The Truth About Power Cords and there "Real" Price to Performance

I am sure that most people reading this thread will want to hear more about The Master Coupler power cable. Can you share its characteristics from your experiences with us,

Thanks!

 
Well, the Master Coupler is Synergistic Research. What that means, it shares the classic SR sonic signature- big, bold, detailed, dynamic, and above all else beautifully balanced. There's simply more there there. That's what turned me onto SR way back in the 90's, and why I continue to prefer them to this day. They just present everything beautifully, never anything hyped or out of balance. They make sacrifices and trade offs of course and these get smaller and smaller as you move up the line in price and time, with the newest/best being almost unbelievably close to perfect. Their newer/ better cables are definitely worth the money. But cables are kind of like wine. You can't really expect the cheap stuff to taste really good. At some level you should just be happy it doesn't have anything really awful going on. The Master Coupler is like that. You won't be blown away by how good it is- except in comparison with everything else that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

at what point does the cost of a power cord outweigh the cost of building your own power generation facility, $75k for a power cord ? I could build my own dedicated power generation system for that kind of money.

This is one of those comments that sounds all smart-assey, until you stop and think about it and realize hey a battery is a dedicated power generation system and people really do that and so its a serious subject after all.

Its also a pretty easy one to answer. Compare even a few power cords with any kind of off-line power and its pretty easy to figure out the even an inexpensive Master Coupler can give you way more. Micro-hydro using a bank of batteries and the venerable Fisher-Paykel washer turned into a generator to keep things nice and economical might run you as little as $1500 to maybe $3k. Assuming you have a stream nearby to keep the plumbing and wire costs low. (Yeah, I've looked into it. You really need to start paying me more for this.) But again, however the power is generated it ultimately winds up coming from a battery and battery power just ain't all that compared to a really good power cord.

Which since a really good power cord begins with the Master Coupler at under $300, is a pretty low price point.

millercarbon, That was nicley done.! Thank you for sharing that on this thread. I think for all of those out ther who have dumped good money into bad or not so great power cords and cables  by purchasing based on a review someone read or marketing hype.

Bravo

Miller and glennewdick you have me wondering if anyone has ever used a gas generator to power their system.Just curious...

I learned something by experience recently that may add to the conversation--that the price-performance ratio in part depends on what you are connecting the power cord to. I recently had the opportunity to try several different power cords at different price points in my system. I used the power cords  between:

The wall and my Ayre L-5xe power conditioner (to which was connected my preamp (Herron VTSP-3A R03), phono stage (Herron VTPH-2A), turntable motor and cd/sacd player (Esoteric K-03xs); AND

The wall and my power amp (LTA Ultralinear)

I discovered that each power cord sounded very different going into the Ayre L-5xe but totally the same going into the LTA. So I reached out to Mark Schneider at LTA to report what I found. He told me that David Berning, who designs the LTA gear, is a power supply specialist above all else and, because of the integrity and quality of the power supply in my LTA amplifier the sonic differences between power cord were negligible. In fact, the stock power cord from LTA sounded just as good as a $1500 cable I compared it to. So, I purchased one of the better performing (and more expensive) cords for my Ayre and another inexpensive cord for the LTA, saving myself several hundred dollars in the process. 

So, what I learned from this experience is that the price-performance ratio depends on more than the cable alone--that the design of what you are plugging into (and probably the quality of the power coming out of your outlet) can alter the performance considerably, skewing the ratio depending on the application.

Jtfc,
Interesting you bring this up! I have someone I know that liv9in Hawaii and that's how they get their power. He opted for a PS Audio Power Regenerater. I am waiting to hear back from him to better answer how its going for him