I missed nothing.
You can call it whatever. The list is 100% accurate. Post pictures of your system. I’ll prove it to you.
A stupid question(s) about power cords
As the title indicates, I admit that this is probably a stupid question. But since I don’t know (for sure) the answer, I am asking it anyway.
The recent power cord thread got me interested in a power cord upgrade (from the stock cord) on my Maranzt SA10 (SACDP). The power cord receptacle on that particular component does not have a male equipment ground pin--only the neutral and hot pins. Therefore the cord supplied by Maranzt is a two pole (if that is the right terminology) cord. But because I have done it this way before, I do know that it will accept a power cord with an equipment ground as well as a neutral and hot.
Question 1: I went to musicdirect and looked at some power cords and I saw one (an open box Audioquest NRG Z2) that they were calling a two pole cord. The end that plugs in to the component only has a neutral and a hot, but the other end, the end that plugs into the outlet in the wall, does have an equipment ground blade (so that end has three blades). Why would that be?
Question 2: (and this is the stupid one) if a power cord has an equipment ground pin plugged into the wall, even if it is not plugged into an eqipment ground in the component itself, that cord is still connected to the neutral bus bar in the panel, right? So that being the case, since the equipment ground wire in the cord is right next to the hot wire, is there a way unwanted stuff (rf or whatever, my understanding of this is quite limited) can that dirty up the power that is traveling on the hot wire in the power cord?
I think that the answer to the last question is probably going to be ’no’? And if the answer is ’no’, that means that I really don’t need to shop for only two pole cords, right? And I see this as sort of important because if I buy a two pole cord, the ONLY component I can use it on/try it out on will be my SACDP--there will be no playing around with a two pole cord on my preamp or my amp.
And ALSO, if I don’t feel constrained to shopping ONLY for two pole cords, I would probably have more options to consider.
TIA for legitimate insight to this, and to all others, feel free to ridicule me and my question--I don’t mind.
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@audphile1 , I suppose that to be honest I do fit into a couple of the categories on the list. Although, with all things being relative, my equipment is probably okay, my room is small and acoustically untreated and I am near-field listening (unobstructed equilateral triangle) which I have read on this site may take the room somewhat out of the equation. And I suppose that it is possible that I either lack the ability to hear all sonic changes or I may lack the ability to realize that I am hearing all the differences. However I would say that: I did make a couple of equipment upgrades in the last four years (the SA10 that was kind of the driver for this thread and a SLP-05) and I was able to hear the differences, particularly with the SLP-05. Also I will say that I have been rolling some pairs of 6SN7s in the balanced input sockets of the SLP-05 and when I put a real nice pair in there, I definitely do hear it. Also, with good source material in the SA10, the sonic effect works magic on me. As an example, last night I played three discs that I liked the music on: the Sony SBM (redbook) remaster of Born To Run sounded like nails on a chalkboard, the MFSL redbook of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sounded better on certain tracks but overall not a whole lot better, but when I put the MFSL/SACD of Cowboy Junkies Whites Off Earth Now . . . as I typed--magic. I wish my oldy but moldys could sound that good. So with that last paragraph typed, I am not completely devoid of the ability to hear, and I’ll just have to see/hear how it goes. I’d also say that way way back in the days when I upgraded speaker wires and interconnects, I do not remember being slapped in the face with an "OMG, that sounds better!" but I do know that I felt a contentment when I was listening that drove me to listen longer and more frequently. Of course, I have no doubt that my hearing was better back then.
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@immatthewj it’s all about trying the power cord upgrade for yourself. Some power cords result in very minor changes, some produce a difference big enough to go wow. One such example for me was the Nordost Brahma power cable that I tried on Rogue RP-1 preamp that I had at the time. The difference was huge. Bigger improvement than rolling tubes or changing interconnects. |
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