True that Less fun though. Now at least we have the option to pursue something better than stock or not, which is of value.
Yes that is true - the illegal bit. But I have done precisely that in the past (I can in no way recommend anyone else try this), and it made a sufficient difference to the sound quality that my completely un-audiophile wife could clearly hear the improvement. I no longer use those cables - but they are in my mains cables drawer in the filing cabinet, just in case.... And yes - whatever cable you use, make sure that the connections are clean and fit tightly.
I had an Audio Research D125 at one stage, and that had a captive cable. I chopped it off about 15cm (6") from the chassis and put on an IEC socket. That meant that I could power cable roll to my hearts content. But I have to admit that cable swapping made not much difference to the SQ of that amp. But the power transformer mechanically hummed to the extent that it vibrated the deck and produced a hum as soon as the stylus hit the record. I had to banish the amp to another rack.
I don't have a good explanation for why using the same cable that is in the wall as the (illegal) power cable to the equipment improves the SQ as compared to the regular cheap flexible power cord. Which I find frustrating (you should all know by now that I like theory backed up by measurement). The nearest I can get is that there is no impedance discontinuity - so it changes any conducted RFI in some way.
the beauty of our hobby, IMHO, it is ALSO to do tests, to "play" with our toys. Obviously, it's the music that drives everything else, but what's wrong if I try to replace a cable every now and then, or put cable A on the amp and cable B on the source, get used to the sound and then see (sorry, "listen") if I'm able to pick up differences if I put A instead of B and B instead of A? I have just agreed with the builder of "Silcable" that I will have a new powercord to put on the source (Yamaha CD-S3000). Now, you see the dedicated post #67, I have a very good powercord that goes to the filter, and from there another cable that gives the current to the CDP. I'm curious about putting a new cable instead of the (excellent) filter. If I notice improvements, then I'll buy the cable, if I don't, or, worse, if I understand the cable / filter / cable solution is better, I send the new cable back to the supplier. By the way... that Powercord (limited) costs about 700$, Solution cord "Systems and magic Goldwire" _filter Systems and magic ExtremeV2_cord "Systems and magic Goldwire" is about 1.000
iMO, all discussions of this type should start with defining what "improvement in SQ" actually means and how do you compare before and after. For example my daughter noticed a huge improvement with Beats BT headphones in comparison with my HD650 at home.
In that context, all is relative and related to taste and expectation. But, Beats improving on HD650s !
If you measured 40 watts loss in power, one would expect voltage to drop considerably (which would likely be handled by the power supply) or current capacity to drop enormously. Im not trying to be a jerk but it would be pretty easy to measure the extra resistance. P=IV is fact so you are saying that 6ft of wire radically changed R enough that current or voltage dropped so extremely that one lost a pretty huge amount of electricity. I also generally see most systems running at moderate volume using 2-20 watts/channel. one would need a massive loss to hear a difference. Tell us more about this test you ran?
Well, the power is equal to the voltage squared. So assuming that full power is 400W (and only 360W is measured - that is a 10% power drop. That would require a 5% voltage drop along the cable - lets see what we actually might get) Now the overall efficiency of a capacitor input filter fed by a transformer and bridge rectifier is about 70%. So 400W needs about 570W out of the wall socket. At 110V that is 5.2A. Again an assumption that the cable is 14AWG (2.5mm^2) and is 2 metres long. That has a loop resistance of 0.032 ohms. Add 0.040 for four contacts per loop for 0.072 ohms. 5.2 amps will therefore drop the voltage by 0.375V. That is a voltage drop of 0.997 and a power drop in the amp of 0.993, and give a power of 397W, a loss of about 3W, not 40W. Am I missing something?
I can't believe I have to say this in a thread on power cabels, but please refrain from discussing politics or making personally directed negative comments. Thanks!
I have read some pretty compelling arguments that they should not make a difference and the logical part of my brain says that they should not as long as it is a good quality cable, BUT there are enough people whose ears and credibility that I respect say that they do, so I am willing to concede the point. I have no experience with really high-end PCs, so have no personal opinion. I did get some Shunyata cables that were at a really good sale price, just in case. Even if a $1k+ cable made a difference I would not be interested because: A. I plan on installing dedicated lines and doing room treatment that I think would have more impact; and B. Since retiring I have decided that my system sounds really good and there are other things that I would rather spend my slightly limited budget on (like music).
