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Power Cords on a $1000 budget what would you do?

I am still running stock factory cords and am looking to upgrade. My wife has a very limited patience level when it comes to swapping in and out multiple iterations I am enlisting your help to point me in the right direction. I have 3 power cords to buy. A 6ft length for my power amp. A 3-4 ft cord for my pre-amp and CD/DVD player. My system is outlined below. What I'm interested in knowing is if you had $1000 to spend on 3 power cords, how would you spend it and which cord would go on which componant?

My system is as follows:
Speakers: Proac Studio 200
Center: Proac CC2
Surrounds: Definitive BPZ/A in-walls
Sub: Sunfire Architectural Signature
CD: Denon 2910 (3-4ft)
Processor: Rotel 1066 (3-4ft)
Amp: Rotel 1095 (5-6 ft)
Power Center: Monster 3600 (3 ft)
Tuner: Sansui TU717 (3 ft)
I/C's Pure Note Paragon (Silver) throughout
Cables Pure Note Paragon (Silver) Bi-wire

What would you recommend for me getting started to hear the biggest positive impact? I have worked my way through combinations of Acoustic Zen Hologram and Matrix ref 2 I/C, through PS Audio Statement, and lastly Pure
Note Signature speaker cables. I have found the Paragons satisfying. I have my HT set up on a dedicated 20A circuit with the red hospital grade Hubbel wall outlets. I didn't install the real high priced wattgate,oyaide, etc...
sempaul
fendergibs
3 posts
 
Put the money in the bank or upgrade a real component.
There is no data or clinical trials demostating that power cords can make any difference in sound of your system. What you think you hear is the "placebo effect" which is a real occurence.
There is no scientfic data/theroy, nor extraporlation of data to even suggest why they would work in terms of changing the sound comming from you speakers, they may connect to the wall better and have gold plated contacts but the electroms dont care only we do b/c of marketing and fancy nonsensical salesmen explantions.

If you have any double blinded proof that they can make a difference in the sound please let us know it would be the first in the world that I have seen. Your personal non double blinded experience are not scientific, and only support the placebo effects as there is no scientific reason why a power cord would change or improve the soundwaves comming from your speakers.

fendergibs
samuel
266 posts
 

>>>"there is no scientific reason why a power cord would change or improve the soundwaves comming from your speakers."<<<

That is simply not true. There are easy to understand scientific reasons why aftermarket and stock power cords affect sound and performance in most systems.

You may be right that component upgrades are more worthy than a power cord upgrade, it really depends on the system and context.

Double blind proof? In most cases the differences in comparing aftermarket power cords are so obvious that would not be necessary. However for the unconviceable--and those that have never run their own simple comparisons, even governmentally notarized triple blind proof would only spur more argument and cries of "prove it!" and "it's all a scam". In reality, there is no such thing as "adequate proof" for those that initiate and prolong argument on these points in chat forums.

This comes up less often than it used to, which shows that more people understand the pointlessness of on-line debate over such matters.

Placebo effect _does_ exist, however IMO it falls somewhere short of extreme self delusion and ignorance of the obvious, at least for those that have taken the time to perform their own simple tests.
tmstamps
20 posts
 
Hearing is believing. I heard the difference in my system. I beleive.
fendergibs
3 posts
 
Samuel,

Double blinded tests are the "gold standard " in all industries to prove if a product/drug does what it claims to do. It weeds out the BS from reality.

I am 100% sure if you got 5 or 10 or your friends together who are skilled listeners and identified the differences between stock and after market power cords that approx only 50% would be able to reliably ID thoses same differences under true double blinded conditions, and as you know a scores close to 50% mean that the difference was due to chance and that the cord had no real difference in the sound. What you thought your heard was the powerful placebo effect.

If you can do it above 65% of the time you might have somthing and you would be the first person on the planet to reliably hear diffences between power cords.
enyoy the rest of your system
fendergibs
inpepinnovations
134 posts
 
In fact people 'hear' the difference between the same cord, somtimes! Yet, these same folks can't tell if the channels on a two channel system have been reversed. Believe me, I have witnessed this at a serious audio shop, trying to demonstate the difference among power cords (or is that power chords?).

Bob P.
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