Power Cords Snake Oil ??


Having been a long time audiophile living with countless high end compnents I have to wonder about the theory and practicality of high end power cords.

I have yet to hear the difference a power cord makes. Ive owned, synergistic, Shunyata, BMI and cardas. I in no way can detect any sonic signature or change. Give me a pair of interconnects and I imeadiately notice a difference somewhere in the sonic spectrum. Not the PC though. I have accomplished 4 blind tests with my friends. 3 out of the 4 they did not know their cord was replaced. All 4 were using a stock factory supplied cord. Each of the 4 tests were done on different components. Amp, CDP, Preamp & dac.

My electrical backround tells me that provided you supply the component with its required voltage bet 110vac or 220/240vac its happy. Now, change the incoming frequency from 60hz to say 53hz and watch how quickly your soundstage collapses.! This is often the case during the summer months when home air conditioners are in use and the utility company power output is taxed to the max. A really good power conditioner should however take care of the frequency fluctuations. But 110vac is still 110vac regardless of the conductor it passes through as long as its remains 110vac when it reaches the intended circuit. Does your 8k amp or preamp know the difference of the path the voltage took to reach it ? Many an audiophile will use a dedicated 20amp circut for their equipment.That is a good idea as voltage & frequency fluctuations will occur in the home circuit to to other loads on the main breaker panel but again, A power cord simply is the means of transporting the voltage from the wall to the component. IF there is a clean 110vac @ 60hz at the wall socket, no matter what the medium is to go from the socket to the component, it will still be 110vac @60hz.

Could somebody expand on this a bit more. I just dont understand it. ??
jetmek

Showing 5 responses by clueless

There is no little irony in one poster (Narchy) supporting Corona by attacking numbers/measurements, while Corona claims to rely on string theory which, is entirely based upon mathematics, and which always will be.

PS:if anyone wants a nicely written, easy to read overview of string theory try Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe”. It has a very well written overview of the state of physics leading up to string theory too.

Cheers,
I remain
Sign wave analysis is heavy stuff and not for amateurs.

Here is
a picture
of my buddy and I in my audio signal analyzer.
I runs along under our whole neighborhood. Here is a shot of us moving in the magnets
and a
view from my Lear Jet looking down. The signal analyzer is the circle.

We run audio signals at each other at high volume. Here is a read out of an audio signal event when we ran Hendrix out of phase. And the nuclear core near meltdown

My proud family watches in excitment.

Based on extensive research I've gone back to zip-cord.

Sincerely
I remain,
Hi Eldartford and Hw61:

Ya 61, their unit is almost as big as mine but mine is bigger!

However, it's not so much the choice of Bell wire or zipcord. It's the proprietary treatment of the wire that counts. My zip- cord is CryoThermionically treated. This process is based on extensive studies on the signal when we are more than 1,000,000,000db down on the main signal! We could never get there without the signal accelerator. At this fundamental level the signal is not broken down into anthing that resembles tiny strings so much but rather tiny vibrating jock-straps! Some people will scoff at this I am sure, but who cares what the bone-headed, number-crunching crowd thinks! As I see there are many non-believers in this thread I think it incombent upon myself to establish my credentials with regard to such research and I invite Corona to do the same.

Clueless
Curriculum Vitae

-Kicked out of High School Physics for naming R&B Band “Fourier Transform.”

-Kicked out of band for naming it “Fourier Transform.”

-Depressed and desolate, begin lifetime obsession of collecting and sorting discarded lamp cord in basement.

-Graduated: with High Honors: Omar’s_ OnlineElectronics Degrees.com

-Published: “101 Audio Uses for Lamp Cord”, Lamp Cord Review Journal, Vol. XXVII, NO.34, pg. 217.

-Elected: “Fellow” to the prestigious “A.O.K.” (Association of Online Know-it-alls)

-Patent Pending: No. 1,005,560, “CryoThermionic Rectifier”(CTR Tech.Inc.). Simultaneously chills, burns and rectifies lamp cord into really righteous cable.

-Show Stopper: CryoThermionically treated lamp cord voted “Best of Show” in any class at GES 2002 (Gullible Electronics Show).

-Elected: Perpetual President of the prestigious “A.O.K.” (Association of Online Know-it-alls)

-Founder and CPA (Chief Pretentious Audiophile): of “Really Righteou$ Cable$, Inc.” Our Motto: “From the Looks of You -You Can’t Afford It”

-Bought out by Harmon Holdings, Inc.

-Retired. Writing sex book w/ Mark Levinson’s X. I’m writing the chapter on impedance matching. Nothing takes the thrill out like an impedance mismatch.

Sincerely
I remain,
said above >>Not all theories are equally well supported by data.

With regard to this thread string theory will never be subject to verification or data. It is almost pure mathematics, and will likely forever remain so, which has caused some physicists to call it metaphysics rather than science.

This was on of the reasons for my "buffo' above. The idea of going from string theory to hands on power cord conclusions is so silly, imho, as to make my posts look "normal."

Cheers
I remain
Well I doubt if I qualify as a "circuit head" but I always thought basic circuitry (electromagnetisms, fields, etc) was physics. Silly me.

Lets see Corona. First you resort to "string theory", a theory that has almost no practical application and is entirely unfinished mathmatics (with several versions at the monent) to justify simple propositions that do not at all require it.

above >>>The following would not be supported by String Theory.
1. Building a cable without any consideration of the field that surrounds the conductor.
2. Designing a power cable as an isolated entity as if is has no bearing on the performance of the speaker,amp,etc
3. Claiming that electrical and mechanical resonances are mutually exclusive phenomena.
4. Claiming inductance, capacitance, resistance are the central issues in all cable design....>>>>

Right;--gee... us stupid circuit heads haven't figured those out! Do fields really surround a wire-I thought those twisted pairs just looked nice! And wire has an effect down the circuit??...thanks for the enlightenment. You string theory guys really know your stuff!

If you had used a "garden variety" type of physics-dealing with photons - phonons, etc.. QED or somethng that is actually understood, and backed it up with something, you might have found a different reception.

Your appeal to string theory is just grandstanding and now folks who disagree with you just don't get basic physics and are simpletons afraid of "free thinkers" like yourself. If you want to study resonance in audio good! But string theory ain't gonna help.

I like to keep an open mind - but not so much that my brains fall out.

Ya..I know what some of you are thinking. Clueless gets New Years day off and he has too much egg-nog already.

You're right!

I remain,