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

This is a journey through real life experiences from you to everyone that cares to educate themselves. I must admit that I was not a believer in power cords and how they affect sound in your system. I from the camp that believed that the speaker provided 75% of the sound signature then your source then components but never the power cord. Until that magic day I along with another highly acclaimed AudioGoner who I will keep anatomist ran through a few cables in quite a few different systems and was "WOWED" at what I heard. That being said cable I know that I am not the only believer and that is why there are so many power cord/cable companies out there that range from $50 to 20-30 thousand dollars and above. So I like most of you have to scratch my head and ask where do I begin what brand and product and what should i really pay for it?

The purpose of this discussion to get some honest feed back on Price to Performance from you the end user to us here in the community.

Please fire away!


 


128x128blumartini
delkal
110 posts
 
One thing to remember about power cords is that they only have to transmit one frequency (60 Hz).  Everything else is noise.    Many manufacturers have descriptions of their power cords that sound like what you need with interconnects and speaker cables for audio.    That just makes me laugh.
audiozenology
362 posts
 
delkal,

That is not true. If all they did was transmit 60Hz, then linear power supplies would not work. There is considerably energy above 60Hz.

The limitation in frequency response will be the transformer primarily.
mitch2
4,007 posts
 
"it is almost like OFC, single crystal, OCC, silver, etc. does not matter"
Do those really matter....for a power cord?
The factors I listed were wire gauge, noise-cancelling geometry, shielding, and adequate plugs/iec. I would amend that and add a good wall outlet that tightly grips the plug.
delkal
110 posts
 
Audiozenoligy
That is not true. If all they did was transmit 60Hz, then linear power supplies would not work. There is considerably energy above 60Hz.
The limitation in frequency response will be the transformer primarily.

In America all of the power grid is generated at 60 Hz. That included the 120 Volt line at your house to the ultra high voltages in the long distance transmission lines. But it all has to be at exactly 60 Hz or power gets wasted and bad things happen.
Are you mistaking Hz (cycles per second) for voltage? From the power plant voltages can be stepped up for transmission to thousands of volts (so you can use a smaller wire) but close to every house there is a step down transformer that converts it to 120 volts for home use. The only energy you get is 120 Volts at 60 Hz. That is what your components use and everything else should be considered noise.

Switching power transformers can be universal so you can plug them in to a 240 volt 50 Hz European power outlet and it still works. But it has nothing to do with the small amount of electrical interference at frequencies other than 50 Hz for Europe or 60 Hz in North America.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Oscillation frequency of alternating current and voltage 🔚🔜 is not the same thing as frequency of the signal. It is a semantic argument. Just as the audio waveform does not ever travel down a single wire. There is no frequency of the signal when it travels down one wire, and in the opposite direction on the other wire. I.e., the wires are not vibratory. They are subject to external vibration, however. It’s a semantic argument. Electrical power doesn’t have a frequency. Energy doesn’t have a frequency. The audio signal is not vibrating, it’s oscillating. An any instant in time it can only be going in one direction. 🔜
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