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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