Are manufacturer AC cables good enough?

Of course aftermarket power cords matter.

They matter to those who sell them and those, like myself, who have spent good money on them.

Yes, they also make a significant difference to the sound. Or at least I thought they did after initially plugging them in. Heck, I even went to the great trouble of rewiring my Sony MiniDisc player.

After years of being taken in (and scammed) I'd now say they make bugger all difference to stock leads.

The relationship between vision and audio (or any) expectation is well known. For example I tried listening to two identical pieces of music - one with some visual stimulus eg an LP/CD/album art/ video and the other without.

Every time I did this I felt a strong compulsion to prefer the one accompanied by visual stimulus. I'd recommend anyone trying this for themselves just to familiarise themselves with this strange phenomena.

This, despite what they might say, is the main reason blind testing is so frowned upon by those marketing such products.

A similar thing happens if you clean all the contacts in your audio chain. Initially you will 'hear' improved clarity but very soon after this newfound clarity tends to strangely evaporate. Expectation bias, a likely cousin of the placebo effect, definitely exists.

Tricks of perception have been documented for decades and used in marketing for much much longer.

As Cain said to Abel....

danvignau,

"The tweaky magic stuff allows you to share the experience of visiting your dealer to talk about your hobby. It makes you happier, so you believe it works. This is a great marketing plan, because every time you visit the store, is a selling opportunity for new equipment.."



Yes it does work for some, the same way that hypnosis, placebo and optical illusions do. Unfortunately all of these phenomena only have short term temporary effects.

Otherwise we could all escape our earthbound existence to live in our illusions indefinitely. Attempts to do so via audio style retail therapy are also inevitably doomed to failure unless we can make genuine lasting improvements to our playback experience.

I remember reading that Paul McKenna (well known UK hypnotist) confessing how he once hypnotised his partner into believing that he was a fantastic lover but to his regret (and possibly hers) the effect of this trance like state could not be maintained indefinitely.

Lasting satisfaction, on the other hand is not something many of us audiophiles easily find.

I’m probably the closest to it currently as I’ve ever been. It’s now about 6 years since I’ve made a component change to my system (Creek Destiny integrated amp which has considerable more power than its predecessor), and 10 years since I replaced my Ruarks with the Tannoys.

So do I still want better sound playback? You bet I do! My love for music is as strong as it was ever was. Two days ago I couldn’t get Dylan’s Senor out of my head, yesterday it was R.E.M.s Losing My Religion - very weird as it’s not one of my favourites by them.

However, I’m also far more wary and suspicious than I once was.

As they say ’Once bitten, twice shy’.

Although to say only once bitten in my case would be a seriously gross denial.

Nowadays another adage spring to mind,

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

Ok, ok, give or take a dozen or so times. It wasn’t all my fault, I am an audiophile. Albeit a thoroughly shamed one at that.

heaudio123,

"Even the most basic single blind test is far more rigourous than any sited test all other variables the same.

Anyone who advocates for sited tests, or advocates against blind tests, can be simply ignored.

Their ignorance w.r.t. testing of anything involving human perception is too limited to make their opinion of use or they have an agenda that again makes their communication of no value."


These three sentences cannot be any clearer.

No matter which way you wish to go, no matter how little you may yet know of audio playback, or of human psychology and perception, I can guarantee you from personal first hand hard earned experience that you will eventually arrive at exactly the same conclusions. 

heaudio123,

"Unfortunately cd318, someone felt the need to prove that some will never reach that conclusion or even consider that they are wrong."

[No matter which way you wish to go, no matter how little you may yet know of audio playback, or of human psychology and perception, I can guarantee you from personal first hand hard earned experience that you will eventually arrive at exactly the same conclusions.]


Which is exactly why I try to confine any exchanges to fellow enthusiasts. It's a total waste of time trying to convince those among us here who regularly post on here to solely promote their business interests.

Their main, perhaps only, interest is to elicit free advertising promotion for their dubious wares and services.

