Power Cords & effect sound?

[Panomaniac]

Now THAT is funny :-)

Yes it was!

Fancy power cords? Hmmmmm...

But better power - yes! Having worked for years in live sound and theater I sure know what a difference a good power drop can make. Recently I did the same at home.

Just moved into a house that was built in 1955. No grounds anyhwere but the service entrance. No grounded power outlets - so no grounds for the audio. Power was also dirty. Just one 220V (+ neutral) line pulled out to the shop/listening room. Everything running from that. Turn on a light, hear a pop.

So I added a made ground. 8' copper clad grounding rod right outside. Not more than 6' from my audio supply outlets. And an isolation transformer for the audio circuits.

The difference was NOT subtle. All of a sudden much more bass, a more powerfull sound - no pops, odd noises, smoother mids and highs. I think a lot of my gear was freaking out not having ground. I run music from the computer and it was glitching like crazy. No more. Not sure yet how much of the improvement is from the good ground and how much from the isolation, but it is a major improvement. A good, low impedance ground is a must.

FWIW, I bought 2 isolation transfos. 1 for the amps, another for the sources. So far, I've only used one and run everything from it. Very happy.

[GM]

FWIW, adding power factor correction capacitors to vectorially align the incoming power phases to unity can be audible also.

GM

[Panomaniac]

Really? Good to know! I was planning to add a motor run cap to correct my power factor. Right now it's awful - about 0.55 Nice to know that fixing that will help the sound, too.

[Steve Mac]

I'd spend my money on an amplifier with a really good power supply design
before doing anything like this.

[onextwo]

here's an interesting article about wires and audio.

Speaker Wire

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

Just moved into a house that was built in 1955. No grounds anyhwere but the service entrance. No grounded power outlets - so no grounds for the audio. Power was also dirty. Just one 220V (+ neutral) line pulled out to the shop/listening room. Everything running from that. Turn on a light, hear a pop.

So I added a made ground. 8' copper clad grounding rod right outside. Not more than 6' from my audio supply outlets. And an isolation transformer for the audio circuits.

That's vastly different than what the super expensive boutique power cables give you.

[Panomaniac]

That's vastly different than what the super expensive boutique power cables give you.

Well, yes. But I didn't pay much for it.