John Dunlavy On "Cable Nonsense"

Sean, if you've purchased "high-end" AC cords for pennies on the dollar I should commend you for being reasonable where you spend your money on this crazy hobby. If we had limitless funds, we would all spend several thousand dollars on each component and every cable to get the false sense that we've spent enough money to have a "better" system than one that costs much less. Expensive interconnects are not always better than cheap ones, expensive speaker wires aren't always better than modest wires. In many cases they are just different or just sound different and not necessarily better.

I agree that a good power cord is essential but as I've stated before, I completely disagree that the AC power cord should even be considered as an area of experimentation for altering the overall "tone" of a system (as written about in the other thread). You mention that you prefer to think of the power cord as a "filter" instead of a tone control. Well, what is a filter? A filter passes certain frequencies and attenuates others - you're still essentially calling it a tone control! But I argue that the 60-cycle "tone" coming from your AC mains should hopefully be nearly eliminated through the filtering in the power supply section of your equipment. Why would one try to alter the supposedly audible characteristics of the AC power source when the goal is to eliminate it completely by turning it into pure DC current within the equipment? A good solid high-current capable power cord with decent low contact resistance to the AC outlet is sufficient in my book. I don't subscribe to the bogus claims from mega-buck power cord makers that their AC cords have some magical "sonic signature". So I reassert my opinion that spending more than $50 or so on an AC power cord is wasteful.

Abe, how many mega-buck power cables have you tried?

Abe, you're just flat wrong, the magic number for power cords is $72 and 17 cents, not $50. What are you thinking man? BTW, what power cord do you know of that sells for $50? I can think of only one. Which cords you got? Or are you talking about $50 worth of parts, someone still has to put together?

Ok that sucks, It didn't post the last sentence, maybe because I was in the middle of writing it when my computer made a unilateral decision to post. Anyway, ABE (cont'd): I am dying to know what power cord you regard as an essential upgrade from the stock power cord, but only costs $50.

As the instigator of this thread, I'd like to point out that no one has yet responded to Abe's observation:

"With regard to AC power cords I cannot understand the logic of spending hundreds of dollars on colorful fat cables to plug into a wall outlet that has cheap wiring behind it throughout the house."

I'm discovering that the reply from true believers to a logical statement such as the above runs along the lines of, "But I can hear the difference!"

Of course, all debate stops when one side becomes completely subjective. Just as devotees of psychic hotlines swear their fortune-teller is genuine.

Do you ever get the feeling that this is the audio version of the age-old debate between rationalists and religious fanatics?

I'll be interested in seeing a coherent response to Abe's statement.