It is for sure a rational and very interesting explanation...
We are lucky to have him here...
As usual, @atmasphere has the most informative, scientifically based posts and explanations with respect to electronics and audio equipment.
What was the first power cable that you noticed a difference in the sound?
I have bought six or seven different power cords, none over $500 and have noticed little or no change in the sound of my system. All the cables are 12 gauge or bigger. Without talking about cables made with unobtainium, where did you start hear a difference.
Thanks.
Showing 8 responses by mahgister
It is when reading about Bybee 12 years ago that i decided to experiment with some minerals as shungite and quartz etc ... With success at my modest scale ...😊 I dont have money for costly tweaks but it does not means they dont work ...
Science is experiments, not decrees by some Pope of a technological cult faith about how and why qualia are only reducible to Maxwell equations as interpreted by some engineers ..
One of the greatest science achievements of all time come from mystics rigorous thinking by the way ... Sorry for technocratic materialists ... life is not simplistic ... 😁
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As sure as some cables change the sound qualia as perceived by some brain , it is sure also as in the case of some power conditioner , they can degrade the quality of sound or improve it for some amplifier or some system choices and not from other ... My own power conditioner for example is not so useful with the Sansui alpha , it degrade the sound but is useful for my other low cost system , it improve the sound ... For some higher cost power conditioner or power cable , i partake the opinion of carlbads2 as i already said , they can make a difference or not , it is system dependant as he explained well above ... Now this thread for sure will degrade in a battle between subjectivist who knows quality exist for the ears as a subjective experience of the gear and those objectivist who claim they dont exist if it is not measurable electrically with tools ... The ears being for them an illusionist not a real tool... I am neither a subjectivist nor a subjectivist ... Then i dont refute subjectivist claims about the power cord because i know by my ears that it is possible to affect the sound positively or not at all with a power cord ... In the same way, i know as objectivist claim , that the quality of the design is not merely only grounded in human subjective taste , but as they claim must be grounded on some electrical measures as such , but certainly it is not always such and it is not always enough as rightfully claim subjectivists, and it is my opinion , they are grounded also in psycho-acoustics measures ... I am neither a subjectivist nor an objectivist ... Why ? Because i studied, read about sounds and perceptions , and i experimented ...I am not a fetichist of the mere gear or of the mere electrical tool ...I believe first and last in the correlation between gear and tool and the acoustics context and the brain ...
«Truth dont invoke nor provoke and dont need a scapegoat and cannot be caricatured» Anonymus thinker 🧐
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Thanks my friend for your apology ... I appreciate that... And you are right about my habit to sometimes speak too much out of the matter... but at least i am not always boring i hope ...😊 my best to you ....
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First how do you read post? do you read them to suit your desire to vent anger or to understand my point ? --First i said that i approved carlsbad post and he explicitly does not deny the advantage of a power cord upgrade in SOME CASE not in all case , for the reason he explain well ...Then this approval suppose that i think the same4 as him about power cord efficiency ... --Second, i explicitly said that my system value is 700 bucks then i cannot afford a costly power cord which value will even exceed my system cost and his resoldering it to my vintage Sansui ... --Third i never denied the value of power cord in ALL my posts ...I only describe my situation and i am not alone in this situation with a low cost system and no need to buy a power cord ...Which does not means that i would not try one if it was possible without desoldering the one i have ...
Then i am not the one who pollute this thread as you claim ...Those who insult others are pollution ... I am the one who said twice that carlsbad post was interesting and probably true for many amplifiers owner... I never bash people without reading them first and their intention... If i was wrong i always apologize... i had move along already before answering your attack because i have said all that i want to say already ... Are you a fanatic as those who deny any cord power advantage, but contrary to them one who vouch for a power cord in all case at all cost for everyone , preferably the cord that suit you ? It seems so ... I never attack people i gave arguments ...I gave my opinion ... I dont appreciate to be treated as deaf or polluting a thread with NO ARGUMENTS except you felt the urge to say so...
