A lot of pressure to be under, having to report back on a power cable difference. I want to say, this difference will not be as huge as changing out a preamp, but ime, as much as a tube. You need to know your system. You need to know the particular music you have chosen. You should enjoy the music you have chosen, and simply relax during the evaluation. This is harder with tube gear, again ime, because when a unit powers up, it can take more than 3-4 hours to be at its best. One of the many reasons I enjoy ss gear. Ready 100%, 100% of the time. I am sensitive to gear warm up and break in (another topic that has been discussed ad nauseam). Anyway Matt...be patient and enjoy yourself. The improvements will show up, on any device. Some of us are here for you ! MrD.
A stupid question(s) about power cords
As the title indicates, I admit that this is probably a stupid question. But since I don’t know (for sure) the answer, I am asking it anyway.
The recent power cord thread got me interested in a power cord upgrade (from the stock cord) on my Maranzt SA10 (SACDP). The power cord receptacle on that particular component does not have a male equipment ground pin--only the neutral and hot pins. Therefore the cord supplied by Maranzt is a two pole (if that is the right terminology) cord. But because I have done it this way before, I do know that it will accept a power cord with an equipment ground as well as a neutral and hot.
Question 1: I went to musicdirect and looked at some power cords and I saw one (an open box Audioquest NRG Z2) that they were calling a two pole cord. The end that plugs in to the component only has a neutral and a hot, but the other end, the end that plugs into the outlet in the wall, does have an equipment ground blade (so that end has three blades). Why would that be?
Question 2: (and this is the stupid one) if a power cord has an equipment ground pin plugged into the wall, even if it is not plugged into an eqipment ground in the component itself, that cord is still connected to the neutral bus bar in the panel, right? So that being the case, since the equipment ground wire in the cord is right next to the hot wire, is there a way unwanted stuff (rf or whatever, my understanding of this is quite limited) can that dirty up the power that is traveling on the hot wire in the power cord?
I think that the answer to the last question is probably going to be ’no’? And if the answer is ’no’, that means that I really don’t need to shop for only two pole cords, right? And I see this as sort of important because if I buy a two pole cord, the ONLY component I can use it on/try it out on will be my SACDP--there will be no playing around with a two pole cord on my preamp or my amp.
And ALSO, if I don’t feel constrained to shopping ONLY for two pole cords, I would probably have more options to consider.
TIA for legitimate insight to this, and to all others, feel free to ridicule me and my question--I don’t mind.
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Thanks @mrdecibel ; I will keep you posted. I had to unplug everything to facilitate other goings on in the room, but I am hoping to have everything hooked back up by tomorrow. Life if full of compromises. I do believe that an improvement could be made without me fully relaizing what the improvement tangibly is--just that my level of comfort and satisfaction has increased to an extent. Possibly or even probably a small extent. But small + small = slightly bigger than small. I don’t talk a lot about this, because it opens things up for nay-sayers. "What!? So you THINK there MIGHT be an improvement in your SQ, but you don’t know for sure what it is, and you don’t know for sure IF it is? Seriously??" But the thing is, I do not have the golden ear so I do not immediately recognize differences in SQ and what they are. But it’s my time and my dime and if I wasn’t okay with it I wouldn’t do it. |
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Another runway builder, to be disregarded! Enjoy experimenting with your systems and enhanced musical pleasure, @immatthewj (et al).
+1 System improvements always prove incremental and some: more profound than others. Just another of the myriad of VARIABLES, when it comes to this hobby. btw: there are no, "stupid questions". Just some of the responses one gets, when making an attempt at a bit of education/enlightenment. Happy listening! |
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