Power Cords Snake Oil ??

S23chang. I’ve been following this thread and I believe Zakes‘ problem began with Corona’s post on 12-14-03.

Any of you Audiogoners that not yet investigated “String Theory” check it out on the “net”; its implementation is what’s going to divide the past from the future.

If I’m wrong, no doubt he will correct me. By the way, I think Zakes got a pretty nice system. I think you two are just on different topics.

If it’s any consolation, I’ve been confused by this thread for several days.

Zaikesman:
Z, I respect your input but you’ve got your needle stuck in the same old groove. Think about this: We are generating an electromagnetic null down the center of the power cable, the field effect of the two conductors in opposition are then neutralized, you now have two polarities in electromagnetic isolation. This whole movement is created by a manipulation of field resonance; this is “String Theory”. Do we have enough proof to satisfy the scientific community? No. We*DO* have the technology to create a product that works like nothing has before. We are advancing the state of the art. We are *NOT* in search of a Nobel Prize. Our business is producing cable products that yield extraordinary results but somehow this is not good enough, you are more concerned about the bottle than you are about its contents. Now if you can supply us with a better explanation I would like to hear it. Or, I think, you once said it would be better if we gave no explanation; for you that might be acceptable but for many others that just would not do.

Corona...Which way does the grain run in the "1 ½” thick solid walnut plinth" under your amplifier? Is it black walnut or English walnut? Did it come from a branch growing North/South or East West? (Magnetic field effects). What kind of varnish do you have on it? Was the tree organicly grown? What kinds of birds had nests in the tree? Did you ever fall out of the tree and hit your head?

Interesting to see the 4 day breather we all took. 2003 took some getting over for me, too....
Corona, you even hyperbolized my words back on 12/21 too!
My "statement" Prelude and Fugue PCs take 2+ hrs to build, using all-Teflon insulations and a highly-refined antiresonant, high-density, nonmagnetic, heat-sinking "bath". Blah, blah, blah. Of course the core conductors are "OEM". Do you think ANYBODY making audiophile PCs casts and extrudes their own copper/silver wire? Do you? I use the best materials available; after 2+ hrs assembly (trying to match my Subaru-mechanic nomen's $60/hr labor rate) I've got about a $160-170 CGS ea in these, and will sell direct at $160-185! Delete minor marketing expenses, tools, and especially customer service time consulting/marketing I'm probably making about $10/hr on my $39 and $55 PC Kits, and maybe could make $20-30/hr if I'm lucky on these Prelude & Fugue ones. Helluva great business model, eh? Crump and other folks have suggested that my prices have to be much higher to make a go of it. I know this already; consequently my activity sits at the hobbyist/DIY and myth-busting high-value level. Nevertheless, I contend that there's no earthly reason why high-performance PCs need cost more than $250. We can be sure that if our tiny market was considered attractive there'd be mass-produced ultra-low dielectric-involvement, anti-rez PCs coming out of China for under $100 by now.
Many of us hear differences with varying PCs depending upon specific system criteria, as listed by other posters. Fine.
If this weren't true I wouldn't be involved either, believe me. But I contend that exotically-priced, usually- concommitantly-gushingly-unexplainable performance aspects of individual PCs are accidentally consequent to our roulette of system matching and idiosyncratic placement. And what does "better" mean? Many of my A'gon customers and buddies have resold their expensive PCs after installing mine. Others (fortunately a minority) claim that spending more results in
differences (aka "improvements") they value. So be it. By varying quantity and types of conductors and insulations, geometry and resonant behaviour one can "tune" these snakes.
This is already quite a mature, "old-hat" culture for true
audio-bandwidth cabling for use with mic, interconnect and speaker applications. To claim unexplainably-extraordinary performance for a relatively simpler 60Hz AC application across the board (most or all power supplies) smarts of snake-oil marketing in a quasi-virgin submarket. Many of you have expressed this already, and more cogently than I have....
Being a pianist, and having just set up a decent home-recording adjunct to my beloved Steinway B, I have to admit that subtle microphone placement was FAR more critical to obtaining great recordings than subtle changes in cabling.
The (Michael) Grace Class A mic preamp runs off its own wall-wart, and very inexpensive, yet universally-accepted Canare starquad mic cables link the Earthworks omnis....
Years ago I struggled with speaker-placement and sidewalls-treatment to arrive at proper room "loading".... Both these exercises further confirm to me that acoustic/electric transducer performance is still the overwhelming aspect that "leverages" excellent performance. Yes, I'm astounded by the music-making of my EMC-1, the Aleph P and monos, the SPM transparency and speed, and even the improved coherence and spatial holography provided by my inexpensive PCs, but I try not to get lost in these RELATIVELY minor details....
I've designed a few speaker systems, so understand the basics of passive crossovers, drivers' Thiele-Small, box-loading, radiatiioon patterns, etc. I find it almost preposterous that a single-driver dynamic loudspeaker performs significantly better only with a specific power cord linking its amplifier. I suppose the claim is based upon the purity of a crossoverless (capacitorless) design.
Yet MANY multi-driver loudspeakers use a natural acoustic rolloff of their midrange driver, and some without a high-pass either, thus running "naked" up top as well. The VA Parsifal Encores share this design, with resultant crosses at wide 150/5500Hz points. believe me, they sound extraordinarily good with my Alephs pushing them with nelson Pass' original $8 14AWG PCs, and somewhat better with my PCs. To state that a loudspeaker won't perform to design level without a specific PC is in my mind insulting to all those who've sweated countless hours designing and voicing excellent transducers. In a related vein, would B&K et al specify a SPECIFIC PC to provide phantom power to their $4000 microphones? Methinks not, and I doubt they worry much about performance compromises either. Happy and Healthier New Years to all. Ern

1) The most relevant thing I can say about power cords, I suppose, is that my wife and I can hear differences in double blind tests, but the interconnects must all be up to snuff and all the cords plugged in correctly vis-a-vis their polarity orientation.
2) The only light I can shed on why "string theory" matters to cable design is, to summarize string theory.
String theory is a theory for a unified description of the fundamental particles and four fundamental forces in nature, which includes gravity. Now, I think, that since it would relate how the two nuclear forces, and the metallurgy/chemistry of a cord effects its electrical properties and how they, themselves, are effected by its vibration, i.e. the cord's gravitational responses (environmental and otherwise), a cable designer could, in theory--if he now knew all the mathematics, etc. of the different forces' interactions--finally design a cord which is wholly without "guesswork", and close to perfection.
This suggests particle physicists make good cable designers, I suppose.
It further suggests that its many of today's "white papers" that are the snake oil, (but not the cords, they work) because any "white paper" actually accounting for these quantum-level type "mechanisms" which operate in cables and cords would be so technically scientific us non-physicists wouldn't fullly understand it.
Does this mean we shouldn't believe what we can understand?
Why not? We believe in what we can't. It's called faith.
Happy New Year.