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Separate conductors for separate frequency ranges in cables

On this issue, I'm both skeptical and open minded. I'm approaching this in a good faith manner. I saw an ad on Agon for PS Audio power cables and the description reads, "Inside the AC12 are three hollow PCOCC conductors for the treble regions, one massive PCOCC rectangular conductor for the midrange and multiple gauges of PCOCC bundled together for the bass." I read that and just thought to myself, what does PS Audio mean? There is no crossover within the cable that literally separates frequencies and delivers them to separate inputs of a component. I can understand how different types of conductor materials/geometries can optimize different frequencies, but I don’t see how this would work in a single cable. Not too dissimilar are “Shotgun biwire” or “single biwire” speaker cables, but at least in that application you end up with two separate connections at the speaker – one to the bass woofer, and the other to tweeter and midwoofer. Is there anyone out there that can more fully explain what PS Audio is trying to accomplish with this cable construction? Honestly, I’m just seeking to understand, not cast aspersions. I really dig a lot of what PSA does.


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Showing 2 responses by almarg

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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Tony (Tls49), thanks for pointing out the reference to power cords, which I had missed.  Which just adds to the bewilderment, as Blang11 aptly points out.  Although as Kijanki alluded to, in some applications, especially in the case of power amps and integrated amps, frequency components as high as several tens of kHz may be drawn through a power cord by the component being powered.

Regards,
-- Al
 
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almarg
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Is there anyone out there that can more fully explain what PS Audio is trying to accomplish with this cable construction?
I certainly can't, despite having an extensive background in electronic design.  What can be said with certainty, though, is that a significant fraction of the current that may be present at any given frequency will utilize each and every one of the aforesaid conductors.  The total current that may be present at a given frequency will divide up between all of the available paths within the cable in inverse proportion to the impedance of those paths at that frequency.  And that impedance will be very small for all of the conductors at all audible frequencies.

So if these cables sound better than some others which do not use a similar approach, it will not be because currents at various frequencies follow their assigned pathway.

Regards,
-- Al
 

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