HIFI POWER CABLES - a thought

[Purité Audio]

Ah, I have an answer for this, because despite the music traveling through countless, connectors, cables, potentiometers, transistors, capacitors, microprocessors, mixing desks etc on its journey to the user and the power passing through miles and miles of, over head wires, and countless, transformers, non audiophile switchgear, circuits breakers, cables routed underground in water laden conditions, its making the best of it in their own home that drives this mindset, the bit that they have some control over, therefore it must be important.

Don’t act the innocent Roog you have been on the RA clicking salacious photographs of mains accessories.
Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells

 

[fpitas]

Indeed, every sale counts.
I once asked on a HiFi forum, "If connectors and connections make so much difference why don't manufactures fit captive cables and do away with it all." The cacophony of disgust was telling.

People just have to have something they can buy that they can play with.

Like a bored child, that just has to stick their finger up their nose!

It gives them technical chops, too. Then they can come here and argue

 

[roog]

My personal experience of how unimportant it is.

I discovered a lose connection in a distribution socket strip which I made from standard BS1363 wall sockets linked together. I was mortified, it was my work after all, the end of the completely loose wire had been arcing lightly where it rested against the first socket terminal and showed very slight signs of arcing at the tip of the wire. Clearly not much current passing through.

I re-terminated the cable checking it carefully this time and ........it made no difference to the sound at all.

 

[roog]

Don’t act the innocent Roog you have been on the RA clicking salacious photographs of mains accessories.
Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells

Guilty as charged, I have been found out by my own fair hand, the shame of it, although I am sure that there are worse things. It does intrigue me to see what he is promoting these days. I have thought about cancelling the 'no cost to me' catalogue but that would deprive me of some entertainment.

 

[wwenze]

The moment you are taught to look at electrical components as impedances, you start to appreciate the power supply more than the cable. I guess a broken cable doesn't conduct so cable matters I guess. But the point of diminishing return is around $2.

You'd think they would sell AC line filters too might as well. But the problem is, filters actually do something, which is why they are dangerous because they can actually make things worse. Think homeopathy vs untested medicine. In most audiophile cases tho the filters don't actually do anything but they are often the victim of the market too because some people believe the filters degrade performance, while the same never seems to happen with cables.

 

[egellings]

Ah, I have an answer for this, because despite the music traveling through countless, connectors, cables, potentiometers, transistors, capacitors, microprocessors, mixing desks etc on its journey to the user and the power passing through miles and miles of, over head wires, and countless, transformers, non audiophile switchgear, circuits breakers, cables routed underground in water laden conditions, its making the best of it in their own home that drives this mindset, the bit that they have some control over, therefore it must be important.

Agree. Because you have the ability to choose the power cord, that makes it influential on S.Q. If the cord is permanently attached, then it has much less effect.

 

[Chrispy]

Not at all. Please read my post again. they DO NOT make or sell high-end power cables. Even for their most expensive tens of thousands of USD devices, they offer basic power cables, even though they do offer and create their own higher end speaker and interconnects.

I was referring to the "higher end" speaker wire and interconnects.

 

[fpitas]

Agree. Because you have the ability to choose the power cord, that makes it influential on S.Q. If the cord is permanently attached, then it has much less effect.

But can't you plug that into a high-end extension cord?

 

[egellings]

But can't you plug that into a high-end extension cord?

I'm not aware of extension cords being marketed in an "audiophile" format, the way power cords are.

 

[Chrispy]

I'm not aware of extension cords being marketed in an "audiophile" format, the way power cords are.

Give them time.

 

[roog]

I'm not aware of extension cords being marketed in an "audiophile" format, the way power cords are.

Oh yes they do!

PowerHAUS M6 mains distribution block - The Chord Company

Hand built in England by music and cinema lovers Pure performance and reliability. Free from non-essential and potentially noisy components Created to meet our own demo room needs and now available for discerning users everywhere Designed using the optimum materials and 40 years of hi-fi...

chord.co.uk

 

[Mnyb]

Talking of which a copy of the Russ Andrews catalogue has just dropped through my letter box. (Don't ask why)
It makes interesting reading and judging by the pricing of some of the products he clearly fancies a bit of the high end business.
I particularly liked the 'article' which describes how you can now take advantage of one of his superior mains cables on hifi units which have captive cables. Cut the fixed cable off leaving say 150 to 200mm of existing cable sticking out the back and fit an inline IEC shrouded plug to it.
I expect the proposal is to plug a 'tree trunk' type cable in to this, hanging off the end of a the existing modest sheathed twin core.

Actually why not only captive/fixed cables

I do understand how practical it is with user replaceable power cables . But apparently it opened a business opportunity for scammers.

So serious manufacturers should simply only use fixed cables and void all warranty and safety certificates if it is exchanged for anything but a factory spec cable at the service rep .

 

[egellings]

Oh yes they do!

PowerHAUS M6 mains distribution block - The Chord Company

Hand built in England by music and cinema lovers Pure performance and reliability. Free from non-essential and potentially noisy components Created to meet our own demo room needs and now available for discerning users everywhere Designed using the optimum materials and 40 years of hi-fi...

chord.co.uk

I see. Add a Shunyata cord to that baby and I'm in!

 

[BlackTalon]

So serious manufacturers should simply only use fixed cables and void all warranty and safety certificates if it is exchanged for anything but a factory spec cable at the service rep .

Ha ha, I can only imagine how many dreams throughout the world would be shattered by something like this.

 

[MKreroo]

I've even seen electrical engineer designing high power system claiming that cable makes an audible difference.......

 

[DonR]

Actually why not only captive/fixed cables

I do understand how practical it is with user replaceable power cables . But apparently it opened a business opportunity for scammers.

So serious manufacturers should simply only use fixed cables and void all warranty and safety certificates if it is exchanged for anything but a factory spec cable at the service rep .

Makes it easier to ship product to different countries with different plugs. Same unit, just swap out the cable.

 

[Palladium]

I've even seen electrical engineer designing how power system claiming that cable makes a difference.......

Because the one of the core functions of a well-designed PSU is to filter as much as AC as possible from the DC output.

Which is why a badly designed PSU is definitely the one true path to audio nirvana.

 

[mhardy6647]

My Marantz PM-16 also had just a normal power cable. It wasn't even removable if I recall correctly. I don't know what they are doing now though.

Anything is removable, given sufficent motivation.
Don't ask me how I know this.

 

[thecheapseats]

Anything is removable, given sufficent motivation.
Don't ask me how I know this.

a reciprocating sawsall and explosives - doesn't matter which order they are used...

 

[JSmith]

extension cords

JSmith