AudioQuest NRG-2 Power Cables

AudioQuest NRG-2 Power Cables 

DESCRIPTION

NRG-2 uses solid Long-Grain Copper (LGC) conductors in a Self Shielding Counter-Spiral Hyperlitz configuration. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, which is the greatest single source of distortion in an audio cable or an AC power cable. The less complicated grain structure and fewer impurities within LGC copper significantly reduces distortion compared to normal high purity-copper. The Counter-Spiral geometry minimizes conductor interaction while maintaining a fixed regular relationship.

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-9 of 9  
[Apr 07, 2015]
Andrew kohsk
Audio Enthusiast

I've been using the AQ NRG-2 for about 15years and of course burn in for more than 100 hours and still i good condition.before that i'm using the stock power cord for my steroe system and not really enjoying my music so i decide to upgrade the power cord.when changed to nrg-2 without burn in ,i immeditely can hear the diffrence in music.the midrange become more full body and better detail ,cymbal transient decay become more detail and the low frequency become more weighty and extented and overall music become much cleaner and musical and when burn in for 100 hours , my system coping with fast music can cope really well with good separation and good convincing rhythm.with the AQ nrg-2 is really good enough and not nesssary to upgrade to nrg-3.my system consists of musical fidelity A3.2 cd player,jadis orchrestra tube amp(6CA7 tube) ,Cabasse Farella 400 speakers and using eccosse mono crystal copper interconector and cable.Audioquest power cord really improved my system. No regret buying it.

buying it.




OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Feb 06, 2008]
machani
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Self Shielding Counter-Spiral Hyperlitz provides excellent self-shielding and noise canceling properties. Solid core conductors reduce hash. Very low noise floor, excellent transparency, treble and bass definition.

Weakness:

Absolutely none at this price. The RF stoppers slightly constrict dynamics in analog gear and should probably only be used with digital gear where they may improve the sound.

Prior to getting the AudioQuest NRG-2 cables, I was using DHLabs Power plus on my Cayin TA-30 amp and TAD-150 preamp. I heard good things about these cables in AudioAsylum and decided to give them a try, since I was able to get them unused for only $60 from eBay.

My first impressions of them, compared to the DHLabs Power Plus, were better treble detail and a more musical tone. The bass weight was about the same as the DHLabs (which is a good thing in my setup) but the definition was softer. Also, the soundstage didn't change much and the trancscients were not smooth. The midrange was slightly congested. In any case, I was aware that these cords needed some burn in, so I let them run in for about 100 hours, powering a personal computer.

After the burn in, the bass definition became much better and the soundstage expanded and the there was much better separation between instruments. Furthermore, the overal transparency was much better. It still took about 20 more hours playing time for the midrange to smooth out. The noise floor was also considerably lower.

These cords come with an RF stopper attached and, after careful listening, I came to the conclusion that the sound was better with the RF-stoppers removed since I was using them to power my analog gear. But I would imagine the RF stoppers would improve the sound of digital gear.

But after that, doing an A/B with the DHLabs Power Plus, there is no contest. The AQ NRG-2's took my system to a whole new level of transparency and involvement.

Customer Service

Not applicable.

Similar Products Used:

DH Labs Power Plus

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Dec 25, 2006]
Tom
AudioPhile

Strength:

Good bass. Clear. Fairly good detail. Energy. Well built.

Weakness:

Electronic haze and grit. The sound seems like its restricted in some way, Also, the sound is not as real and more electronic sounding. Makes my system sound too bright.

I never tried a nice power cable before. I do have in my system Audioquest Type 4 speaker wire and Audioquest Diamondback interconect cable.
This power cord is perplexing to me. I for sure heard a difference in sound between the NRG 2 and my stock power cord that came with my amp. But I am not sure the change is for the better. I have a pretty resolving system consisting of various components as follows:

Integrated amps: Cary tube, Magnum Audio, Alchemist
CD players: Primare, Marantz
Speakers: Harbeth, Spendor, Rega

