Has anyone tried one of these for their DVD player? (1 Viewer)

This probably belongs in the "Tweak/Accessories" area, but I was wondering if anyone has tried one of these:

http://www.amusicdirect.com/products...p?sku=AICECUBE

It makes sense to me, so I picked up a few for my players along with a couple of upgraded power cords.

These were also just featured as a recommended tweak ("14 Cheap Tweaks") in the newest Home Theater magazine. According to the magazine, the results are quite good in terms of audio, but downright surprising in terms of video.

I replaced the factory power cord on my DVD player by using one of these IEC adapters. It was a different brand that was also Cryo'd. Not sure if I buy into the Cryo mod but the power cord change did make a significant improvement in both music and video. Highly recomend this affordable mod.
FWIW you can pick up an IEC adapter from others such as
http://www.takefiveaudio.com/c8_to_iec_adapter.htm
Maybe someone else can post alternate sources?

Mark,

That's great news seeing as how I bought them "blind", not hearing any recommendations until after I placed the order.

Did you hear more improvement in the audio, video or both?

Wow, Take Five has a good price on these! VH Audio (see link below) also has a good price ($20) compared to what I've seen in the Music Direct catalog ($40) and theirs are cryo'd.

http://venhaus1.com/VH_Audio_Test.html

Improvement was noticed in both areas. I was expecting an audio improvement but the video surprised me.
Only wish I had seen TakeFive's price before I spent $24.95 on mine.

Mark,

Just curious, what kind of power cable did you go with for your DVD player?

FWIW, I highly recommend VH Audio's Flavor 3 cord (see link in previous post). I used one on my Rotel RSP-1066 pre/pro and it made a big difference!

I can't seem to visualize how these work. I see the adapter to fit onto the dvd player but it has no actual cord and couldn't fit into a wall socket by itself. Can someone paint me a picture on this one? Thanks.

Alexander, the adapter has a male end that is plugged into the female power input on the back of your DVD player. Where its supplied cord would normally plug in. On the other end of the adapter is a female end that accepts the male end of a heavier duty, high-zoot, power cord that you buy. These cords look similar to a PC's power cord.

Oh, I get it. Damn that was simple. My samsung 931 doesn't have the cord recpticle outside, the cord runs inside the case. Is this upgradeable?

Alexander,

Your player would not be able to be upgraded or tweaked in the manner we are discussing here as the cord is not detachable.

Hopefully this will make my deadly ninja skills even more deadly on many of my ninja-themed PlayStation2 games (When I upgrade my PS2 powercord that is).

Seriously. I'll wait till I can borrow one of these for a day. I'm not quite ready to buy the "premium" power-cord idea yet.

Ron,
I went through a bunch of DIY cable recipes. Yes, I tried VH recipes too but preferred a cable that used a silver/copper blend (hybrid) for the conductors. Since finding these I've replaced all my ac cords with them.

Try www.mapleshaderecords.com for a replacement AC cord for equipment that has hardwired cords. Of course, you will pay for their AC cords, they start at $150, but there is no extra charge for the hard-wired AC cord kit.

Here is a description of the kit from their website:

"CLEARVIEW AC CORD KITS (To Replace Hardwired Cords):
NO EXTRA COST!

You have a real good-sounding CD player, amp, turntable or recorder. You just know it could sound great with a first-rate AC cord. No dice, the piece doesn’t have a removable cord. Cheer up! Since this comes up so often, we’ve developed a kit to change your cord easily—without diving into the bowels of your gear wielding a soldering iron. Couldn’t be simpler: just get a MKI or a MKII Clearview Double Helix Power Cord Kit. It comes with prepared and marked bare wire ends plus insulated copper butt splices that you simply squeeze on with pliers—no soldering. Just cut your component’s captive cord 3" from the box and scrape bare the conductors at the cut end, slip on the butt splices and squeeze. By the way, it’ll sound better than if you’d paid somebody $100 to cut a hole in the back of your chassis and hard-wire in an IEC jack. The add-on IEC jack and mating plug just add a lot of unnecessary, bad-sounding dielectric."

I have not tried any of their power cords, but Mapleshade has a good reputation.

Rhinocables.net used to sell ac power cords. Think their 3ft pro cord was around $59.95 U.S.
E-mail them for details as they may or may not still sell them. Bonus is they are also located in Vancouver.
Or you could make one yourself. All the parts are available from TakeFive. If you can cut and strip wire and use a screw driver ....

Some affordable ac power cord suppliers:

signalcables.com
elementcable.com
vhaudio.com
diycable.com (kit)
linearinterconnects.com (kit)
boldercables.com

Maybe someone else can post some more?

NickSo,

One of many:

http://www.partsexpress.com/resources/110-400.html

You could always start with a kit from one of the above?

Interesting.

What video improvements have been seen? Be specific if possible.

Moving to tweaks.