Power Cords Snake Oil ??


Having been a long time audiophile living with countless high end compnents I have to wonder about the theory and practicality of high end power cords.

I have yet to hear the difference a power cord makes. Ive owned, synergistic, Shunyata, BMI and cardas. I in no way can detect any sonic signature or change. Give me a pair of interconnects and I imeadiately notice a difference somewhere in the sonic spectrum. Not the PC though. I have accomplished 4 blind tests with my friends. 3 out of the 4 they did not know their cord was replaced. All 4 were using a stock factory supplied cord. Each of the 4 tests were done on different components. Amp, CDP, Preamp & dac.

My electrical backround tells me that provided you supply the component with its required voltage bet 110vac or 220/240vac its happy. Now, change the incoming frequency from 60hz to say 53hz and watch how quickly your soundstage collapses.! This is often the case during the summer months when home air conditioners are in use and the utility company power output is taxed to the max. A really good power conditioner should however take care of the frequency fluctuations. But 110vac is still 110vac regardless of the conductor it passes through as long as its remains 110vac when it reaches the intended circuit. Does your 8k amp or preamp know the difference of the path the voltage took to reach it ? Many an audiophile will use a dedicated 20amp circut for their equipment.That is a good idea as voltage & frequency fluctuations will occur in the home circuit to to other loads on the main breaker panel but again, A power cord simply is the means of transporting the voltage from the wall to the component. IF there is a clean 110vac @ 60hz at the wall socket, no matter what the medium is to go from the socket to the component, it will still be 110vac @60hz.

Could somebody expand on this a bit more. I just dont understand it. ??
128x128jetmek
To the people opposed to not making measurements:-

You are fooling yourselves if you are thinking that mankind has very understanding of electricity! In fact, we have a very vast understanding of this subject - more than you can imagine. I'm quite sure that you do not have much visibilty to this fact. Some of the best minds of Planet Earth have worked & are working on the subject of electricity & electronics. It's just that these people are not/do not want to be employed in the audio manuf &/or retail business. The manuf., retail & user community is as good as the people that comprise it. We do have a lot of kick-butt people in this field but there seems to be a very large mass of un-educated people. In my experience I have observed that the more educated the person is in this audio hobby/obsession field the simplier their systems are - they spend more money on this things that make a real diff such as dedicated circuits to their setup, clean power supply & even battery supply if possible, their electronics is rarely the highly advertised hi-end brands rather it is some esoteric make where the designer concentrated on making gear dedicated to the accurate repro of sound, their connections between systems are simple using un-hyped interconnects & power cords & I see them talk more about music software, the emotional impact of their repro sound on them.
I'm convinced that this does not come from running from pillar to post trying every power cord under the Sun! I think "Slappy" said it correctly right in the beginning of this thread - you can't crawl thru a 20 or 200 foot tunnel of cr** & then appear in a tuxedo expecting us to believe that you are clean! The final presentation might be appealing, but you are still covered!
Power off the grid to most homes in the USA is seriously flawed in that it bears a lot of noise that would ruin the impact that any hi-end stereo should have on its user. If that user will not fix this problem at the source i.e. fix the power source & will rather fall into the trap of using various hyped power cords as a solution has a SERIOUS issue with problem solving 101! I shudder to think what criteria this person uses to select his/her electronics!!
Some of the people here are convinced of this line of reasoning thru their experience or from logical thinking of problem solving. Others will learn but the hard way by spending their hard earned $ on hype & having their skeptism turn in cynicism & still others will never learn!! As they say, it takes all sorts.....
Do not get me wrong - I'm not against power cords! I'm against power cords that are hyped to us users which have no technical merit of solving the cruddy electricity problem. Any manuf or retailer who suggests buying his/her power cord without ensuring that the user's power supply is clean enough to take advantage of the power cord is leading the user astray. This will lead to more & more cyncism from us users & will kill our hobby gradually.
There is no little irony in one poster (Narchy) supporting Corona by attacking numbers/measurements, while Corona claims to rely on string theory which, is entirely based upon mathematics, and which always will be.

PS:if anyone wants a nicely written, easy to read overview of string theory try Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe”. It has a very well written overview of the state of physics leading up to string theory too.

Cheers,
I remain
We consider the power supply/power cable assembly as one unit. It is the most misunderstood and most important aspect of an audio system. We take measurements but not the kind you’re talking about. Here, sign wave analysis reveals partial insight to a problem that is very unique; you must make the map fit the territory not the reverse. Resonance interaction, field theory and field isolation all play a major roll in power conveyance and interactive symmetry. In other words, the pc must convey power with no lag time and match the power supply's resonance signature or disruption in flow energy will occur. This problem requires a break from traditional thinking to achieve the goal we all are looking for. Because power supplies are not standardized an array of alternative resonant signature designs must be utilized to match every application.
Corona: FWIW, I am not, among other things (like being an engineer or scientifically trained), a 'measurements uber-alles' type who doesn't like to rely on his ears (not that I feel ears can't be fooled!). It would be a false sylogism to suggest that someone discounting your string theory inferences is by implication rejecting subjective auditioning, or is a 'slave' to design-by-numbers. I tend to believe that there are likely many aspects of audio design for which there may not be very informative quantitative measurements available, and that qualitative judgements ultimately must come down to the human ear. For the most part, I am open to the proposition that any piece of gear deserves to be judged by listening to it, but there is simply too much gear in this world, and one of the factors I employ in the winnowing-out process is to preemtively reject gear I feel is being marketed based on some sort of specious claim, such as the fast'n'loose bandying about of pseudo-science, or the deceptive distortion/excessive extrapolation of true science.

So though I feel I am reasonably open-minded without being gullible, I do want my gear designed by scientifically competent engineers, and I likewise want its performance attributes explained in some sort of plausible scientific context. There may be some merit to your claims regarding 'symmetrical resonance' between PC's and PS's or whatever, I don't know. All I know (OK, think, but I'm sticking to it - at least until you come up with a more coherent argument than, essentially, 'you know too little to disprove me') is that even if those claims were supportable, they would still have nothing to do with sub-sub-atomic theory and nothing to do with field unification, as three of the forces involved (strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, gravity) haven't any bearing on electromagnetic phenomena observable or manipulable on a human scale within the present state of our universe, to the best of my knowledge. I suppose if one wanted to design a cable exclusively for use at the moment of the Big Bang, then a working knowledge of a valid unification theory might come in handy. (That was a joke.) Until then, I'm taking the eminently non-revolutionary position that you're working within the same parameters of physical possibility as any other cable designer, but that you enjoy pretending otherwise, dubious as I personally am about that plan's marketing efficaciousness.