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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
bo1972's avatar
bo1972
2,789 posts
 
When the Valhalla powercord came out I could live for about one year only by selling these powercables. It was so much fun to sell them. These days there are more exeptional stunning powercables.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
for all: Nay and Yes sayers. It still doesn't make sense to play with these differences for extra money. It would partially make sense if aftermarket PC is in $50 range or bellow.
bo1972's avatar
bo1972
2,789 posts
 
Expensive powercable make sence when you get a better endresult with a 2000 dollar costing poweramp or source with a 3000 dollar costing powercable. Compared to a source or amp of 5000 dollar with a 100 dollar costing powercable.

When you do this in blind tests people will understand the value of a powercable. I do this for about 12 years now.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
and that's all because we have that mentality that for $3000 component the aftermarket PC should be $300 and for $30,000 component the aftermarket PC should be $3k. at the same time both of them could have same material and bulk with only differences in purpose of a particular financial layer.
i do that for 32 years if not more, but every time i had money for some improvements and tweaks, they were all spent on media. since i'm a media dealer, i certainly have no time to AB and all I do is spin spin spin all the time while I'm home.
cbozdog OP
63 posts
 
I guess I have another question - it was on my mind for awhile and I don't seem to find a good threat already addressing it... maybe now it is more clear in my mind.

How do you tell which aspect of the system falls short at one given moment (without going through the straight A/B)? Does a shortcoming in PC (blur, boomy bass, etc..) sound different to you than a shortcoming in IC, SC, room etc...? I feel that they should sound differently to the trained, young ear (mine are probably not at their peak anymore in either respect) - and would be happy to learn how to make the right judgement call (or at least a better one).
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