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
Kt88:
"Circuit heads" don't "get" physics. I deal with these guys all the time; you can't use architecture to design an amplifier and you can't use electrical engineering to design an audio cable. It's that simple!
rats@mong.us:
The amount of distortion generated by traditional cables is huge.
We have just completed a ported dynamic driver type speaker with no x-over. The speaker will not perform well at all without our new power cable design feeding the electronics. The problem is that acute. This speaker is the results of 4 years of hard research.
Well I doubt if I qualify as a "circuit head" but I always thought basic circuitry (electromagnetisms, fields, etc) was physics. Silly me.

Lets see Corona. First you resort to "string theory", a theory that has almost no practical application and is entirely unfinished mathmatics (with several versions at the monent) to justify simple propositions that do not at all require it.

above >>>The following would not be supported by String Theory.
1. Building a cable without any consideration of the field that surrounds the conductor.
2. Designing a power cable as an isolated entity as if is has no bearing on the performance of the speaker,amp,etc
3. Claiming that electrical and mechanical resonances are mutually exclusive phenomena.
4. Claiming inductance, capacitance, resistance are the central issues in all cable design....>>>>

Right;--gee... us stupid circuit heads haven't figured those out! Do fields really surround a wire-I thought those twisted pairs just looked nice! And wire has an effect down the circuit??...thanks for the enlightenment. You string theory guys really know your stuff!

If you had used a "garden variety" type of physics-dealing with photons - phonons, etc.. QED or somethng that is actually understood, and backed it up with something, you might have found a different reception.

Your appeal to string theory is just grandstanding and now folks who disagree with you just don't get basic physics and are simpletons afraid of "free thinkers" like yourself. If you want to study resonance in audio good! But string theory ain't gonna help.

I like to keep an open mind - but not so much that my brains fall out.

Ya..I know what some of you are thinking. Clueless gets New Years day off and he has too much egg-nog already.

You're right!

I remain,
Clueless:
For a guy who admits he does not know what he is talking about, you certainly have some very strong opinions.
Corona: For a guy who thinks he knows what he's talking about, you certainly have a very persnickety speaker there...