Why do I need power management if I have a great power cord?


Isn't it kind of unnecessary to additionally add a power conditioner if I have an expensive audio file grade Power cord connected to a component?

So you buy a Power conditioner from a hi-fi store and they say oh, you need a really good power cord to go with that and then another one to go from conditioner to the component. Do you need it all and why? Seems the last couple of feet before the component should be more than enough.

jumia

@raysmtb1

 

There is an amazing amount to highend audio. I am a scientist, trained and worked for a living as one for over ten years, before graduate school. I quickly realized there were too many variables to account for what is any of what I heard as easily, explainable by easily with a few variables. In the last forty years of working with engineers constructing leading edge audio equipment and spending thousands of hours evaluating components and the nuances of the effect of components, interconnects, and tweaks I have learned a lot.

 

High end audio is a very complex endeavor… full of ambiguity and complexity. I am doing my best to coach those new to the endeavor to take the shortest path to what they are trying to achieve… assuming that is outstandingly satisfying sound quality. So, I try to educate folks on the nuances as best I can. Sources like The Absolute Sound, Stereophile can be really helpful… perhaps the best source as a starting point is Robert Harley’s The Compete Guide to the High End. This really lays out the basics of high end audio.

I appreciate your interest in sharing your observations and interest. It is a great and rewarding pursuit.

raysmtb1

. . . I’m only trying to be a voice for the new people that stumble onto some of this craziness.

Interesting.

Long-time Audiogon members are trying to do the exact same thing for newbies. Share their knowledge that’s been gained over decades of experience - trial & error.

Your approach appears to be zero sum. For you to be right, everybody else must be wrong. For veteran audio buffs, that’s a non-starter.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

ghdprentice

High end audio is a very complex endeavor… full of ambiguity and complexity.

+1

@nonoise Agreed. Are you ready for none of them to answer my two questions? They won’t, I predict. (Bracing for powerful challenge in 3...2...1...)

Queue the response, 1…2…3…<and>…4

 

People who say it’s all snake oil raise two questions for me:

1. Do you think that these cords and conditioners have just been fooling everyone for decades? And they are too stupid to realize it and too deluded to know that they are not hearing a difference? If your answer is "yes" then you have a very low opinion of thousands of audiophiles.

2. Have you tried it? And if you had and it made no difference *to you* are you then just willing to extrapolate from one example to everyone else who does hear a difference?

People spruicking power conditioners have the onus on them to show that their product does something.

It is not intellectually appropriate to do a Greco Roman reversal, set up a Kafka’esque trail for the non-believers to offer some testimonial based counter point against the largely testimonial group that likes the power conditioners.

For one it is hard to disprove/prove a negative.

The ifi, for instance, shows the wall noise decreasing with one of their units.

How hard is it to show that some product works as described?

 

Everybody wants to sell more stuff. But if a power conditioner comes with a 14 gauge cord on it, then I would suggest passing, it isn’t designed to provide power for the spikes. The exception would be if a power conditioner has provisions to store power internally to address the spikes. Need to makes sure impedance doesn’t limit the ability to address fast spikes.

Note to future self @holmz
“When you make a product, then use a large cable, so it looks like it should really work.”

 

 

Naysayers’ reasons include:

1) they don’t know what they don’t know

2) they think they know more than they know

3) arrogance

4) ignorance

5) savior complex

6) fear - that their structured world will come crashing down if they’re wrong

7) poor hearing

8) low resolution audio system

9) old guy ’get off my lawn’ stubbornness

10) learning something new requires curiosity and humility

11) they don’t really understand what ’noise’ and/or ’black background’ is

12) they think that proper wire gauge is a panacea

13) ?

^This broad ad hominem attack^ is really nice. It shotguns out wide, and points out all the possible flaws that one can have. Plus it stays emotional, which is more powerful than facts.

It is so encompassing that it also hit the OP, so he is either (pick 1-13) , or needs the gear to be in the “in crowd”.


At least a few people just want to have a factual way to know if something will work before buying it. And I assume that the OP may be somewhat in that group.

But instead of offering any reason or fact, y’all convert it into a circling of the wagons against a naysayer attack, before the attack even began. It is pretty intellectually shameful, but it is great psychology to get everyone in locked step and the coherent message out early.