Here is what I noticed:
When I first put the cable in my system connected to the amp I thought that the sound was more powerful, slightly bigger and had more energy. The bass was a bit stronger too and it was also a bit more detailed and more clear. So that should be it right? A clear win for the NRG 2 over the standard power cord. Well, not quite.
With the NRG 2 I noticed I just was not enjoying the music as much as I was before. My mind told me I should, but I was not. So why was this the case? Well, with the NRG 2 in my system the sound somehow seemed more electronic and artificial. The sound did not seem as natural as before. The sound seemed to be restricted too in some way. It just didn't flow in a natural way like before. It was also a lot more bright sounding with the NRG 2 connected. That's something I really dont like and can be a deal breaker for me.
My system is bulit around smooth components. The Primare CD player, Spendor soft dome tweeters, and Tubes in my Cary. But somehow this cable tipped the balance the wrong way to the bright side of reality. Violins and piano for instance, sounded artificially brighter than in reality. Because of the all of this I dont think I will keep this cable.
Perhapes you may find or hear a diiferent result. But for me, in my system, I know what I like and dislike. My standard power cord will go back into my system for now.




Similar Products Used:

Standard power cord.

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
2
[Dec 25, 2006]
Tom
AudioPhile

Strength:

Good bass. Clear. Fairly good detail. Energy. Well built.

Weakness:

Electronic haze and grit. The sound seems like its restricted in some way, Also, the sound is not as real and more electronic sounding. Makes my system sound too bright.

I never tried a nice power cable before. I do have in my system Audioquest Type 4 speaker wire and Audioquest Diamondback interconect cable.
This power cord is perplexing to me. I for sure heard a difference in sound between the NRG 2 and my stock power cord that came with my amp. But I am not sure the change is for the better. I have a pretty resolving system consisting of various components as follows:

Integrated amps: Cary tube, Magnum Audio, Alchemist
CD players: Primare, Marantz
Speakers: Harbeth, Spendor, Rega

Here is what I noticed:
When I first put the cable in my system connected to the amp I thought that the sound was more powerful, slightly bigger and had more energy. The bass was a bit stronger too and it was also a bit more detailed and more clear. So that should be it right? A clear win for the NRG 2 over the standard power cord. Well, not quite.
With the NRG 2 I noticed I just was not enjoying the music as much as I was before. My mind told me I should, but I was not. So why was this the case? Well, with the NRG 2 in my system the sound somehow seemed more electronic and artificial. The sound did not seem as natural as before. The sound seemed to be restricted too in some way. It just didn't flow in a natural way like before. It was also a lot more bright sounding with the NRG 2 connected. That's something I really dont like and can be a deal breaker for me.
My system is bulit around smooth components. The Primare CD player, Spendor soft dome tweeters, and Tubes in my Cary. But somehow this cable tipped the balance the wrong way to the bright side of reality. Violins and piano for instance, sounded artificially brighter than in reality. Because of the all of this I dont think I will keep this cable.
Perhapes you may find or hear a diiferent result. But for me, in my system, I know what I like and dislike. My standard power cord will go back into my system for now.




Similar Products Used:

Standard power cord.

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
2
[Aug 28, 2006]
balloonknot32
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Actually improves picture quality and makes my processor and amp sound awesome; flexible enough to fit in through wire management systems.

Weakness:

None

The AQ NRG power cords are great cables. I had a NRG-2 but upgraded it to a NRG-3 for my Samsung 1080p DLP HDTV. Immediately I noticed the picture quality had a little more pop when watching HD. The colours very more vibrant. I think the NRG-3 is such a good cable that I have 3 more in my HT. Fantastic cables for both audio and video especially for the price I get them for at Trutone. I'm a loyal customer and loyalty has it's rewards.

Similar Products Used:

NRG-1 for my HD/PVR and NRG-2.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 11, 2006]
Fergymunster
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Good design.Flexable enough

Weakness:

none

Now that this cable is fully broken in I'm better able to give a review.First I don't have to tell you that there are thousands of power cords out there now a days and this can be somewhat confusing.I've found out that the best one to get is one that is going block RFI and EMI emissions comming from your AC power source.I chose the NRG-2 because that's exactly what it's going to do.Not only that but now that it's fully broken in I'm noticing that there is more detail comming through my CA azur 640c CD player.Everything just seems more in focus.Mind you can spend twice the price of the NRG-2 and find out that the cable is doing the same thing.Also this cable is flexable enough to work with unlike alot of the other power cords out there.In order to yeild even better results I'm using a Monster SW200 surge protector that further eliminates RFI and EMI interference.With this combination the music is smooth and pure.I'm thrilled to report that my persistence has payed off handsomely.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Apr 13, 2005]
A-Audiophile
AudioPhile

Strength:

very well built, solid construction, RF blockers, detailed sound, better stereo seperation, defined bass, clearer sound stage. They let your gear work to their full potential.

