Why I care about cables (or listening to low priced Power Cords & Interconnects)

We need to change the title of this thread to Russ Andrews con artist, I'm not sure why this came about.

If you're in the UK, you have the easy to use 60 day, no reason for a return, offer, so it's very easy to establish if the 'snake oil' works.

So if you're a non believer you can confirm your scepticism , and if you return it under your Statutory rights, you have all postage cost reimbursed and shouldn't incur any financial loss.

 

Then I may try some of his cables one day

How do cables fall apart? Ive never once had any cable at any price fail in any way.

 

The long return period is not out of the goodness of their heart. It makes it easier for the buyer to convince themselves to keep the item, because their ears will get used to it over time. "You have 60 days to return it; give it a few weeks to really try it out and then decide if you still want to return it." Chances are, by that point, they won't.

 

Their rational is that a burn in is required and in my case 30 days, a leaflet was included explaining this requirement and hence their 60 day policy.

So I only connected my system to it after that point my requirement was 'Do I hear a significant difference' and it's only got a couple of days to convince me.

Beyond that you have to trust your own jugement

 

My listening impressions of the Pangea AC-14 SE Mk II power cord:

My initial impressions of the Pangea AC-14 SE Mk II were good. The sound was warm but clear. It provided my Denafrips Pontus II DAC with a nice balanced tonal response that didn't overemphasize any part of the frequency band. It was pleasant to listen to.

Only in comparison with the Shunyata Venom power cord did the shortcomings of the Pangea AC-14 SE Mk II power cord become apparent. On music with complex rhythms and interactions, the Pangea cord produced music that sounded less defined and less easy to follow than when using the Shunyata Venom cord. I will not that I heard this only on music with the most complex rhythms and interactions. An example is the 'Improvisation' track from Dave Brubeck's Quadromania album in which the interaction of multiple instruments playing in the track can be difficult to follow. Using the Shunyata Venom power cord also seems to create more apparent pace to music. I think both of these effects are due to the Shunyata Venom power cord providing better resolution of tonal color and of the start and end of notes in the music. Overall, with better perceived resolution, using the Shunyata Venom allows the music to be conveyed with more finesse.

I would be happy to use the Pangea AC-14 SE Mk II at its $80 price tag, but paying the additional $70 for the Shunyata Venom power cord does provide tangible benefits to my ears.

 

The only "complex rhythm" your power cord has to deal with is a 60 Hz sine wave (or 50 Hz in Europe).

 

That's not quite so, the cable that feeds this computer is having a hard time dealing with the demands of the simple rhythm from your relentless ranting about cables.

Do you have any videos you would like us to click on to boost views today?

 

A typical inexpensive 14 AWG, two-conductor power cord is capable of safely delivering up to 18 amps of current at lengths up to 50 feet. That's enough to trip the breaker of a typical 15-amp residential circuit.

As long as your amplifier isn't exceeding that vast amount of current, any ordinary power cord isn't going to be "having a hard time dealing with the demands" of it.

Not mine, but a fun video by John Ward showing a severe overload of a power cable. It starts smoking at around 90 amps!

 

Good question. I've twice had HDMI cables go bad, without ever being touched or moved. I have no idea how that could happen. OK I live in SoCal, but the very tiny daily earthquake tremors somehow I feel shouldn't be enough to damage a cable...

 

Adding a Hurricane two weeks ago, and just putting in a second yesterday; my expectations have been exceeded. This was an eye opening experience.

 

defective from the start but took time for the defect to actually cause a failure and stress on the cable's connectors are usually how that happens.

 

@vwestlife The reason why I'm listening to low priced power cables in the first place is that I'm starting from the null hypothesis that there is no audible difference between power cables. I'm looking to find the best sounding low-priced power cord and might investigate more expensive power cords down the road. (Though what I already have in my system seems to sound about as good as any other digital system that I can remember hearing) The control in my listening experiments is a $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty power cable which has already sounded better than some 'audiophile power cables' notably a $200 power cord that made two different DACs sound bad. I've been lucky enough to have friends with stuff that they can loan me and other audio places have 30-day return policies, so I really don't have an emotional stake in whether something sounds better (or worse). The best case for me is that an inexpensive, generic product sounds best so I can use money that I would have spent on one of my other interests.

I've got a Mom who's a PhD Biochemist. One thing she said to me that has always stuck with me is when buying stuff, start cheap and figure out if there is even ANY reason to spend more money. That's exactly what I'm doing right now with power cords.

 

Ha ha! Yeah, that's just stupid. Like adding on a $10,000 garage with a $90,000 gold-plated driveway. Electronics don't work like that. But a "90% infrastructure" rule is great if you're selling "infrastructure"

Not to say cables can't make a difference-it's theoretically possible from a point of view of noise induction and so on, especially in car audio situations-but the sound of $100 speakers with $900 of "infrastructure" just ain't gonna sound better than $1000 speakers with generic AWG14 etc.

 

Like the weight hanging on the HDMI? I can picture that. Those cables weren't exceptional but that connection is not physically well supported.

 

What I've learned in life is that only you know what 'rules' are valuable for you. As an example, I often see the combination of luxury cars that are several years old with cheap no-name tires mounted on shiny, eye-catching wheels. It's clear to me what the owner's spending priorities are. Those wouldn't be my priorities, but to each their own.

 

yeah, the weight of the cable pulling on the connected ends.

 

If it's any consolation I've gone through lots of HDMI cables too.

 

It's been discussed extensively but you seem to miss that while many audiophile power cables tend to be fairly heavy duty -not all of them are- they are not made that way with the intention to prevent them from melting should you decide to run 200A through them.

There are people who use 500W -or more- amplifiers but they only listen at low volume. I imagine you think they only really need a 30 or 50W amp, no big problem, I have no issue with you thinking that even though I don't agree. But if you are going to talk about something, you would do yourself and people who watch your videos a great service if you actually try before saying what stuff -you haven't used- will or won't do. When it comes to power cables you are just guessing and I can tell you that you are getting it wrong.

 

That's what I say about electrical equipment that is not tested and approved by any safety certification agency like UL, CSA, TUV, etc. Will it catch on fire if your amp shorts out? Who knows? Hopefully you'll never get to find out!

 

Almost everyone knows that. If the amp have safety approvals or even if it doesn't but has been designed by someone who is not a complete idiot it will have fuses shortly after the IEC inlet that will blow to prevent fires, it is normal practice. That is what fuses are for and something that the guy in your linked video mentions as a very secondary thing which is not correct, that is the primary function of fuses to prevent fires.

 

A "typical 15-amp residential circuit" is typically a light circuit. Receptacles are typically 20-amp circuits.

 

Oxidation can cause cable failure. Also if the terminations break from many installations and removals. Not to mention stress.

 

Actually in my long audiophile life I have numerous cable failures, including poor connection, losing ground, etc. So I am all for good quality cables. Like those used in medical field, where faulty cable can means death of a patient.

 

That's the reason I cuddle them every night before going to bed