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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
garfish
1,840 posts
 
.....put in dedicated AC and ground last spring and stereo system became so bright the treble would "take your head off"-- NOT subtle. Then installed good quality power cords (SR Master Couplers) on all major components and experienced listening bliss-- also NOT subltle. Craig.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
1439bhr- I think the answer to your question is that from the manufacturer's point of view, people probably won't pay more for the product if it has a better AC cable, and therefore anything they spend on upgrading the AC cable comes out of their profit. Even though high end units don't typically have large model runs, if the company is pushing out 10,000 units over the model life, that might be $10,000-20,000 over the model run. And most manufacturers have several models going at once, so to them it adds up, if there is no benefit in terms of increased income.
ciscokda493
5 posts
 
If, that is correct mr.Goblin, why would hospitals use the highest quality filters and ac cords, stabilizators etc...etc, for the "vital" instruments and the equipment? To get as clean as possible, and uninterupted current! I don't know why, and how all this helps the overall sound of the hi-end components, and i don't care!(I guess "clean" current produces the clean sound?) But i know it works! Amen!
1439bhr
85 posts
 
Swampwalker: yes, and we let them get away with it instead of demanding better. Look at all the moaning and groaning we do about plastic binding posts... yet, what's the impact of plastic vs metal binding posts vs the impact of good EMI design?
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,381 posts
 
On the subject of shielding which in a way pertains to this thread, does anyone know of a commonly obtainable material, hopefully sold in sheets that is good for this purpose? My amp has a separate power supply which is easy to place away from the other box that contains the rest of the amp (the input/output sections). However I would like to place my amp directly above my CD player (on a separate shelf) and would like to shield it from the power supply of the CD player below in which the power supply is self contained. I feel that this will help maintain the design philosophy on which my amps were designed. They are the Musical Fidelity X series. I also have two other monoblocks on order (that also have separate power supplies) that I will place on this upper shelf. I have to custom build the shelf myself anyway (out of MDF with a piece of fruit wood trim (persimmon) on the front) as the equipment is in an old Tansu cabinet and would like to include this shielding feature into the design. I do not know if their will be an audible difference, but I figure why not cover all bases when I am constructing the shelf.
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