I hate to judge too harshly but it appears self-knowledge is no real advantage to audiophiles who won’t listen. As they say in the court system, a defendant who represents himself has a fool for a client. Remember the Little Train that Could, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!” 🚂 Toot, toot! I like to see certain audiophiles “lock themselves into their story” as the homicide detectives say. Don’t just do something, stand there!
How may a simple "Power Cable" change, improve an audio system?
How? How can just a power cable change improve the sound of ANYTHING?
Damned if I know. I have my own theories. But as of right now they are very simply just that, "Theories".
And I am a skeptic on this, "At least to a point".
Yes, I believe that;
A new, shiny power cable, simply designed to spec. "According to the NEC". And with basic shielding, twist and good terminations along with appropriate insulation "should" in my mind sound better than the ratty old power cable that came with "whatever component". But that's not always the case in my experience. Sometimes the new power cable seems to make no difference at all. And beyond that? I simply know that it "can" be an improvement.
I do understand that many here believe that anything to do with, "High-end Power Cabling" is just, "Snake Oil" for sale. I used to think the same. But things like this that I am about to report to you just keep happening to me....
Last Saturday at 7:00pm I was at the "Capital Audiofest" in Washington D.C. And that evening there had been arranged a bit of music "Live", for those of us that were still there at 9:00pm (I "think", it had been a long day).. I happened to walk in early as the band was just doodling around after just setting up for the gig. They sounded really good and I decided to just hang-out until they played. as the band was going through the set-up and about fifteen of us on-lookers were just talking amongst ourselves between practice songs. A fellow whom I do not know stuck his "head" in the room and yelled someone's name. The bands leader stopped and looked around. The "Head", said; "Plug your amp in with this and it will sound better"! The "Head", then disappeared as quickly at it had appeared, never to be seen again!, "By me at least".
There were a few scoff's that I heard. A few chuckles about a power cable, "Making an amp sound better"!?
Then the band leader shrugged his shoulders. He laughed a bit too as he remarked and joked, "Well ok then, A power cable that will make my amp sound better huh"!? He then bent and swapped out the old cable for the "New" one.
The band leader then played what sounded like the beginning of a song for about 5 seconds. He stopped, "With a bewildered look on his face and looked around as if confused" and then began playing again. After another ten seconds or so he stopped playing again. He looked around the room "Again", with a questioning look on his face. In fact I noticed several people with odd looks. A couple of them looked simply, "Dumbstruck". A few others had smiles. But honestly? The bandmates looked mainly confused! Then everyone seemed to chime in at once. "Sounds great!", "Sounds better", I heard among other comments but all seemed positive.
And I have to admit, there was a difference. To me? Not a small or slight difference. A absolutely HUGE difference! Both more open and dynamic it had sounded. Larger and more alive, with more detail too!
And I have to say, as I "was" sitting right there in the second row about twenty feet from his amp. NOTHING had been changed except for the cable, A two second cable change on the rear of the amp. That was all!
The band seemed to be having difficulty with this. For about five seconds! Then someone tried to basically tell them that "Yes, The power cable can indeed make you sound better".
Just as the, "Head", had said!
And the band played on!
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Even I was very surprised that the small, "Maybe a 10 watt amp with a ten inch driver". Could have such a major improvement with JUST a power cable change. I never did find out what the power cable make or model was but I will. I talked to the band leader dude and offered to send him a IEC inlet of good quality as he promised me he would swap that out on his amp and let me know of any differences there "If any".
Thanks in advance for all whom respond!
Damned if I know. I have my own theories. But as of right now they are very simply just that, "Theories".
And I am a skeptic on this, "At least to a point".
Yes, I believe that;
A new, shiny power cable, simply designed to spec. "According to the NEC". And with basic shielding, twist and good terminations along with appropriate insulation "should" in my mind sound better than the ratty old power cable that came with "whatever component". But that's not always the case in my experience. Sometimes the new power cable seems to make no difference at all. And beyond that? I simply know that it "can" be an improvement.
I do understand that many here believe that anything to do with, "High-end Power Cabling" is just, "Snake Oil" for sale. I used to think the same. But things like this that I am about to report to you just keep happening to me....
Last Saturday at 7:00pm I was at the "Capital Audiofest" in Washington D.C. And that evening there had been arranged a bit of music "Live", for those of us that were still there at 9:00pm (I "think", it had been a long day).. I happened to walk in early as the band was just doodling around after just setting up for the gig. They sounded really good and I decided to just hang-out until they played. as the band was going through the set-up and about fifteen of us on-lookers were just talking amongst ourselves between practice songs. A fellow whom I do not know stuck his "head" in the room and yelled someone's name. The bands leader stopped and looked around. The "Head", said; "Plug your amp in with this and it will sound better"! The "Head", then disappeared as quickly at it had appeared, never to be seen again!, "By me at least".
