John Dunlavy On "Cable Nonsense"

What agitates people is not the questions. What's agitating is a questioner who poses a query, then insists that they already know the answer, yet continues to bait others into discussing the subject. In my book that's has all the earmarkings of a troll.

Is this not a discussion forum and a hot topic worth debating? If it pleases people, I will again plainly state my view that I do not believe an AC power cord should be used as a tone control and asked if they do.

If this offends people so much that they have to make personal attacks against me, perhaps some of them are struggling with this themselves and can't arrive at a simple YES or NO answer.

I for one am not angry at all. It's just that in my *opinion* you are full of shit. I do not say that to be rude, or to start a fight, it's just that I don't know how to say what I *believe* any better than that. I would say the same thing to your face, with a smile on my face, if we were having this conversation some place other than here.

I will go so far to venture a guess though, that you yourself don't actually believe yourself, and instead just want to argue and hear yourself talk. And with that, I am through with you on this.

Well I'm through with this too after a few paragraphs..........

Some things to think about:

Fact: Interconnects are designed to carry low-level audio signals between various audio components by coupling their electronic circuitry together. It makes perfect sense then that interconnects will have an audible effect on the sound of a system. It also makes sense that one could experiment with interconnects to alter the "tone" or "sonic signature" of the system.

Fact: Speaker cables are designed to carry audio signals and should also have an effect on the over all sound of a system (but to a lesser extent than the interconnects which carry a low-level signal that by its very nature is more sensitive to variations in cable vs the high-level signal carried by the speaker cables).

Fact: The AC power cord is designed to carry AC power with sufficient current to the equipment. It is not designed or intented to carry audio signals at all. Additionally, the AC current being fed to the equipment will ultimately be turned into "clean" direct current within the power supply. The intent is to have NO AC signal, audio or otherwise, in the DC power being supplied to power the circuitry.

Fact: The AC wiring in your house behind the power outlet is common and cheap. Unless you rewire your house first, it makes no sense to me to use an outrageously exotic power cord to the equipment.

Back to my original question, "do you believe an AC power cord should be used as a tone control"? I do not.

Abe, It is common practice for a system owner to change interconnects in an attempt to 'produce' the sound he desires. I think you can agree that they can alter the sound. Speaker cables are the same way.

Now to make a point about the lack of quality power cable behind the outlet. I have opened at least a hundred models of audio electronics. I have found very poor quality wire inside the units. I have tried many different cables with these units and have heard differences. I have changed three inches of wire inside a unit and have heard a change. Do you really believe that all high quality electronics and speakers are wired with high quality wire? If hundreds or even thousands say they can hear the difference in speaker cables does that mean they ALL are listening to speakers that are wired with high quality wire inside? I think not.

Our ears have the ability to distinguish differences that the audio community has now figured out how to measure. I was trained in the precision measurement field of electronics. I understand the current forms of measurement pretty well and we are not even close to making measurements that can tell us what a piece of equipment sounds like. As an example of just how foolish a measurement means to audio, consider this. A normal low frequency speaker will easily produce over 1/2% distortion. Then how is it we can tell a difference in the bass performance of loudspeaker cables. The cables do not produce more than 1/100 of the distortion of the speaker.

Now on to the topic of AC power. If we use a similar analogy to the power cable it stands to reason that even a few inches of wire could make a difference. I agree that it could be even more important if the wire behind the outlet is high quality. (I believe it enough to have rewired my house with the stereo in mind) It is false to assume that the AC to DC converter (the power supply) is not effected by what comes in the power line. Our equipment is connected to the power grid. That power grid stretches all over the country and every minute of every day lightning is hitting the grid. Heavy machinery is dumping transients on the grid every second. It is imperative that this noise does not get onto the DC buss inside our equipment. It is next to imposable to stop a transient from passing thru the diodes and dumping a charge onto the filter caps. I believe that power line filters are our first line of defense to this grunge. Who is to say that a power cord does not have some property that helps in filtering this trash and keeps it out of our systems?

And to answer your question: YES I believe a AC power cord, just like a speaker, cable can be selected to 'adjust' the sound to one's liking. Most people feel that a tone control can be used to 'adjust' the sound and so therefore a cable is a form of tone control.

Chris