Al, the reason a power cord can have this effect is simple. If there is a 2 volt drop in a power cord, the filaments of the tubes will run cooler and the B+ will be reduced. Since this is a voltage, the result is we get less voltage output out of the amp. Less voltage=less power. Depending on the amp this can be pretty profound. and I have seen it with my own eyes. Thanks, Ralph. That would also seem to say that the value of the ac line voltage at each listener's location can be a very significant variable in the performance of a tube amp (assuming it does not have regulated filament and B+ supplies). Which in turn emphasizes how easy it can sometimes be for extraneous variables to lead to incorrect sonic assessments. Best regards, -- Al |
No doubt! But it extends to anything that can draw significant power- and bigger transistor amps can! Imagine the peaks just... not... making it.
This taught us a lesson... when we set up an amplifier for test, we test the AC line voltage from the IEC connector. The meter on the variac (a bit of test instrumentation) cannot be trusted. |
Les creative edge,
Well said!!!!! I concur. The "purist" audiophile approach is just a flawed ideal and like other sacred things, some use it to extort or out of ignorance. I'm personally not "holier than thou" as I was there once myself but once the blinders where removed, it became a more enjoyable, less expensive, and a more intelligent world! |
Wikipedia. It's in print, sort of, so it has to be correct. Right? ;-) |
Ralph, I think that you missed the gist of the article. It was not an analogue versus digital, which sound better? article; but rather and article concerning why added distortion, by way of phase manipulation and harmonic enhancement/restructuring, has pleasing effect that many qualify as sounding "better". I have said it once (actually many times here and on Audio Asylum) and I'll say it again: In a nut shell, my position is that: The one-shot trial and error substitutions that are the current basis of the audiophile doctrine can be replaced by predictable, systematic, repeatable, scalable and defeatable operations.
The power of convolution processors, linear-phase filters, sampled reverbs and spatial matrixing is much more compelling and efficient than power-cord, speaker-cable, interconnect, cleaning solution, fuses, isolation/coupling devices, tonearm, cartridge or even source component swapping.
A simple way to test this approach for free is to listen to two different mastered versions of the same recording or to an original version compared to a re-mastered edition. Even XRCD's and K2HD CD's are products of re-mastering and see how much difference the process makes as compared to cable or fuse swapping, for instance. |
