Sound. Each TWL cable sounds more or less the same. These wires can be characterized as being highly dynamic and lifelike whilst delivering many details in stunning clarity and impressive depth. They tend to highlight a warm midrange to sound organically gorgeous. The treble is extended but very sweet as is generally the case for good 300B amps. They convey a lot of emotion and plenty of energy. The TWL sound is also characterized by a bit more bass and kick than the average contender. I started with the TWL power cords. The first results with the big Seven + cables plugged into my two Luxman M800a stereo amplifiers were rather disappointing. They sounded harsh, ill-defined and with foreshortened bandwidth. I tried to address this poor result with acoustic and electrical phase inversion and change of speaker wires but the overall result remained highly disappointing regardless. The best power cords with my two Luxman amps in bridged mode were by far the standard cheap power cords provided by Luxman.

Then I tried the small SPEC integrated amp from Japan. This was a great match and the sensation of more spaciousness, greater dynamics and increased depth was obvious. Why did I get such poor results between my Luxman amps and the TWL power cords? I tried several loudspeakers from my Vivid K1 to the Magnepan 20.7 and Lawrence Audio Double Bass yet the result remained unchanged.

I finally scaled back to just one Luxman stereo amplifier instead of two bridged M800a since bridged mode does exhibit a different behaviour than a simple stereo or bi-amp configuration. It’s definitely superior to run both amplifiers in bridged mode if one can achieve the correct setup i.e. right preamplifier and cables. Even Luxman’s own C800f preamp in my system was not specifically best to be associated with the Luxman M800a in bridged mode via the balanced inputs (a special bridged attenuation mode is also available for the RCA inputs). My previous Rogue Audio Hera preamp had too much gain to get the best from the Luxmans. I finally adopted the Coincident Statement Line Stage to arrive at a true match in heaven, better in my opinion than the Zanden 3000 which I also had opportunity to trial. Once you pass their break-even point, the bridged amps are simply outstanding. But I finally got excellent results also with the M800a in stereo mode. This meant a power reduction by a factor of four. Its impact on scale, dynamics and depth was immediate and obvious. But replacing the standard power cords with the Triode Wire Labs Seven + got surprisingly close. The gap of dynamics and depth between stereo and bridged modes was quite filled out by the solitary TWL power cord.

On sources and preamp, I currently use some DIY cords mainly inspired by the JPS Labs Aluminata reference construction. I thought the comparison between TWL 10+ and my DIY power cords turned slightly to my own cords’ advantage.  But it was essentially a question of personal taste. The 10+ tends to deliver a very organic result with a lot of weight and impressive authority on each note. My own contenders don’t produce quite such an organic reading but retaliate with a bit more resolution and clarity. Here I should add that I’ve had opportunity to trial insanely priced power cords in my system as well as completely basic specimens. The TWL will remain among the few to retain my interest even if proved to not be completely universal in my setup. But which cable can pretend at true universality? I would suggest an audition before buying and TWL’s 30-day trial policy supports that. The TWL power cords released a lot of energy from my system to allow the music to blossom. The extra level of details in the lower octaves also provided a better bass foundation.