2. misc-audio
  3. 132137-99773

On/Off Switch

People spend a lot of effort to feed their audio system with clean power. Dedicated power lines, new wires from the electrical panel, special hospital grade or audio grade power outlets, expensive devices to do additional power filtering are just some of the things that are quite often done in this hobby. Then we buy expensive power cords, special audiophile fuses, and even replace the factory IEC inlets with better quality.
This is all good, and I understand that once you have a system with high enough resolution, the changes are audible. But how often do we open the cover of our equipment to discover that although we spend so much money on a special power cord, the wire (incidentally much thinner and cheaper than our special power cord) from the IEC goes all the way from the back to the front just to go through a cheap on/off switch and back to the rear or the middle of the chassis.
I just looked at partsconnexion, hificollective, vhaudio, and a few other web sites that specialize in audiophile grade parts and could not find a nice solid audio grade on/off switch. Why is that? If a fuse makes a difference in the sound, and (according to some manufacturers) even the direction of the fuse has audible differences (something I can never hear btw), it would make sense that the contact parts of the on/off switch would be important too.
So my real question is does the quality of the on/off switch matter and what is a good on/off switch to use in a power amplifier?
nenon

Showing 1 response by wspohn

wspohn's avatar
wspohn
611 posts
 
Power conditioning?  Yeah it works (and has more effect with some components that others).

Power cords? Not so much

Power switches - not much effect at all so long as they make a good solid contact.

And I'd add to that, that they must be up to the job of switching whatever amperage goes through them.  I have one Class A power amp that has welded two switches closed so I just turn it on and off with a heavy duty power bar - I didn't want to start modifying the front plate to accommodate non-stock switches, nor to change circuitry to reduce turn on draw.
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