Willemj,
No need on this forum to introduce politics and snide condescending remarks about the United States. Please stay on topic if you don't mind. There are many available venues for political discourse.
Charles |
Power cords definitely make a difference. I was sceptical, so I made cheap DIY cords. I heard a difference. Then I made great DIY cords and heard a bigger improvement. Supplies for the basic cords were around $30/cord and somewhere around $60/cord for the great cords, including connectors. |
This was not about politics but about culture. And I do like the States, and spend a lot of time there. America’s top research universities and research institutes are a haven for innovative research and academic freedom. But there is a counter current of disrespect for scientific facts and expertise, and I observe it here too.
|
Speaking of FACTS, willem, you haven't presented any. Science is simply an interpretation of reality. Real science doesn't pretend to know everything. It's only an approximation of reality. Real science is not arrogant but curious and investigatory. I broke two laws of science just yesterday. No biggie. I suspect the bigwigs of science probably have too much on their plates to start a whole investigation into audiophile power cords or fuse directionality. Just in case you might consider contacting NASA, MIT, AES or DARPA or NIST the next time you're in the states and see if they would settle this dispute. ;-) |
In the many threads that have addressed this subject over the years here, IMO the best and most informative single post that has been made is the following one by Atmasphere, which I'll quote in its entirety from the following thread: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/audiphile-power-cordsIt should be noted, however, that his comment pertains mainly to power amplifiers. And nothing in his statement means that a very expensive power cord will necessarily outperform a much less expensive cord.
With power cords its all about voltage drop across the cord. Some of
that is at 60Hz, and some of that is much much higher- well above
30KHz-100KHz depending on the power supply in the unit with which it is
being used.
I've seen a 2 1/2 volt drop rob an amplifier of about
30% of its output power. The cord was rated for 10 amps, and the draw
was about 6 amps. This measurement was done with a simple 3 1/2 digit
Digital Voltmeter.
The more insidious problem is high frequency
bandwidth. The power supplies of most amplifiers have a power
transformer, a set of rectifiers, and a set of filter capacitors. The
rectifiers only conduct when the power transformer output is higher than
that of the filter caps. So:
When the caps are fully charged the
amp is able to play. As it does so, the caps are discharged until the
AC line voltage waveform gets high enough again that the rectifiers in
the power supply are able to conduct. Depending on the state of charge
of the filter capacitors, this might only be for a few microseconds or
it might be a few milliseconds. Either way, the charge is a spike which
has very steep sides- and requires some bandwidth to make it happen.
If
the power cord has poor high frequency response, it will current limit
on these spikes. This can result is subtle modulations in the power
supply or even a sagging power supply voltage.
Romex wiring found
in many buildings actually works quite well. So it really becomes all
about that last few feet and also how well the power cord is terminated-
molded cords generally are not terminated very well. If the ends of
your power cord get warm after a while, you know you have a problem!
This
can be measured, its quantifiable and also audible as many audiophiles
know. Anyone who tells you differently probably has not bothered to do
any measurements- please refer them to this post.
I can go into
more depth but this is it in a nutshell. Incidentally, Shunyata Research
is refining an instrument that does a more in-depth analysis of what
this is all about. At the link you will see that their tests essentially
confirm what I have said here.
http://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/shunyata_visit_interview.htm
Regards, -- Al |
