Why does better power = better sound?

Byroncunningham... I've followed your journey with great interest.

Mapman... I fully understand what you mean about "pulling the trigger". For me it was a hard decision to buy the aR6-TS versus buying a better 2 channel amp to replace my 5 channel Theta Intrepid Amp. In this case, I made the right choice.

After reading the last few posts I am pleased that for the most part,there is an agreement that the qulaity of your sound can be improved if you do something to improve your power.

I see there are still a few satisfied with the way it sounds audiophiles,but the thing is most of us were perfectly satisfied with our sound also.

We only found out how much better it could get after we did some power tweeking.

That's the point to remember.

All systems will sound just fine, straight out of the box and into the wall.

They work and work well.

But just as some cave man discovered fire, he discovered cooked meat can be even better than raw, which was up to that point "good enough".

I think you get the drift.

We all know how good our systems are,what we don't know is how good our systems can get.

Unlocking the full potential of what I own has been more fullfilling than swapping out one component for the next hoping to find the last perfect piece and get off the merry go round, if that is what you want to do.

Some folks enjoy the ride and for them it's not always about the destination.

I was like that, some of my friends were like that.

After awhile you get to a point where everything starts to sound good enough, and the magic wears off.

So I have to ask,is this the point to end the search or to move in another direction?

I was fortunate to have a friend who was into power tweeking before me.
I heard the improvements, and followed suit.I moved in another direction, and focused my attention and money to power tweeks.

It didn't stop me from making further audio purchases,just more informed ones.I could more easily discerene that the new cd player was much better than the last for example.
Before power tweeking most cd players had started to sound the same.

When your system is getting decent power you can judge whether some components are worthy of purchase or they aren't.

Degraded power really does mirky up the waters and render most things good enough, that's great news for the fellow with the Thrift Shop power amp that sounds as good as any Pass amp ever did.

Ever wonder what kind of power systems these folks are using when they make such statements?

Then again, have they ever heard a Pass amp?

Most likely the answers are no power conditioning, and no expereince with a quality power amp or system.

Moving your system from good enough to great doesn't need to break the bank.

But you need to know how to recognize it when you hear it.

Something I'll save for another time and place ,perhaps.

well put lacee,after many years just using a power conditioner with everything plugged in,i got dedicated lines and 20 amp breakers installed.amazing differance...should have started with that right at the begining.Although the breakers dont have there own ground and panel its a hugh upgrade for now.Wow i have never heard this gear like that.(it was a lot cheaper than a new cable.)

Manufacturer disclaimer. Anyone in Florida who wants to audition Tripoint products is welcomed. Location Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Bryon,

Audio Grade Power Cords - AGPC

We investigated this interesting problem years ago and
found that the power cord(s) affect the 'ground-floor'
noise of the audio equipment being used.

The question is then how ?

By trying different home made power cords we could hear
differences in the music we listened to. We then made up
high impedance probe to see if there was any noise on the
power cords. The spectrum analyzer showed that there was noise
from 8 MHz to 13 MHz. We tested other power amps and cd-players
and found this same 'noise' on all tranformer power supplies.

This lead us to reconsider the power system', which is the wall socket,
the power cord and the equipment's power transformer.

Intuitively we all know that the wall socket's impedance/resistamce
is different from the power transformer's impedance/resistance.

So we decided to measure the wall sockets 'resistance'.

By using a salt-water-bath-load [old RF trick] we came up with the following
information: [see our AGPC white-paper for more details]

1.) Copper wire feed sockets have about .23 Ohms of impedance
2.) Aluminum wire feed sockets are about .45 Ohms of impedance.

This give us the source 'resistance'.

A power transformer 'resistance' that we used ranged from
11 Ohms to 14 Ohms. The ratio of the source with the transformer
is then from 50 to 58 to 1. This SWR of 50-58 at full wave lenght
would have a 90% reflection level.

The concurrent argument is that the power cord is too short !

Very true; compared to the miles at 60 Hz / 6 feet is very
insignificant,- almost-.

Looking at the power applied we know it is 60 cycles per second
or 120 pulses per second. The measured nosie is in the low MHz
range. Looking at the harmonic relationship of the 60/120 cycle/pulse
with the noise frequency we can see that they are related.
From 3MHz to about 30 MHz the pulsing energy is:[examples]
3 MHz : 60Hz 50k-1; 120pps 25k-1
12 MHz : 60Hz 200k-1; 120pps 100k-1
and are evenly harmonically related with the 'measured' 'noise'.

Then the next step is to determine how much noise is 'generated'
from this resistive mis-match.

By looking again at the spectrum analayzer we can see how much
noise-energy is being produced.

The graph on the analyzer showed a range of 250 - 375 mVs of noise.

Now what, how does this affect the audio signal.

This nosie is of very high frequncy energy and should be filterd easily
by the power supplies. But remember the low-side the -white-wire- of
the power cord and the -green- ground wire are tied to the equipment's
low side!

The Hot-wire and nosie are in a long-shaped 'capacitor' with the
white and green wire; the nosie can easily pass through this natural
'capacitor' since the 'noise' is of very high frequency.

The 'ground-plane' then has extra 'energy' of high frequencies that can
pass onto the solid state parts of the audio systems.
Transistor's control volatages are from about .4 v to .66 v and this low
level of voltages can easily be affected by this high 'Frequncy-Noise'.

With this information we can see why the CD-player is far more likely to be
affected by the 'power cord' than the power amplifier.

The power cord itself has an affect on the nose being generated due to
the changes in the differnt 'materials' used in their consruction.

- - -

Well hope this information will lead to better Fidelity!