Well, she also believes she looks better with panda-like makeup, so ... In this context I believe the discussion on PC should probably be about whether or not they make a measurable and humanly discernible difference in the audio signal coming out of the respective device or not?
Agreed. But, I guess more generally, it depends how far you want to go with that logic. Taking it to its logical, but rather ridiculous, extreme we could make life really simple by reverting to all-in-one mini-systems even boomboxes. I certainly would not wish to do that. Just to avoid castigation from the forum minders, I am not suggesting that was your thought process, but personally I like this sort of choice in HiFi.
If the wire lacks high frequency bandwidth, current spikes of short duration might be current limited. This would prevent ideal charging of the filter banks in the power supply. The amplifier in question was one of our MA-1 Silver Editions. It had been measured by Bascomb King as only making 100 watts whereas we claim 140. Since I had measured the amp to make sure it was performing correctly prior to the review, naturally I was curious as to why the amp didn't make power for Bascomb. So I put it on the bench and ran the power up. Now we spec the amp for 120volts at the IEC connection. So its natural to run the amp to full power and then readjust the variac, go to full power again and keep doing this until no further power accrues. But I noticed that the voltage at the output of the variac was higher than that at the IEC- by just a bit over 2 volts. Now the MA-1 runs class A and has a substantial filament circuit (being an OTL), so has a pretty high current draw even at idle. I found that in a nutshell, if I compensated for the loss across the power cord I got my 140 watts. We have been hearing power cords make a difference in our gear for a long time. This is why we use IEC connections as we know our customers will probably try different cords. When the MA-2 was designed in 1990 we set it up for dual power cords on each chassis in order to minimize the effects of the power cords. But at that time I was guilty of the exact same thing as many ' "power cords don't make a difference!" people' (who like to troll threads like this) in that I had made no measurements- I had only heard and believed my ears in this regard. But when I saw that measuring the power cords really wasn't that difficult (using an ordinary DVM) one thing that really came out was that the stock power cords we were supplying weren't really up to the task despite the fact that they were well within their ratings. I find that when the amps are in a system and playing for a while, that if a properly rated but not capable power cord is used then you can expect to find heat at the AC outlet and also at the IEC connection. But the power cord itself will also be warm along its length (this is easy to check with a lazer temperature gun). Obviously if a power cord is heating up its robbing the system of performance. For this reason I don't recommend power strips as they force everyting connected to them to use the single power cord of the strip itself.
Yes. Because I've been able to measure voltage drops across a number of power cords, I'm convinced that lower powered devices will be less affected by the power cord.
My girls are not quite at that stage yet ... but it sometimes feels like I'm standing on the track with the train speeding towards me. Personally, and as you may have already gathered, I am not too bothered by measurable in this context. But if by 'humanly discernible' you mean,t as I think you do, that you can clearly and consistently head a difference, then I am with you on that.
That's key. There's no hard evidence that cables actually impact how a product this or that sounds like, but if my hearing says otherwise and audibly enough to actually now be vocal about it, then why should I put measurements before this? We also should differentiate a good cable from bad. Anyone?
This forum gets plenty of respect (globally not just here) and benefit of the doubt when it comes to 'which pressing sounds best'. Yet, throw in a cable debate and all of a sudden, those same people with "golden ears" are hearing/making things up when they claim a cable does make a difference. It's just silly.
I suggest you ask yourself "what about the current sound would I like the change?" Then educate yourself on the type of changes that address your requirements and desires. Also think "bang for the buck". The Polks are nice speakers in their price range. Generally speakers are the biggest changers and upgrades to a systems sound. Maybe save to money and put it in a growing speaker account? If you spent $3-$5k (including many per-owned items) you would for sure have a "game changer". It is good advice to question whether the current system is capable of resolving in an audible way the changes power cords would make. Take your time and consider the goals for your listening experience.
