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The fallacy of ac treatment

I see a lot of threads related to managing and tweaking the ac powerout end of electronic systems. Much has been said about dedicated wiring, termination and even the right kind of extension cords to use. I work for an electric utility; and that's the extent of my credibilty here. The majority of you will no doubt be far more erudite wrt music hardware. Just a thought, though: domestic ac distribution goes thus: power station-step up-city-step down-subdivision-final step down. As far as the utility is concerned, you and all your neigbours are collectively the load for the step down tranformer. Any inductance/capacitance created by your neigbour running motors/tubelights, etc is felt by the lot of you. Additionally, the voltage frequency will almost always move around a tolerance from 50hz as the whole country turns on the air, off the lights - changes all the time as peaker plants ramp up etc. Nothing can change that- the frequency of the grid supplying your city is the frequency in the mains at your house. So what's my point? Well only that how much difference can the last 10 feet of cabling, etc make when the other hundreds of miles are outside of your control? And more importantly, frequency is one of the most imp parameters for measuring electricity quality (your expensive hand-coiled toroids are entirely subject to the f in the primaries) and nothing other than running an f generator can shield you from that. Methinks all the improvements you see from ac cord treatments are pyschosomatic. But that's cool.
snobgoblinf669
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,594 posts
 
PS: Were you wearing a sign on the back of your pants that read "KICK ME" when you started this thread? Or are you open to intellectual discussion?
whatjd
1,139 posts
 
Sometimes the point is missed. Audio components have power supplies that change the incomming AC into various voltages of DC. The major concerns with the incomming AC are not about it being 59 or 62 cps(HZ for the youngsters). EMI and RF are real concerns for audio components. Most of the efforts of the products dealing with the AC...be it power cords or "conditioner" units..be they inexpensive like the Monster units...or expensive (insert name here), is in dealing with these EMI and RF concerns and (read big AND here) system ground concerns.
snobgoblinf669 OP
13 posts
 
Dekay: if kicking my ass was effected through a practical explanation of what exactly the mains level treatments are expected to achieve, I'll even bend over. Reams of white papers are published on conductors and RF interferences and a lot of them are credible. I will agree with someone who says that the EMI from CD player displays mess about with the way the DAC does its job - that's clearly and practically understandable. And I agree that any current thru a conductor causes mechanical and electrical streses. Yes, yes, yes, but the idea that since visually the power comes out of the wall and that one has to mollycoddle it to your amp is overkill. Like using a great faucet connected to city water. keep it coming!
kevperro
72 posts
 
I think you are more correct in your thinking than some of us who have dumped a lot of $$$$ into products. You have to understand that you are going to get violent replys to your post because people have spent a lot of cash on this stuff. There are products that do alieviate some of the problems you mention though. PS Audio thingies come to mind. They rebuild the AC sine wave and supposedly that could change the factors you mention that seem to be beyond the control of cables/connectors.
joe_coherent
130 posts
 
It is clear that Snobgoblin@yahoo.com is the only one who has so far produced any credible arguments for his position. Those who harass him simply beacuse they have been in my opinion foolish enough to spend money on expensive, needless products should grow-up. I also think the problems of EMI, RF and grounding can be solved either in the design of audio equipemnet or with some very simple and relatively inexpensive products.
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