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

I am of the impression that if a piece of equipment is connected to a new PC and at least turned on or on "standby" it will also achieve "credit" for burn in hours. It doesn't necessarily have to be playing music? I have a new power cord attached to my power distributor and am leaving for 2 weeks, my thoughts were if a few things connected to the power distributor (Shunyata) are in standby mode will help burn in the PC connected to the Shunyata?

Post removed 

I only read the first page of this thread, so apologies if this was already covered.

In addition to connecting the chassis and any required internal components to ground (if it is inherent by the component’s design), the ground pin of a power cable is often used to ground the shielding of the cable itself, which reduces noise and helps to address EMI. So you may find that using a high quality 3-prong AC cable on a 2-prong unit to be superior to other high end 2-prong cables. 

@jea48 yes it’s a guesstimate based on my experience with power cords. Except for a Furutech 55n with FI-60 NCF plugs that took over 600hrs (I lost count) on Pass amp to stabilize, all other cables no matter where they were placed took 200-300 tops to settle. I ordered the adapter though as it’s a good tool to have around. and will run this power cable for few days powering the fridge. Just as an experiment as I’ve not used this method to break in power cables.
I don’t want to overthink or complicate this too much for a $50 power cord. I’m just enjoying the music and the moody break in process this cable is going thru. The Aurender N200 the cable is feeding consumes 15w (play) and it’s on repeat round the clock. Fridge should expedite the process so we’ll see.

@immatthewj I have a CD rip of Slowhand and Clapton sounds tired singing on that album and he is definitely struggling a bit there. Sounds like he’s singing with a sore throat on “Next Time You See Her”. 

This is a great thread all from a ground wire question.love the physics and articles.and the debates