delivered a somewhat phase-shifted performance where placement and dimensionality were indistinct. VooDoo seemed to settle and relax the presentation, restoring stable imaging and the hall sound. It resolved layers and depth that had been flattened by the stock power cords. One other note: If you’re going to change AC cords incrementally, I found replacing the amp cords provides better initial bang for the buck.

The sonic divide between original-equipment AC power cords, medium-priced upgrades, and state-of-the-art has, um… tightened. It’s easy to overstate what power cords can achieve. They’re highly system dependent, plus the quality of the AC outlets, your home-wiring, and even the neighborhood power utility can impact the final result. However, power cords remain yet another piece of the puzzle in a hobby where everything is consequential, where minutiae are revered and even the smallest piece can add up to something ultimately magical. Which, as I discovered, is precisely what adding a little VooDoo does.

Specs & Pricing

Price: Infinity Digital, $600/ft.; Infinity Power, $700/6ft.; Air Spectra, $2000/6ft.

VOODOO CABLE
(510) 535-9464
voodoocable.net