A stupid question(s) about power cords


As the title indicates, I admit that this is probably a stupid question. But since I don’t know (for sure) the answer, I am asking it anyway.

The recent power cord thread got me interested in a power cord upgrade (from the stock cord) on my Maranzt SA10 (SACDP). The power cord receptacle on that particular component does not have a male equipment ground pin--only the neutral and hot pins. Therefore the cord supplied by Maranzt is a two pole (if that is the right terminology) cord. But because I have done it this way before, I do know that it will accept a power cord with an equipment ground as well as a neutral and hot.

Question 1: I went to musicdirect and looked at some power cords and I saw one (an open box Audioquest NRG Z2) that they were calling a two pole cord. The end that plugs in to the component only has a neutral and a hot, but the other end, the end that plugs into the outlet in the wall, does have an equipment ground blade (so that end has three blades). Why would that be?

Question 2: (and this is the stupid one) if a power cord has an equipment ground pin plugged into the wall, even if it is not plugged into an eqipment ground in the component itself, that cord is still connected to the neutral bus bar in the panel, right? So that being the case, since the equipment ground wire in the cord is right next to the hot wire, is there a way unwanted stuff (rf or whatever, my understanding of this is quite limited) can that dirty up the power that is traveling on the hot wire  in the power cord?

I think that the answer to the last question is probably going to be ’no’? And if the answer is ’no’, that means that I really don’t need to shop for only two pole cords, right? And I see this as sort of important because if I buy a two pole cord, the ONLY component I can use it on/try it out on will be my SACDP--there will be no playing around with a two pole cord on my preamp or my amp.

And ALSO, if I don’t feel constrained to shopping ONLY for two pole cords, I would probably have more options to consider.

TIA for legitimate insight to this, and to all others, feel free to ridicule me and my question--I don’t mind.

 

 

 

immatthewj
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@immatthewj the SA-10 power consumption is 50w. If you leave the player on 24/7 it will be sufficient to break in that power cable within about 200-300hrs. I have it on my streamer and if you recall I stated the sound was very good initially then hours later I heard harshness in the treble. Last night the highs sounded dull. Not rolled off or muffled, but just dull…no sparkle. So it’s changing even on my streamer that doesn’t consume more power than your SACD player does. With the adapter running your fridge with that cable it will probably get to its final state in about 100-150hrs. I ordered the adapter by the way. Will run my fridge with it and see if my beer tastes any better…just kidding. 
As to quality of power, usually after 11pm is when my system sounds best. 
I’ll keep you posted on how the sound changes as the cable breaks in. 
Also, I finally got the Nordost Heimdall 2 and that’s on the DAC now. I’m thinking eventually I’ll end up picking up another Heimdall 2 or Frey 2 and keep the Preffair as a spare but I’m in no particular hurry to do that. 

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No spinning discs required. Just keep the player on. Or connect a laptop (or iPad) to it and stream YouTube playlists or Qobuz, Tidal whatever via usb while not listening to CDs. SA-10 has a USB input and is pretty decent used as a DAC. If it goes into standby due to inactivity with CD this will keep it on. There are ways to keep the SA-10 on and consuming power. No one said anything about spinning a disc 24/7.