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JPS LABS DIGITAL AC-X AC CORD Review

Rate this power cord:

  • 1. Waste of money (piggy bank panther)

    Votes: 239 98.4%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 1.2%

  • Total voters
    243

pseudoid

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Heulpic

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Thank you so much for taking time to debunk this very expensive fraud, Amir!

So, now I am looking for the right meaning of the acronym "JPS".

I am starting with the following:
JPS = Junk Parasitic Swindle...
or
Junk Parasitic Snake-oil...
(and specifically for the power cable: Junk Power Sham).

Would you have any better suggestions?
Justice Please Sue?
 

theREALdotnet

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To me it sounds like something straight out of the tobacco industry.
 
D

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@Multicore
You seem like a smart, sensible person and have been here long enough to know.
You are not allowed to have a difference of opinion otherwise you will take a ration of shit.
BTW - I am in 100% agreement with you. Not jumping on your case.
If someone happens to have the resources to spend, why not? Who is anyone else to tell them (except those who are arrogant) how they should live their life?
It funny how subjectivity is severely frowned upon except when its topics such as money and value in which case its all hands on deck. Too much talking out of both sides of their mouths.
It depends.

It depends if the manufacturer markets the product as if it's doing something it's not. If he doesn't, I agree with this argument that it's every man and his money for him self.
 

SiW

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even better - there are people that are able to write an essay on audiophile sites about significant differences between said fuses being placed in the right or wrong direction.

I call some of those my friends. intelligent people, able to earn enough money to afford such stuff.Figure that.
I’m in the wrong business - if I only bought cheap stuff from Aliexpress, put a new label on it and sold it as audiophile on eBay I’d be rich.

But I have morals and integrity so I don’t and I’m not rich.

Goes the same in companies for promotion etc.
 

AndreaT

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Thank you Amir for this splendid review. It is sad but inevitable for the free market to offer such a waste of money products and it is somewhat iconic of the perils of Freedom! The individual (self) must learn to navigate, to discern, to choose different products and to allocate finite funds (and Time) to reach rational conclusions and choices. It is similar to what we (should) do to direct our selves to eat, to read, to study, to befriend, to marry, to educate our children and to choose in our professional activities: away from the song of mermaids and sailing toward Ithaca! ASR is therefore, IMO, a symbol of modern virtuous life.
 

SSS

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This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the JPS LABS DIGITAL AC-X FILTERED AC CORD. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $649.
View attachment 270396
I was pleasantly surprised that despite its girth, the JPS cord is quite flexible and lightweight (for its thickness). I suspect there is good bit of air in that oversized jacket. Sadly there are no safety regulatory marks on it.

JPS LABS DIGITAL AC-X AC CORD Measurements
Company advertises the cord for digital sources (I think) so I choose to test it with a Topping D70s which ironically costs the same as the JPS cable! Here is our dashboard with generic AC cord:

View attachment 270397

And now with JPS Digital AC-X cord:
View attachment 270398

We have the usual run to run variation. Beyond that, there is no reduction in noise or distortion. Output level and frequency are the same. Let's run 32 tones to see if this outcome changes:
View attachment 270399

It does not. So let's not waste time doing more DAC tests. Instead, let's find out if there is any filtering. The filter performance changes with impedance and I don't have a ton of flexibility in my analyzer in this regard. Still, I set it as close to what it may see in real life and got this:
View attachment 270400

So there is some high frequency filtering as we often see in power products. As with previous devices of this sort, there is not meaningful amount in audible band to make a difference. Same filtering exists to far, far higher level and power inside any power supply. To show that, let's measure the output of a MeanWell switching power supply that came with the Eleven XIAudio Broadway headphone amp I recently reviewed:
View attachment 270401
There is a tiny difference in favor of JPS cord. But remember, this is the "raw" DC going into the amp. Any performant amp will post filter this output and get it far, far cleaner. And at any rate, the levels shown above are down -140 dB relative to the output of the switching power supply!

Let's look at the time domain output of the power supply:
View attachment 270402

As you see, they are identical. The JPS didn't remove any of this (mainly because it is internally generated in the power supply).

JPS Labs Digital AC-X Power Cord Listening Tests
I powered the Topping D70s with the JPS cord and fed its output to Topping A90 which in turn drove my Dan Clark Stealth headphone. The first reference track sounded better than I remembered! I then switched the cord to generic one and it indeed "sounded" worse. I then switched back again to JPS cord, and it now sounded the same as the generic cord! In other words, nothing but random observations here.

Conclusions
The JPS AC-X cord performs a bit of filtering which we can easily measure and quantify. Where it goes wrong is assuming that you listen to the AC cord itself and that your hearing extends well above audible band. None of this of course is the case. The AC cord powers audio gear which has internal filtering that dwarfs anything the power cord can do. Indeed the incoming AC is extremely "dirty" and any designer of any skill level will know to filter its output to get down to DC (0 Hz). Hence the reason the output of the DAC I tested (or any equipment you have) will not be changed one bit because you have an AC cord with a bit of filtering in it.

I did like the flexible nature of this cord although it is still much heavier than a generic cord. When I tested it with the MeanWell power supply, it easily dragged it off my table. :(

Needless to say, I can't recommend the JPS LABS DIGITAL AC-X FILTERED AC CORD. It works on theory rather than reality of the role of an AC cord and effectiveness of the level of filtering it provides.

----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Thank you for another audiophooling cable. Waste of your time and customer money. But if somebody has a 200k$ stereo and a Ferrari or Porsche car, so why not.
 

theREALdotnet

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But if somebody has a 200k$ stereo and a Ferrari or Porsche car, so why not.
I don’t know, even if I were that rich I wouldn’t want to be rich and dumb. I suppose it depends on how one came by that money.
 

solderdude

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I suppose the Super Aluminata cable is more neutral than the already absolutely neutral AC-X reviewed here.

Neutral, more neutral, most neutral, absolutely neutral, super neutral, ultra neutral, uber neutral ... there are so many neutrals it is mind boggling.
 

RF Air

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Neutral, more neutral, most neutral, absolutely neutral, super neutral, ultra neutral, uber neutral ... there are so many neutrals it is mind boggling.
neutral+, neutral mk II, neutral truth... yeah, insidious. :rolleyes:
 

DonR

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fetchimage
 

pseudoid

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Neutral, more neutral, most neutral, absolutely neutral, super neutral, ultra neutral, uber neutral ... there are so many neutrals it is mind boggling.
Argh! I am detecting that you don't sound neutral about neutrality and/or its :facepalm:flavors...
 

theREALdotnet

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Neutral, more neutral, most neutral, absolutely neutral, super neutral, ultra neutral, uber neutral ... there are so many neutrals it is mind boggling.

As long as electrons are involved in the signal transfer, the outcome is never truly neutral. Time to embrace neutron conduction!
 

pseudoid

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doitttt

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ac shielded cables for 25 dollars, only purpose is not Inference,
low-voltage cables, hdmi-usb and other cables.
you can be cheated, in the hifi industry
just look here.
the worst time snakeoil I've seen.
Shunyata Research HYDRA DELTA D6.
sold for 3500 dollars.
 

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BlackTalon

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I think the key is if the company's name includes "Research" they do anything but...

I really appreciate them showing graphs where none of the curves are linear, yet it somehow makes things 'neutral'
 

C. Cook

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Haha. I like the piggybank Pink Panther. I hadn't seen that one before. Fitting.
 
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