Weakness:

None

I have the NRG2 power cables on my amp and preamp. My preamp is the Anthem Pre2L tubed and my amp is the Aragon 8008BB. Before I was using a home-brew 12ga cable with a Hubbell plug for my amp and a stock power cable for my pre. Without much break in the first thing i noticed was better seperation, better more detailed mids and highs, sounding rounder, fuller and more realistic. Voices, notes and instruments are clearer than ever. What was once clear, mids and highs are now silky and smooth, bass is deep as it was before but with more detail and definition of instruments. Over the years I have tried a number of different cables IC's, speaker cables etc. but it was not until I met the AQ diamonds that I became a believer in AQ products, consistant quality and products that deliver the goods. Now I use the AQ King Cobra IC's, just as clear and detailed as the diamonds but with more bass presence deep bass. Very, very good. I have a feeling I will be buying the NRG 1 for my amp and moving the NRG2 to my CDP in time. And of course they do look good, but looks mean nothing to sound...I really dont care if they looked like a turd.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Mar 01, 2005]
antero
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Value - 5 stars Overall - 5 stars

Weakness:

none

Started with the NRG-2 pc last year on my Cd player and right away noticed improved tonality, especially with female vocls and bass. Then moved up to NRG-3 on Cd player and NRG-5 on amp. Speed increased further and music started to flow like water down a river. Very open. Changed Cd player pc to Cardas Golden reference and found interesting synergy with NRG-5 on amp. NRG-5 sounds open, fast, detailed, natural, bass control is just simply awesome with this powercord, dynamic range really benefits from it, micr and macro dynamics are there, absolute bargain pc for amps considering what the competition charges for their top of the line. NRG-3 is similar to NRG-5 but has less air and speed, noise floor is increased slightly and it sounds less smooth, yet still very open. I found it works fine on the preamp. The NRG-2's are now relegated to the projector and the subwoofer. Still a good cable for the money, just not up to par with the NRG-3 and 5 for front end electronics. All in all, ALL NRG powercords from Audioquest have allowed my equipment to do more than it could with the stock powercords that came with every piece.

Similar Products Used:

cardas golden ref and cardas golden pc's

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 23, 2003]
Old School
AudioPhile

Strength:

Price vs. performance ratio is off the chart. It gave a greater increase in speed. Transients were deleniated with much greater accuracy with much more power and slam. It greatly reduces the RFI and EMI noise. I also reduces the digital grunge that is normally fed back into your system. The effect was jaw dropping right out of the box and has improved now that the cables have "broken in". My Digital now sounds better than most Analog. It's a great improvement for affordable audio/video grear. You could spend many times the price and only get marginal improvements at best.

Weakness:

The cable is not very flexible because of the solid core construction.

Excellent upgrade for any product with an IEC compatible plug. I purchased the power cable in a 3 ft. length. It replaced a 6 ft. stock, stranded wire, insulated 14 guage cord. It's a solid core cable of high purity copper. Two very good industrial quality plugs are included. A noise arrestor is molded into the wire. I used three NRG-2 cords on my three piece Audio Alchemy Digital System. I also use a Chang Lighspeed Power Conditioner with Monolithic Sound Upgrade Power Supplies for my D/A and DTI Pro.

Similar Products Used:

Chang Lightspeed Power Cables

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-9 of 9  

(C) Copyright 1996-2018. All Rights Reserved.

audioreview.com and the ConsumerReview Network are business units of Invenda Corporation

Other Web Sites in the ConsumerReview Network:

mtbr.com | roadbikereview.com | carreview.com | photographyreview.com | audioreview.com