There were a few scoff's that I heard. A few chuckles about a power cable, "Making an amp sound better"!?
Then the band leader shrugged his shoulders. He laughed a bit too as he remarked and joked, "Well ok then, A power cable that will make my amp sound better huh"!? He then bent and swapped out the old cable for the "New" one.
The band leader then played what sounded like the beginning of a song for about 5 seconds. He stopped, "With a bewildered look on his face and looked around as if confused" and then began playing again. After another ten seconds or so he stopped playing again. He looked around the room "Again", with a questioning look on his face. In fact I noticed several people with odd looks. A couple of them looked simply, "Dumbstruck". A few others had smiles. But honestly? The bandmates looked mainly confused! Then everyone seemed to chime in at once. "Sounds great!", "Sounds better", I heard among other comments but all seemed positive.
And I have to admit, there was a difference. To me? Not a small or slight difference. A absolutely HUGE difference! Both more open and dynamic it had sounded. Larger and more alive, with more detail too!
And I have to say, as I "was" sitting right there in the second row about twenty feet from his amp. NOTHING had been changed except for the cable, A two second cable change on the rear of the amp. That was all!
The band seemed to be having difficulty with this. For about five seconds! Then someone tried to basically tell them that "Yes, The power cable can indeed make you sound better".
Just as the, "Head", had said!
And the band played on!
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Even I was very surprised that the small, "Maybe a 10 watt amp with a ten inch driver". Could have such a major improvement with JUST a power cable change. I never did find out what the power cable make or model was but I will. I talked to the band leader dude and offered to send him a IEC inlet of good quality as he promised me he would swap that out on his amp and let me know of any differences there "If any".
Thanks in advance for all whom respond!
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- 28 posts total
Jolly - WRT Like the 1:6 ratio used for interconnects.At first I had no idea what you referring too, so I googled it :-) The results found indicate you may be referring to the https://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/134964-ratio-of-price-for-interconnects-to-equipment/ Deciding how much to spend on cables based on the total outlay for ones system is NOT a wise, or more importantly, an effective approach to buying cables. But everyone has to start somewhere and electing to spend a little more on cables based on system cost "should" get better performance than simply using the cables included with components. Given that people tend to prefer an easy answer to a question, rather than delve into the many theories & facts floating around out there on the web, the 1:6 ratio is that easy answer. But it has no real merit I do believe that Capacitance, but more importantly, the dielectric material used for insulation (which effects capacitance), plays a far greater role in cable performance than most people believe. E.G. - I recently have been trying wires with different type of insulation - I have found cotton/oil insulation (like that found on Duelund wire) is superior to teflon - But the most stunning improvements of the many permutations I have tried, were achieved by using wooden beads as the insulator on the signal wire of my Helix interconnects. Given that the dielectric constant of soft wood is around 1.5, compared to Teflon's 2.1 - and based on my own observations of the exact same cable performing significantly better with the wooden beads, compared to Teflon insulation - I now believe that capacitance can be used as an indicator of cable performance. Not from a tonal perspective, but more from the perspective f the clarity and dynamics aspects. Unfortunately, manufacturers have a tendency to omit many electrical attributes that pertain to their cables - and I do not understand why - perhaps they know something I do believe Cable Geometry also plays a significant role in cable performance - again this is due to my own observations while implementing different geometries with great success, such as tight twisted pairs, braiding, and the most successful - a HELIX design that winds the neutral wire around the signal wire. Hope that helps - the "Chocalatier" :-) Regards - Steve |
@williewonka So you think silver-plating over copper, pure silver is good and pure copper too. Well that is good. Now I ask you as I ask you before why your favorite KLEI use Neutrik XLRs for new cable and these are brass based with nickel. You say before these are good and specially designed for KLEI - what is truth? |
There are electrical explanations why power cords work. https://shunyata.com/2016/06/27/power-cord-misconceptions/ https://www.audioquest.com/resource/1138/Power-Demystified-whitepaper-8-23-18.pdf https://www.lifelike.at/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/HMS-Das-Phaenome-der-letzten-15m.pdf Caelin Gabriel, Garth Powell and Hans M. Strassner are veterans in the industry and very knowledgeable. It's better to learn from them instead of some naysayers from an audio forum who's only contribution is to say "why oh why... that's the question" to look like an philosophical audio guru. I want to keep learning from a lot of people. We still don't know everything. Every company has some (biased) information and a lot is trial and error to find out what works in your system. But I think these people are on the right track to explain why. |
- 28 posts total