Prior to moving on, let's address the woolly mammoth in the room. As reviewed, this power cord sells for €36'000. Each additional meter ads €9'000. That beats my DAC, mono amps, preamp, speakers, the entire setup at home and the Skoda Superb I acquired new from a dealer in mid 2019. My entire reference cable loom plus power distributor demand less. I'm sure that many will scratch their heads in disbelief and wonder why the D-TC Supreme even exists. They'll run a quick estimate to determine that its two bulges between three thick braided cuts finished with plugs on either end can't possibly cost so much. Meanwhile it's business as usual for our unmoved Danes. As I see it, Ansuz' top products exist because there's demand in the same way that exotic cars, mansions, watches and other luxuries cater to a lucky few. Audio Group Denmark's founders are known for their relentless pursuit of top performance where they spare no coin on R&D. The higher the tier, the more substantial the financial investments get. Those naturally demand returns with profits. So the D-TC Supreme's price tag reflects time and money pooled into this ambitious project to be a far cry from the sum total of its parts. That's why any calculations based on raw ingredients alone are as silly and unrealistic as would be overlooking distributor margins and the operational costs of an European audio house that's already more than fifty strong. On a side note, Denmark lists currently as the 5th most expensive country in the world to live in. That's no attempt to justify the D-TC Supreme's loaded sticker. Rather, it's reminder that there's far more to it than just some wire, insulator and connectors. With that out of the way, let's carry on.
The D-TC Supreme is handmade on site and loaded to the hilt with proprietary tech focused on mechanical grounding, resonance control and noise cancellation. Published descriptions are shy on detail but key designer Michael Børresen was happy to shed more light. He explained that the average speed aka drift velocity of electrons inside a conductor is about 1mm per second while a cable's mechanical properties impact how the electromagnetic fields around it move these subatomic parts. Capacitance and inductance kept very low provide instant current transfer and mechanical stability prevents outside forces from interfering. If all this sounds simple, the measures inside a DT-C Supreme to secure these goals are elaborate.
I was told that the D-TC Supreme's tone depends on mechanical firmness and its internal geometry more than conductive material which is several thick individually shielded solid-core copper wires under Teflon skins. Each pair of closely wound helical strands purposely inverts one leg to significantly reduce inductance. Interestingly, silver plating these veins would have lowered inductance by just 6-8% yet raised cost tenfold. The conductive core is surrounded by multiple loops of differently spliced/layered thinner wires designed to combat the aerial effect and slice large environmental standing waves into many tiny far less harmful ripples. In practice this power cord doesn't know how long it is. That makes it a terrible antenna so resilient to incoming noise from its surroundings or the mains. Moving on, the two rather large 3D-printed compartments near either end house complex passive dither circuits which modulate the ground noise floor to engage noise cancellation plus double down on antenna effects. This tech proved universal enough to show up in Børresen crossovers as well. To eliminate unwanted resonances, the connectors' aluminium housings undergo a treatment to develop a multi-layer ceramic surface of zirconium, tungsten and titanium nitride. As for usability, this is one massive and stiff affair which eats up space and requires careful routing to avoid twisting its ends. Those large resin boxes with embedded leather inserts don't make that task any easier. Although put together nicely with great attention to detail, this is a rather regular looker dressed to perform not bling. While we're at it…
…power cables are neither difficult nor tricky to evaluate. Connect one to a component of choice, have a listen, unplug, replace, track sonic shifts, write. That's it. A single D-TC Supreme would ideally go from a wall outlet to a power bar or conditioner to impact everything downstream but one of my Boenicke Audio Power Gate's captive M2 cords already covers that base to feature no inlet. Alternately I could have used my GigaWatt PC-3 SE EVO+ but didn't want to. Ansuz's own power box seemed ideal but I decided to start working with tools I already had. I could always ask for it later.