Upgrading power cord.. proven upgrade? or crap?

I made four of the DIY power cords using Belden wire and
Jon Risch's instructions, and they sound great! My total
investment was around $100 for all four!

Its all CRAP. Sound.au.com has some facts on the situation if your interested in those (under the articles section) Read it for yourself, its your money. The only thing is is that there are people who will lie to you to take your money (and have little sheep following them). Be wary of analogies, scientific anecdotes, and then flat out lies. Analogies can be useful in illustrating a point, but please bear in mind they are not the same thing; however, in audio people like to use them to decieve. For example electrons and water both flow in what we call current, but when it comes to what they flow through they behave differently. Water running through a sewer that then tapers down to a 1/2" pipe will never really flow much beyond what the 1/2" pipe will allow (You know this intuitively; pressure can change things some though). However, 10' of 10g wire that tapers to a 2" long 18g section will not suffer the same effects--its the total resistance of the wire that counts. So the 18g section will impede the flow of electrons somewhat, but not in the same manner that the water through a smaller pipe will. Just trying to give you some sort of an example of the crap you'll get. Scientific anecdotes are just a sprinkle of this and that without a consistent organized arguement/explanation. And lastly some will lie. Some will even admit that the operation behind there product is a hypothesis--i.e. it never even entered the testing phase to determine its validity or existence (because they can't). The microdiodes theory caused by oxidation on the surface of the individual strands of wire within a cable is just one such example (no one has measured its effects; after 20 years!). And microphony, induced by vibrations causing the individual strands of wire in a cable to "move along" one another, is real, but its so far below the noise floor of even the best amps you'll never hear it. All in all, you can get better gains with your money elsewhere.

I have a Synergistic Research Master AC Coupler that I picked up used for the commonly available price of $150. On my tuner and my DAC it has only made slight differences, probably not worth the bother. On my previous SS amp, however, it greatly improved the smoothness, tonality, and dimensionality, to the point that I couldn't return to the stock cord (my current tube amp has a fixed cord). Why? I don't know (I can't say I don't care, it is an interesting question), but the above post only succeeds in proving that those who don't listen can't explain these things any better than gulible audiophiles or fast-talking salespeople.

Ezmerelda presure has no effect on the flow of a liquid.You can not compress a liquid.
If wire has no effect then explain why a kettle with the standard cord on it takes 3 minutes to boil water and the same kettle with 14Gauge cord and a good quality plug will boil the water in 1 minute.
There are miles and miles of wire comming from the power station.So why does it boil faster.
Do the experiment yourself.
Once you have done it you can remove both your feet from your mouth.

Ezmerelda11, Rod presents his OPINIONS on a lot of subjects as being "facts". Simply because nobody has taken him up on some of his offers does NOT mean that he is "right" or "unchallenged" in the scientific community. There are plenty of other EE's and Audio Engineers that have points of view that differ from his. Quite considerably i might add.

I do admit that he TYPICALLY tries to cover his comments by putting in well worded disclaimers. As is the case with his dissertation on power cords, he covered himself by stating that his comments do not apply to cords using some type of "built in filter".

With that in mind, MANY good aftermarket or homebrew power cords DO have some type of "built in" filtering action taking place. This is done / can be achieved by using simple geometrical changes to the existing power cables that anybody & everybody is already using or by adding a few inexpensive parts to what is already there. One need not use "fancy" or "expensive" materials to do this.

Depending on the extremes that one is willing to go to, you can measure increased capacitance, a large reduction in the area of inductance, minimized magnetic fields around the cords themselves, less radiated field strength to interfere with nearby low level interconnects and speaker cables, lower noise levels, a reduction in RFI or susceptability to such, lower impedances & line loss, etc... As to whether or not this is audible CAN be debated. None the less, i think that most avid audiophiles are of the opinion that a small gain in one area may have a cumulative effect towards the positive when all are added up as a whole within the system.

As Rod stated in the articles that i read by him, NO cord or PLC can correct for the distortion that is a result of the generators, transformers, power lines, etc.. coming into the house. You literally need some type of power generator or re-generator ( PS Audio ) to do so. However, a well designed power cord CAN reduce OTHER outside influences to a minimum courtesy of built in shunts, traps, tuned circuits, calculated impedance mismatches, etc... If someone is paying big money for cables that do not offer any of these types of circuit innovations, they ARE wasting their money.

Having said that, i think most of you know where i stand on "fancy wires". I really AM a believer in wire & cabling having the potential to alter the performance of a system ( good or bad ). I am also a believer that there is a limit to what can be done in this area and think that there is a definite point of diminishing returns. I think that Rod feels the same way, but has MUCH lower levels of expectations from "fine tuning" wire and cables than i and many others do.

As such, I have to agree with him that most "hi-end" wire & cable companies are nothing more than con artists peddling their wares to the unsuspecting and gullible. Like it or not, that is MY perspective on things. You can love me or hate me for stating such and agree or disagree with me. Either way, we've already been down this road more than a few times with similar results to where this thread is going. That's why we have archives and the Audiogon search engine. Sean
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