The reader is well advised to bear this in mind as there appears to be more than one or two constantly present.

Hence the incessant attempt to distract, obfuscate, confuse and muddy the discourse.

Just in this thread we've seen the dialogue switch to an explanation of gravity, quotes from respected scientists and something about faked moon landings. Keep it coming guys.

In the meantime not one credible explanation has emerged as to why the last 2 metres of electrical cabling should matter exponentially more than the previous possible kilometres.

sidvicious88 (great name!) amongst others have all asked this question, but so far no answer has been forthcoming.

Or even what it is that the aftermarket cable does that the OEM doesn't.

djones51 asked earlier, "Let's use Feynman, in your words tell why does a
$1000 power cord sound different than a $10 power cord of equal gauge?"

Again, no answer to this conundrum.

Or any of the points you mentioned above.

I wonder if anything anyone has written so far been of any help to him?

thyname,

Thanks for the link. Interesting article but unless I missed something it is a mere long winded cataloguing of all the various factors that Caelin Gabriel (head honcho of Shunyata Research) believes DON’T make a significant difference to power cord performance.

These include gauge, materials, length, distance from supply, external electrical interference etc. Heretical words for some, common sense for others.

However for an article titled WHY POWER CABLES MAKE A DIFFERENCE, there was seemingly nothing in it to justify its own title.

Upon a careful re-examination however, I think I might have found the passage where this particular audiophile dog may be carefully hidden, I mean buried -

Misconception #4.

"The power cable is effectively part of the primary winding of the power transformer. The transition between the various metals used in a power cable and its connectors can cause electromagnetic reflections and diode-like rectification of the noise impulses as they propagate away from the power supply. If the power cable presents a high impedance to these signals they will be reflected back into the power supply where they will intermodulate, thus increasing the high frequency noise levels of the component."

Now I don’t know what you think of this, but it’s difficult for me not to conclude that this is another fine example of attempting to blind with science - highly questionable and certainly unprovable science.

In other words, Snake Oil, albeit a higher class of that most miraculous audio panacea.

Anyway thanks again for the link. Knowledge shared can sometimes be knowledge gained, but sadly for me, not in this case.

Since there is no evidence, none at all, (not a sausage, not even the smell of pork - plenty of snake oil aroma if you like) that expensive power cables do anything that the manufacturer supplier ones can’t, it’s time to bring out the Hitchens Razor.

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” – Christopher Hitchens.

Take a look at what Gene at the excellent Audioholics site has to say on the matter.

https://youtu.be/7YIGLnbc12I

turnbowm,

Thanks for the link. Pretty despicable behaviour, (no pun intended) from Ted Denney.

Seems to be an example of the unmasked face of a high rolling snake oil scam salesman who advocates ignorance and exploits marketing tricks such as expectation bias and suggestion.


Synergistic Research? The main synergy seems to be the way money is being syphoned off unsuspecting customers.

Kind of telling also how Gene’s struggling to get a decent online setup with his Audioholics channel whilst Ted’s driving around in his Ferrari. Didnt Noel Lee of Monster Cables also end up fabulously wealthy too?

Nothing new here.

If we fail to dispel this climate of ignorance maybe I’ll eventually get exasperated and start my own cable company. Should be easy enough to get hold of some high purity OFC cable wholesale from China and then design a flash sleeve and logo. Hmm, now what name shall I choose? How about one of the following, apologies if already taken:

Deus ex Machina (it’s all done by wires)
Give Them Enough Rope
Grot Cables
Money for Old Rope
Unobtainium Cables
Wire PlanetWire CosmosWired for Sound
Wired

https://www.audioholics.com/editorials/synergistic-research?fbclid=IwAR2fIIJHcGsI_BCjBIaZ6BMW8h617dG...


kozka,

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens.

That’s my mantra from now on. Unless I start my own business of course.

Then I will be on here arguing about giving the consumer free choice, insisting blind tests are irrelevant, and suggesting the influence of as of yet undetected particles and energy fields etc etc ad nauseum.