@andresco50 - I would give the Nordost cable a few days of continuous running to see if it changes any. I have not heard that cable but from your description it sounds like it may not be burned in yet.
Serious Question About Silver vs Copper Conductivity for Power
Yes, I realize that this topic is going to bring out the sharks, but if I get at least one serious response, it will all be worth it.
I understand that silver conducts 7% faster than copper. I also understand that using a dielectric insulation like Teflon is best at keeping the wire from overheating, stopping signals entering and stopping signals from leaving the conductor. I understand that a certain amount of math is involved in selected gauge of wire depending largely on how much power the component is going to take, and how much the amperage is (20 or 15).
My question is regarding certain features applied to either silver or copper conductors that may or may not have an advantage over one or the other.
I have the Kimber Kable P14 Palladian. This uses 14awg copper conductors insulated in Teflon. Then it adds a massive filter that attempts to mitigate the standing wave ratio to as close to 1:1 as possible. I had Kimber’s Ascent power cable prior. It’s identical to the Palladian, except the filter. I have heard the difference between using those two cables. Apparently, mitigating the standing wave ratio lowers the noise floor significantly. However, any filter that chokes the signal and will slow the electrical current.
As I understand it, the amplifier works by opening the rectifier to allow the capacitors to fill with energy that the system will draw from. Being able to keep the rectifier open and fill the capacitors as fast as possible, reducing lag time, has the effect of creating more realistic and detailed sound.
With that said, changing to a power cable that uses pure silver insulated in Teflon, will ensure that power is delivered potentially faster. Although, the silver power cable will NOT have a filter. Therefore the standing wave ratio will not be mitigated and the electrical signal will not be choked either.
So, would the amplifier benefit from faster electrical current or slower, but cleaner electric current? Since this signal isn’t directly applied to sound, the concepts of “colder” or “warmer” sound should not apply.
Can someone help me out without poking fun at the question? Additionally, I am not interested in having a cable-theory debate. If you don’t believe cables make any difference, I will not debate or have discourse on that topic.
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Wow, the OP’s resistance to anything coming from reality is stunning. The problem is that other people read these things and might come to incorrect conclusions that could have been prevented. (And I’ve just spent half an hour of my life reading nonsense.) @holmz, @jea48, @grannyring, @cleeds and some others: Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Now to some of the other posts... They would rather suit a psychology forum than an audio forum. That’s why they’re interesting to read - I am interested in psychology. Some complementary information: Electrons don’t run through a wire. It takes an electron many years of constant strong DC to move one meter in a wire, for example. As mentioned, less resistance doesn’t equal more speed. The OP doesn’t seem to understand in any way what all those capacitors are doing in the PSU of his... music thing over there. The often quoted skin effect occurs above ca. 1 GHz. The skin effect is not relevant for audio frequencies. End of story. There are many miles of cable before your 2m power cable (or 1.6m to prevent Russian spies from enjoying your music with you). I would be much more concerned about the fuses in the electric installation of your house than about your power cord, as one example. And grounding is a real issue. Star grounding can make a positive difference. Manufactures treat ground, shields and reference voltage rails differently, and not always in an ideal way. This can lead to various problems (especially noise). Grounds of different pieces of equipment that are connected with each other through unbalanced audio lines for example is a much bigger problem than the material of your power cord’s wire. Ideally, you have a long copper pole burried in your garden, and connect all grounds directly to that (and also the chassis of some of the pieces of equipment). Silver indeed easily breaks, mechanically, especially if it’s solid. For power cords, that can be a fire hazard. And intermittent power supply due to broken cable strands is probably not what you want. The amplifier’s transformator was mentioned because it comes right after your expensive power cable. The wire in that transformer is much longer than your power cable. Etc. And then there’s psychoacoustics and the mechanism of our hearing and our brain, and especially our mind... I have been a professional sound engineer for several decades. I’ve experienced very surprising things over the years. The human ear and brain can be so easily fooled. Especially when you know the price of your new power cable... Most audiophile listening tests are so immensely flawed that it is impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions out of them. Which doesn’t hinder the participants to write extensively about their incorrect beliefs, biases and baseless convictions in online forums. If you’re interested in physics and electronics, please study physics and electronics for some years (and yes, don’t get your information from the people who try to sell you their snake oil). It’s interesting to see that calm and informative explanations of facts from holmz and others is seen as insulting and hostile. I can only assume that this knowledgeable input is in no way understood. And the main point of the OP’s thread and posts seems to be defense of his (or hers) incorrect beliefs. |
It will take about 2 minutes to go 1 meter and skin effect is important way below 1Ghz. It is measureable at audio frequencies but not audible. That copper pole in the ground is not nearly as important as audiophiles think it is. I doubt many (any) could elicit a good answer on what it may or may not do |
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