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Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Having been a long time audiophile living with countless high end compnents I have to wonder about the theory and practicality of high end power cords.

I have yet to hear the difference a power cord makes. Ive owned, synergistic, Shunyata, BMI and cardas. I in no way can detect any sonic signature or change. Give me a pair of interconnects and I imeadiately notice a difference somewhere in the sonic spectrum. Not the PC though. I have accomplished 4 blind tests with my friends. 3 out of the 4 they did not know their cord was replaced. All 4 were using a stock factory supplied cord. Each of the 4 tests were done on different components. Amp, CDP, Preamp & dac.

My electrical backround tells me that provided you supply the component with its required voltage bet 110vac or 220/240vac its happy. Now, change the incoming frequency from 60hz to say 53hz and watch how quickly your soundstage collapses.! This is often the case during the summer months when home air conditioners are in use and the utility company power output is taxed to the max. A really good power conditioner should however take care of the frequency fluctuations. But 110vac is still 110vac regardless of the conductor it passes through as long as its remains 110vac when it reaches the intended circuit. Does your 8k amp or preamp know the difference of the path the voltage took to reach it ? Many an audiophile will use a dedicated 20amp circut for their equipment.That is a good idea as voltage & frequency fluctuations will occur in the home circuit to to other loads on the main breaker panel but again, A power cord simply is the means of transporting the voltage from the wall to the component. IF there is a clean 110vac @ 60hz at the wall socket, no matter what the medium is to go from the socket to the component, it will still be 110vac @60hz.

Could somebody expand on this a bit more. I just dont understand it. ??
jetmek
slappy
903 posts
 
WOW! I read another thread on Power Cords, looks like they beat this issue to death.

The way i see it,

Group A Cannot hear any difference
Group B Hears a massive difference.

I wouldnt say group B is wrong, there are alot of audiophiles that i respect strongly stating that PC's make a difference
Same goes for group A.

Here is my reasoning why some people CAN and some people CANNOT hear a difference.

Group A has crappy cable in thier walls, so that it is basically matched with the stock cords. That extra 3 feet they plug into the wall doesent make a Difference.

Group B has real good cableing in thier walls, and probably shorter runs to the Power Box. They very well may hear a big difference, because the stock PC cord is not as good as thier electrical runs. When they upgrade to another PC, which is more of the calibur of thier electrical runs, it improves sound.

There. It is settled for once and all.

If you cannot hear a difference with a high end power cable, then fire yer contractor and hire somone to run some real good quality cable.

I read about 1/2 of that thread and there was alot of immaturity, alot of heated debate, and nobody mentioning the possibility of crappy electical runs installed in the house.

There. It is solved. you can all thank me later.

Im gonna look into electrical runs, and when i buy my house im gonna have it wired up with the best.

because damnit, when i buy that 200.00 power cable, I BETTER HEAR A DIFFERENCE OR MY FIANCEE WILL NEVER LET ME BUY ANOTHER COOL GARDEN HOSE AGAIN! :) :) :)

Peace! :)
corona
132 posts
 
The power cables you are disscussing are basically the same; so why should you expect a difference? There is only one power cable that is truly different and commands the technology that astounds;but you won't go there because the answer sounds to radical. You chose to cling to the same old ideas and complain about the results.
corona
132 posts
 
The power cables you are discussing are basically the same; so why should you expect a difference? There is only one power cable that is truly different and commands the technology that astounds; but you won't go there because the answer sounds to radical. You chose to cling to the same old ideas and complain about the results.
ezragreen
7 posts
 
my 1st experience w/pc's was when a friend brought over a
mit pc w/the blk bx. We were listening to "strange fruit"
on a cassandra wilson cd. The cut opens with a "match striking" sort of in audio slow motion. With the stock cord
you could not readily identify the sound as a match but only
tell that there was some kind of little noise. The only component I had w/a iec connector for a pc was my vtl deluxe
preamp. We put the mit in, replayed the track, and realized
that the sound was a match striking. Of note is the following: NO I didnt immediately go buy an mit. I did order
some audioquest heavy guage speaker wire,solid core,unshielded from micheal percy, (he's always popping up
in these discussions isnt he?) and an iec plug and male ac
plug, and made a pc up. Guess what? I could hear the match
strike with this cord too about just as good for about $40.
worth of materials. Further, I later added very fast,soft recovery diodes to the high volt and heater circuits and these actually made the now famous "match strike" even more
audible and much smoother and more detailed. Bottom line,
wether its pc's or soft rec diodes anything that LOWERS THE
NOISE FLOOR is going to be helpful. Made a shielded pc for
my rebuilt dynaco mk III's and they just seemed a bit quieter. All this was about 5-6 yrs ago. Just now getting
back to thinking about pc's because I happened to build 2
mono amps w/removable cords. Also it has been my own and my
friend erics experience that rewiring pwr supply leads w/solid core silver wire also can lower noise flrs. Please
use appropriate guage and insulation.
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
I was pretty much a power cord agnostic until I had the opportunity to change five of them (to monoblock power amps, VPI SDS, PS Audio P300, Sony XA777ES) at once. Wow. Nothing subtle about the improvement. "Course I have no idea which cords did which, or whether any of it is measurable. But there's no going back.
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