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the magic of power cords

We need a bit of magic in our lives. It might be the reason why audiophilia has such traction among people from all walks of life.

The neophyte's skepticism is likely proportional to the level of technical training - the more you think you know, the stronger the conviction that, for example, the power cable business is a sham: "electrons are electrons" and "if the house cabling is bad, why would the last 3 feet matter?". The stronger the conviction, the more humbling the experience of hearing the power cord magic in action.

A few years back a Sophia Electric amp came into my hands with what looked like a generic power cord. The few non-generic cords I tried (Audioquest AC15, Audio Magic XSteam, Shunyata Research Diamondback) made a significant difference for the worse. The thin, black, generic-looking original cable allowed for a clarity and definition of voice and instruments that got totally washed out with the aftermarket cables. A night-and-day difference. No doubt - the power cord made a huge difference - but not in the expected direction. The Audioquest AC15 was particularly bad.

For awhile, I kept trying them around on all incoming equipment (be it DACs, preamps or amps). The AC15 sounded so bad every time that after awhile I wasn't even trying it out.

Many years and few amps later - something seemed not quite right with the presentation of my KAV-300i: slightly dull upper bass. Power cord: Zu Birth. Finally (after multiple interconnects and few speaker cable swaps) I pull out the power cord stash (same as above). This time around the AC15 was the great surprise: it allowed for clarity and macro dynamics well above the others.

What do I learn? Nothing, really. When is shielding important? When is gauge? How about the conductor or the insulation? How come there isn't one "best" design?

The magic continues.
cbozdog
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Yes Beewax, I think we all agree its not magic.
Problem is the variables are so many with so many unknowns, that short of a general field theory and a Cray in every house, cut and paste is the only course.
ptss
1,964 posts
 
"A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link"-remains true. Don't give up. If you learned nothing it's only that you didn't have the technical/analytical expertise and/or resources to enable elucidation of the results-at that time. Gauge,conductor(s),lay, insulation,shielding, termination=all essential & vital to performance parameters. To deny this would be to imply there are no serious, intelligent, well meaning cable developers-which is simply untenable. And of course, as in everything there is a "best". In our hobby though "best" is generally a relative term,particularly related to personal sensitivity to hearing and musical nuance/emotional impact, and the sensitivity of the balance of the equipment in the system being experimented with. Try some other cords; it's fun.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Try caps in your tuner will make one PC on your pre sound different than other and so your entire system .
To know all the variables would take a NASA flight to Jupiter scale effort.And probally still fail.
pops
2,273 posts
 
i have always used aftermarket PC's until I just recently put all my stock cords in and realized I was either choking my system or just changing it. I have tried maybe a dozen and own a few.

I have always been somewhat of a cable junkie with IC's and speaker cables but the PC phenomenon just does not interest me. Way too many options and the dozen or so I have tried are not satisfying long term in my system.

Obviously it works for many, maybe because I am 100% vinyl I don't need the alteration who knows, I know when I had a digi rig I always used aftermarket PC's. Well at least I am saving myself a few bucks. I can blow it on other things, like cartridges!
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
Pops, Interesting. Some of the best tweaks I have made involve PC's and Audio Magic Pulse Gens, which are supposed to cancel out EMI/RFI. I must be located in an area particularly subject to that problem. In the absence of strong RFI/EMI fields, I could see how a stock PC might be preferred. After all, that is presumably the PC used when the equipment was designed.
I't could be that since your system is not suffering from digititis, your tolerance threshold for RFI/EMI is higher. Who knows?
I tend to tune out ; ) the "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up" crowd. As I and others have stated, it"s not possible to predict a priori the effect, if any, particular PC will have. It can certainly be a frustrating and expensive process.
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