AudioQuest NRG-X3 Review (AC Power Cord)

[Ingenieur]

Relax bro. You will not make CABLE believers out of a bunch of EEs PERIOD

Fixed

 

[Ingenieur]

No worries! It's quite eye-opening to read what engineers think of themselves and their discipline.

I worked as an engineer for just over a year for a company that had agreed to sponsor me. Probably a bit too macho, and a bit too dangerous (mostly on North Sea oil platforms). I studied something safer. So I have a little engineering insight from personal experience.

You worked as an an engineer?
Or ARE an engineer based on education and credentialing?

Others think they are Doctors.

I think I'm a a cowboy, but alas I am not

 

[DWI]

dCS started in Avionics. Chord Electronics, not Chord cables. I think the guy who started Chord was director of engineering at Marconi?

 

[Killingbeans]

Anyone who thinks their scientific field is a done deal, even if only what a cable does, lacks scientific enquiry.

First lets establish whether or not power cables actually make an audible difference. You say that you hear a difference in power cables, and the rest of us say that's physically impossible, unless you attribute it to placebo.

What makes you certain that the things you hear in power cables are not caused by the placebo effect?

 

[axbarker]

Just undertake a repeatable blind test to establish fact. What is the problem here?????

 

[TheBatsEar]

What makes you certain that the things you hear in power cables are not caused by the placebo effect?

Do you really think you can make a cable-sound nonbeliever out of an Ayuverdist?

 

[amirm]

I’m not surprised how often power and cable technology flows from the aerospace industry into hifi.

That's just a marketing line some companies use to sell you stuff. Lay people put value on anything from aerospace industry thinking it is more advanced as far as performance without any understanding of it. It is the same as infomercials for knifes bragging about surgical steel.

 

[DWI]

You worked as an an engineer?
Or ARE an engineer based on education and credentialing?

Take, for example, a pump, a turbine, a jet engine and an oil rig. Mechanically, you can test them individually and they are fine. Stick them together as a system, then four sets of them side by side and they may behave rather differently. I used to have to stick on transducers and take readings on tape as these things were taken to full power and down again. Other people would be monitoring other things. We then did a lot of data analysis. It was a nasty, hot and dangerous job and very well paid.

We did other things, I learned some programming, but one thing I appreciated is that engineering is about systems, and the same goes for audio systems. I've always preferred integrated systems, and power is a system as well, so testing a cable in isolation seems a pretty pointless exercise to me. We were mainly testing for resonances between the system components, which to me seems pretty similar to a system of audio components connected in parallel and throwing out different kinds of electrical noise and energy affecting other components' performance.

Sometimes these systems fail. We worked on one that killed 130 people. The system failed, the component that broke was not in itself badly designed. At least in audio systems the worst you will get is an annoying buzz or a blown fuse.

 

[DWI]

That's just a marketing line some companies use to sell you stuff. Lay people put value on anything from aerospace industry thinking it is more advanced as far as performance without any understanding of it. It is the same as infomercials for knifes bragging about surgical steel.

I agree there is a lot of b/s marketing, but there has been a transfer of key technology, in particular power supplies. These have made Class D viable and transformed consumer audio.

This is to be expected, because of the billions invested in aerospace. Audio is a microscopic industry by comparison. John Franks, who founded Chord, was a technical director of companies including Raytheon, a major defence contractor. Chord and dCS both first became successful in commercial recording and broadcasting. Only then did they make consumer products.

 

[DWI]

You mean evidence based medicine? Science doesn't have borders.
Nobody practices "western" medicine any longer because it didn't work either.

NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms

NCI's Dictionary of Cancer Terms provides easy-to-understand definitions for words and phrases related to cancer and medicine.

www.cancer.gov

 

[amirm]

I agree there is a lot of b/s marketing, but there has been a transfer of key technology, in particular power supplies. These have made Class D viable and transformed consumer audio.

This is to be expected, because of the billions invested in aerospace. Audio is a microscopic industry by comparison. John Franks, who founded Chord, was a technical director of companies including Raytheon, a major defence contractor. Chord and dCS both first became successful in commercial recording and broadcasting. Only then did they make consumer products.

So if I had worked for aerospace indu you would automatically think more highly of my statements?

 

[SIY]

So if I had worked for aerospace indu you would automatically think more highly of my statements?

If so, I’ll mention that I was a Senior Scientist at Lockheed. And this is bullshit aimed at the totally technically ignorant.

 

[MaxBuck]

what would interest me would be engagement between Amir a manufacturer or two because he thinks he’s right and they obviously don’t.

I'm not sure what you see as the script for such engagement. Amir has measured the effects of these wires, and those effects are nonexistent. What is there to discuss?

 

[xaviescacs]

I was a Senior Scientist at Lockheed

Such a shame you didn't found "Best cables on the planet"... you would be rich by now...

 

[Killingbeans]

We were mainly testing for resonances between the system components, which to me seems pretty similar to a system of audio components connected in parallel and throwing out different kinds of electrical noise and energy affecting other components' performance.

Trust me, if the components in your home audio are affecting each other through their respective power cables, they have been designed by a blind cave salamander. What do you think EEs are being taught when they get their education? It's not just: "We have no idea how anything works.. sorry. But here's a degree. Have fun!"

You can have all the ideas in the world about how something works, but they have zero merit compared to actually knowing.

 

[BDWoody]

This is what I suggested ASR should do - engage with designers of certain products and try and get a deeper understanding of whatever science it is that seems to make customers happy.

That's not so hard...you just tell them what they want to hear, which typically involves making them feel special. This is in the sales, marketing and psychology arenas I would think.

Why do you believe they have discovered anything worth exploring? If any of them can ever provide actual evidence backing their claims of sonic superiority, there might be something to be learned. Absent that, why bother to give it credence?

 

[Ingenieur]

Take, for example, a pump, a turbine, a jet engine and an oil rig. Mechanically, you can test them individually and they are fine. Stick them together as a system, then four sets of them side by side and they may behave rather differently. I used to have to stick on transducers and take readings on tape as these things were taken to full power and down again. Other people would be monitoring other things. We then did a lot of data analysis. It was a nasty, hot and dangerous job and very well paid.

We did other things, I learned some programming, but one thing I appreciated is that engineering is about systems, and the same goes for audio systems. I've always preferred integrated systems, and power is a system as well, so testing a cable in isolation seems a pretty pointless exercise to me. We were mainly testing for resonances between the system components, which to me seems pretty similar to a system of audio components connected in parallel and throwing out different kinds of electrical noise and energy affecting other components' performance.

Sometimes these systems fail. We worked on one that killed 130 people. The system failed, the component that broke was not in itself badly designed. At least in audio systems the worst you will get is an annoying buzz or a blown fuse.

No, it is not.


Ok, captain obvious. I understand the concept of 'system'.

A lot of obfuscation. Are you an engineer by degree and credentials?

 

[DrZingo]

But surely, you’re not using the freebie POS power cords that came with your diagnostic equipment?!

Ha! Your comment made my day. This is just so stupid. (Although that Audioquest cable wouldn't be welcome to a hospital in Europe without a CE certification.)

 

[voodooless]

So ASR can continue shouting from the sidelines that his scientific machine says this cable, and all cables, are fakery. Or, as above, ASR could engage with cable manufacturers and try and understand what they are about.

If they make claims, they can give the proof. No need to “engage”.

 

[TheBatsEar]

If they make claims, they can give the proof. No need to “engage”.

But you said not to engage? Which is it?