The weirdness of it all


Power cables and power conditioning seem the next focus components.  While I struggle, as I'm sure many do paying premium for a chunk of wire, it seems that when done well, that chunk of wire is now an influential component in the chain allowing everything to shine.

I've slowly been upgrading all PCs with Furutech 4.1 with appropriate connectors and it has been nothing short of revelatory moving the needle of performance for the whole system.  I can liken it to completely refining a fuel injection system which in turn allows everything to work better producing better performance.

I've capped my insanity with the Furutech and do not see myself moving beyond that.  While certainly real capital, not hide the women and children capital like some products left unnamed.

celtic66

Showing 1 response by petaluman

The cable's effect not only differs for each kind of cable, but also its length & connectors, and the amp & speakers used.  I'll keep this simple, since even that is above my pay grade, and only consider resistance, although changes in inductance & capacitance are also in play.

From the amp pov, the cable adds to the resistance it's driving.  That usually results in a (slight!) reduction in the amp's output - but some circumstances could result in an increase.  From the speaker side, the cable resistance adds to the source impedance, lowering damping & resulting in the amp having less control of the speaker (this is why tube amps generally have looser bass than ss - they tend to have a higher output impedance).

Sorry, it's hard not to say "impedance" when talking about audio - that's the result of the complex interaction of inductance (L), capacitance (C), & resistance (R)  in the circuit and of course is frequency-dependent.  So what I said above is true, but additionally complicated by the cable's L & C, and different at every frequency.  The choice of amp & speakers also affects this interaction to varying degrees at every frequency.

Conclusion: If you like how your system sounds, good on you, mate!  If not, cabling can make a difference, but the results are not as measurable or predictable as upgrading your electronics.

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