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I must be deaf to not feel the urgency to buy a 2,000 to 4,000 bucks audio cord for my 700 bucks system ...😋🤑😵 I am deaf or my system is so well embedded i dont need it ... Or i am happy with what will be deemed a trash system by many ...😁 It is Ok ... But then how is it if i compare to all audio system i listened to in my life ? Not better than mine and in most cases inferior even with better speakers and better amplifier ... ( my Tannoy dual concentric were vastly superior to my actual low cost speakers, but i prefer the sound i have now, why ? because the superior Tannoy were badly embedded not at all in fact ,and my low cost speakers are very well embedded ) It is with this experience in my life that when i thought about S.Q. i did not thought about price tag, by lack of money for sure also, but about mechanical,electrical and especially acoustical embeddings control... i solved this question about power cord by the carlsbad idea in his post above about the fact that not all amplifier design benefit from power cord ... The Sansui alpha was a top of his era in 1980 ... My power cord is integrated with the Sansui and i will not pay to solder a new one ... 😊 | ||
Objectivist as subjectivist are gear focussed obsessed ... The two groups exhibit fetichism of gear taste or measuring tools... I trust acousticians.... and my own acoustic experiments 😉 No system, dac-amplifier-speakers, by design alone beat the room/ears-brain /speakers controlled parameters... I dont understand why many audiophile conflate acoustics concepts and controls with at best acoustic panels purchase... I dont understand why many ignore that in many case : mechanical resonance controls and electrical noise floor controls matter as much as their gear "taste" or specs... I dont understand ; but i trained and trusted my ears ...They are not golden but they are mine...my room is mine too ...
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Carlsbad make sense to me ... I am not an engineer ... But the designers of the Sansui alpha , these japan engineers were maniac audiophiles too as us here ... They created the top of Sansui , the alpha design , with an average power cord... Then i suppose Carlsbad is right because Sansui spared no money to reach the top of S.Q. in the war between audio corporations to be the best sound ever in the decade between 1975 and 1985 i think ( remember the big and always bigger receiver ? ) ...I could not figured out why they were so inventive, innovative and good , that their design shine even today ( i was not able to upgrade it few weeks ago with one of the best tube amp on the market) but they could put an average power cord on their top design ?... Carlsbad give me the only reason i read about which is logical ... Thanks ... By the way the Tube amp i bought waas with his own linear supply and had a lowest noise floor ... But save for that the difference in sound from the headphone out of the Sansui and from this tube acclaimed tube headphone amplifier was staggering ...No holography , no out of the head impression , timbre was too thin , etc It takes me 15 minutes to accept my loss of 300 bucks in returning it the same day ...My headphone it is true is the AKG K340 with 2 cells , electrostatic and dynamic , of 400 ohms each cells , an hybrid then, and with a sensitivity around 86 Db/mw ... It is why i used the headphone out of the big Sansui alpha ...i think that this headphone is harder or at least as hard to drive even than the HE 6 which is 50 ohms and 83,5 Db/mw.. Anyway no headphone amplifier can drive them optimally if the one i bought could not ... There is headphones with what seems to be more "details" , even if i lack no details with the K340 , and i know it because the details with my "upgrade" tube amplifier were an illusion of new details created by a more unbalanced sound impression toward the higher frequencies ...I doubt there is at affordable price anything speaker like in impression , naturalness of timbre , deep bass, and out of the head impression ... Ok i close my rant ... 😁 Power matter...Cleaner power matter but less than synergy between pieces of gear to begin with in some case ... My future solution for a cleaner power : battery and pure sine wave inverter ... I will wait for that till i could do it ... my S. Q. is so good, my headphone is my reference system after i lost my more sophisticated room and bigger speakers ...I will do it next year ...No more amplifier upgrade and money loss .. 😁 Thanks carlsbad ...
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