Power Cords & effect sound?

[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.

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

Capacitance + usually higher resistance.................. in a nutshell.

It seems to me that many times the shielding is only connected at one end..... it's not actually carrying the signal being sent to the drivers. I suppose it depends on exactly how it's connected.......probably as many ways as there are people making it.

[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.

[wws944]

Tell me what You think of this.

"As unlikely as it seems that the last six feet of power cord can improve a high-voltage AC signal that has already been "conditioned" by many miles of utility company wire, the MusicCord-PRO cable has a positive effect on the sound of your amp."

Who knows - he might have heard a difference. Maybe plugging in the new $1600 power cord took some of the tarnish off the $0.59 40 year old outlet in his wall.

I love the wording in these ads:

"... These power cords retailed for $1599 last year. I got a bunch on a closeout and I am selling them with No RESERVE!"

Translation: We only sold a couple to some trust fund babies before the stock market crashed. Now we are stuck with a ****load of them.

They have a new model that you can buy for $800 now. I will be putting some of those in my Ebay store soon. They are even better than these, but these cost a LOT less.

Translation: We couldn't sell them at half the price either.

Email me if you want to buy the latest ones and I’ll get some listed, meantime I am selling these which were $1599 last year at NO RESERVE!

Translation: We need to dump this stuff quick, before our wives find out how much we invested in this venture.

The reason the 220V versions of the cord use 12 gauge wire instead of 10 gauge wire is that 220V is inherently twice as efficient as 120V, so there is no need to go thicker than this. Furtermore, the 220V fittings are not made to handle thicker wires well, and adding thicker wires to the 220V versions of the cable would add undesirable levels of capacitance to the cord. So it’s not as though the 220V customers are getting less—those cords actually cost us more to make due to the higher cost of the fittings.

Translation: (I'm not sure where to start on this one...) Maybe that anyone with a clue knows that a $5 dryer cord from Home Depot would give the same performance?

" ... Against the generic competition, though, the differences were clearly audible. The sound got tighter and more refined with the ESP's, with more sparkle in the upper register and more presence and power in the lows. The upper mids seem to awaken, imparting a sense of improved clarity and spaciousness."

Why does this sound like every audio component review I've ever read over the past 30-something years? I swear that if Julian Hirsch were still alive, he'd have a 'hot key' on his keyboard with those sentences ready to go for his next review.

Finally:

here's an interesting article about wires and audio.

Speaker Wire

Roger speaks truth. He is also a pretty helpful guy. (He helped me awhile back with some stuff on my ML-1C speakers - which I bought back in the mid-70s.)

My house was built in 1950, and had a lot of electrical problems too. I solved the problem by running a dedicated 20 amp circuit from the panel to the audio equipment.

[417 - Alnico]

So are these guys saying that even if you have a bunch of Power Conditioners etc.. that that last few feet of Power cable could Negate the whole Lot? Thanks for all the replies.

[oface1]

nope,,, all snake oil to me,, garbage in/ garbage out....

I would make sure you have good, clean power to start, wonder how many are shelling out good $$$ on cords and such , when they need a good electrician to come and check their power lines????? Bet'cha would save a lot this way.......

But if you wanna spend $800-$1500 in cords, by all means, you are obliged to do so......


Never understood all the hoopla over cords and such....... Guess I am not as much of an audiophool as I lead my self to think I was.....


-chris

[mah]

If an expensive power cord has made a significant improvement to the performance of your audio system you may be interested in this site:

Unique Audio Products Available From ESP

[bfish]

All audio electronic devices have an internal power supply that filters, rectifies, and provides the requisite voltages (a good portion of which are DC). With the possible exception of a few TT drive motors, nothing runs directly from the AC supply voltage. What comes out of that power supply is what matters.

Added;
People that freak over their AC supply quality should go back to batteries... easier, cheaper, quieter (than the suggested "fixes"), and completely off the grid.

[martyh45]

Okay, I can?t help myself any longer.

I have actually tried a set of power cords that cost more than all of my cars combined. They did a big fat nothing to the sound of my system. I also heard this same set of super cables in a system that was worth almost as much as my house and?nothing. Based on my limited experience, I can only conclude that buying special power cords is either for idiots?. or?. idiots who spent tons of money on equipment with such poorly designed power supplies that changing power cords makes a difference.

Other than that, I did not hear a difference because I did not believe a difference existed, my equipment was not good enough to resolve the super special things the wonder cords were doing to the sound. And?magic marbles really do improve the sound of any system as long as some guy who sells the marbles has already fixed your system with special voodoo transmitted over the phone.

All this from a guy who swears by underhung alnico motors, tubes and vinyl records.