Power Cables and Wall Sockets

@jerryg123 Said!

VD Problem?

Go to the Free Clinic.

I agree I went to the McIntosh free Clinic and got cured.😁

Mike

@erik_squires

 

What you can control:

1. Reduce other loads on the circuit such as the lights by switching to LED types
2. Ensure all the connections between the breaker panel and lights are tight
3. Run the audio on a dedicated circuit
4. Run a thicker gauge wire to the circuit
5. Ensure you don’t have excess voltage on the neutral. Shouldn’t ever measure more than a couple of volts.

My earlier post referred to the house having, say, a 40A feed from the pole.
In that case the audio circuit, the light circuit, and the washing machine, stove and refrigerator circuit could be pulling near the 40A and the voltage would be sagged at the feed-bar in the service box.

So I would be checking the voltage on the audio circuit, and on a non audio circuit.

So your list is good IME, just IMO, it is missing the stuff outside of the audio only circuit.

Points #1 and #3 sort of imply the parallel circuits that I mentioned… especially #3. But I am not 100% sure?

here's an update I just found out from audioquest themselves that they do not use OCC single crystal wire they are using OFHC, which is very inferior to OCC single crystal wire and overcharging and ripping people off with their high-end priced cables.

I was introduced to the benefits of power cords in the early 90’s, by my good friend and audio mentor Stewart Marcantoni. Caelin Gabriel located Shunyata here to be close to Stewart who lived at the time in Bremerton. Caelin brought some of his early Shunyata Powersnakes to my place for a party/listening session one time. Half the people were audiophiles, the rest mostly cycling buddies or coworkers. It was a trip to see the reaction of people who couldn’t imagine a pc could do anything try and get their mind around how much better it sounds. They ALL heard it. 
 

One of my first component mods was to replace the rubber pc on a Basis turntable motor with a cheap expendable pc. When even the cheapest pc I had ($75) was clearly better I knew for sure this is for real. 

When it says on my system page “everything matters” it means everything. Earlier this year I cut the end off a very good prototype pc eager to hear how much it would improve my Origin Live Sovereign turntable. I was underwhelmed. Puzzled, is more like it. Why on earth? (And so much for expectation bias!) This pc was quite stiff. Isolation is incredibly important. I reduced the number of conductors, trying to make it more flexible. No go. 
 

Finally I thought maybe the last few inches isolation is far more important than wire? So I replaced the last few inches with ordinary 14 ga wire, soldered a IEC connector a few inches from the motor pod and mounted the end in a suspended isolation rigged to the rack. Now I can swap power cords on the turntable just like any other component. And with isolation now out of the picture guess what? Power cord matters after all. 
 

People have all kinds of theories as to why. They will tell you oxygen free this, long grain crystal that, quantum tunnel whatever. This is all for show. Truth is the last thing in the world they will ever tell you is the truth. Because the day we all know how to make a cable that sounds as good as some of these incredible things I have heard, is the end of making a nice living off it. 
 

Please note: they earn it. Look at what I have had to do just to figure out how to make one tiny little thing better. Look around how rare that is. Had to learn a lot, including how to listen for and evaluate an insanely huge number of sonic attributes. They aren’t all great, but to make even one good one they had to make a hundred duds. So it ain’t all gravy. 
 

And yes, they do work and no, it’s not in my head. 

🙄