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the magic of power cords

We need a bit of magic in our lives. It might be the reason why audiophilia has such traction among people from all walks of life.

The neophyte's skepticism is likely proportional to the level of technical training - the more you think you know, the stronger the conviction that, for example, the power cable business is a sham: "electrons are electrons" and "if the house cabling is bad, why would the last 3 feet matter?". The stronger the conviction, the more humbling the experience of hearing the power cord magic in action.

A few years back a Sophia Electric amp came into my hands with what looked like a generic power cord. The few non-generic cords I tried (Audioquest AC15, Audio Magic XSteam, Shunyata Research Diamondback) made a significant difference for the worse. The thin, black, generic-looking original cable allowed for a clarity and definition of voice and instruments that got totally washed out with the aftermarket cables. A night-and-day difference. No doubt - the power cord made a huge difference - but not in the expected direction. The Audioquest AC15 was particularly bad.

For awhile, I kept trying them around on all incoming equipment (be it DACs, preamps or amps). The AC15 sounded so bad every time that after awhile I wasn't even trying it out.

Many years and few amps later - something seemed not quite right with the presentation of my KAV-300i: slightly dull upper bass. Power cord: Zu Birth. Finally (after multiple interconnects and few speaker cable swaps) I pull out the power cord stash (same as above). This time around the AC15 was the great surprise: it allowed for clarity and macro dynamics well above the others.

What do I learn? Nothing, really. When is shielding important? When is gauge? How about the conductor or the insulation? How come there isn't one "best" design?

The magic continues.
cbozdog

Showing 6 responses by czarivey

czarivey
5,946 posts
 
Man I'm too cheap to spend even $20 for aftermarket PC unless my stock breaks. There's certainly a difference between Night and Day vs. marginal improvement(if certainly any)
The fact is I haven't seen them being used at recording studios where noise floor is more of the important factor than in home audio. I bet them don't even know what is Shaniata or Voortual Doonamics. Did anyone ever ask one self why? Because smart should not and cannot be fooled. Following studio gear standards, you can achieve fantastic sound performance for money spent smart.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
There are factors in $250k system that can be easily mathematically diminished leaving just a coefficient which is probably $10k maximum assuming that $250k system mainly consists of overworked and overpriced products that have low return for the huge investment.
No need for magic and no need for science either -- open your school math book and just do ya math!
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
for all: Nay and Yes sayers. It still doesn't make sense to play with these differences for extra money. It would partially make sense if aftermarket PC is in $50 range or bellow.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
and that's all because we have that mentality that for $3000 component the aftermarket PC should be $300 and for $30,000 component the aftermarket PC should be $3k. at the same time both of them could have same material and bulk with only differences in purpose of a particular financial layer.
i do that for 32 years if not more, but every time i had money for some improvements and tweaks, they were all spent on media. since i'm a media dealer, i certainly have no time to AB and all I do is spin spin spin all the time while I'm home.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
If component sounds already good with stock powercord, it will be very hard to hear differences. With aftermarket one it will also sound good.
That is why sound counts at the end. It is that simple!
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
Well, I'm a music dealer. CDs Vinyls(mostly), cassettes, R2R etc... Feel free to find hidden treasures among my vinyls http://www.discogs.com/seller/Iriedog
Different music always good to explore and it always sound different.
Why not spending more time for record shopping instead of auditioning aftermarket powercords?
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