Sheilded/Unsheilded Power Cords

A shielded cord will always perform in superior fashion to an unshielded cord of otherwise identical design. If it does not, some simple yet almost always overlooked design criteria were not taken into account during the construction of said cord.

The lack of design integrity with the shielded cord would become more apparent when using devices that produce high current demands on the power cord / wall outlet i.e. power amps, etc... That is why many people have better luck using shielded cords on low current devices ( digital, line level sources, preamps, etc.. ) but run into problems using shielded designs on power amps. I don't know of any commercially designed power cords that take such criteria into account. Those that are smart and / or familiar with magnetic fields will understand what i am hinting at. Sean
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No technical reason to shield power cords or speaker cables. These are low-impedance output drivers, so crosstalk is not really a concern. The only advantage might be if you wnat to run power cords side-by-side with unshielded interconnects. Then the power cord may crosstalk to the interconnects. This is fairly easy to avoid with minimal spacing however. Shielding just adds unwanted capacitance.

I might be over taking too simple of an approach here, but I took one of the little pen things that detect current/voltage(hot leads) and went around my system with the supplied(careful wording here...) and it went nuts.

With my DIY adventure, the pen no longer goes off, as much. It is pretty hard to shield a tv....:)

I think I was thinking of a more "global" approach, basically reducing the junk jumping into the RCA ic's.

I am not wanting to start a gripe thread... But I have no choice but to use single ended ic's on some equipment. Simaudio Stellar to the Simaudio Attraction can only be hooked up in one of two ways... Digital coax or RCA's. No balanced inputs on the Attraction.

The field an unshielded pc give off seems to be large, at least 12 inches.

Thanks all
Marty

Hi Marty: Good question! As with IC's there is a division regarding the necessity of sheilding and to what degree/method of sheilding is best. As always, ensure that all cords are FULLY burned-in. Even when fully settled (burned-in), when the cord (IC, speaker wire, PC --any cord) is physically moved, I would give it 1/2 hour to re-settle, so-to-speak. It may sound strange, but listening sessions over many years confirms/supports these recommendations. I wish I could state firmly what the best approach is, but it's difficult (at times)to confirm a particular manufacturer's design/sheilding and therefor deduce what exactly makes one PC sound better/or different than another. The desired PC (like all other components) is simply a matter of taste and what characteristic(s) one desires most.
As IC's, PC's do contribute significantly to a component's performance capability. Give a few a listen (bearing in mind the above caveats)and you'll discover one that suits your tastes and defintion of a marked improvement.

peter jasz

Marty, your "DIY research" has exposed more "truths" than many manufacturers / engineers will ever come to realize in a lifetime. The reason for this is that you can't find the "hands-on" results that you experienced first hand in a text book sitting at a desk or bench. This is NOT a poke at Steve aka Audioengr but a generic comment. I hope that he understands this and does not take it personally. I know that Steve is working very hard to do the best he can and does so with both hands-on testing and using very high grade test equipment. Quite honestly, i know first-hand that Steve has more advanced test equipment than most of the other cable manufacturers out there and knows how to use it. I am not endorsing his products as i have never used them, but i don't doubt that they perform well based on REAL scientific research and listening tests. Sean
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