Tice Power Conductor 2 Vintage AC Cable Review

[GGroch]

While I have no doubt that this power cord does nothing to the sound, to be accurate you would have to do some double blind listening tests with a panel of people to show that it doesn't create an audible difference.......
a blind test isn't really necessary with junk like this thing, but I would really like to see such listening tests performed with cables, power conditioners, ethernet switches, etc.

Good point, but when this has been done in the past, proponents of the tested product inevitably find fault with the implementation of the blind testing method. Perhaps a signal switch contaminates the result. Perhaps the listening materials were poorly chosen, too short, too long, or too unfamiliar. Perhaps the differences can only be heard on the subjects own system in their own room. Perhaps blind testing itself triggers the listener into an unnatural state. Blind tests convince very few who are not already convinced.

 

[FrantzM]

tragic and hilarious at the same time... I suppose that's an accomplishment on some level...

Not to the level of the Pet Rock

Peace.

 

[uwotm8]

This takes a typical golden shower audiophiles like so much to a whole new level

 

[KenA]

Amirm, you said you were tempted to stop after you looked inside the box. I was tempted to stop after reading the first line of the manufactures claims. Painful.

 

[Ajax]

@amirm,

I am very appreciative of your work exposing fraudulent claims regarding cables and power conditioners etc, however, I think it is time to call it a day and pursue those pieces of gear that can actually improve our audio experience.

I appreciate you feel a duty to test kit that is sent into you, but would it not make sense to ask members to no longer send in cables etc., as your point is now well and truly proven.

 

[RandomEar]

While I have no doubt that this power cord does nothing to the sound, to be accurate you would have to do some double blind listening tests with a panel of people to show that it doesn't create an audible difference.

While we all know that these measurements surely show this cable has no effect, the measurements alone do not prove there is no audible difference, strictly speaking. As always I advocate for statistics from blind listening tests to be able to prove to subjectivists that their tweaks ( cables, power conditioners, isolating blocks, etc ) actually have no audible effect, and that anything that listeners "hear" in sighted tests is pure placebo.

Such a blind test isn't really necessary with junk like this thing, but I would really like to see such listening tests performed with cables, power conditioners, ethernet switches, etc.

The opposite is true: The zero hypothesis here is that there will be no audible difference. The known physics and the measurements by amirm support that hypothesis. It is unscientific to assume that an audible difference would have to be disproven under theses circumstances.

If I place a coffe cup on my amp and claim an improved bass response due to the quantum forces originating in the spin of the caffeine molecules, it would not be your responsibility to disprove such a well crafted claim. It would be my responsiblity to substaniate it.

 

[renaudrenaud]

I think @amirm cannot measure the effects because his poor equipment and poor gear.

The Topping D70s is just an entry level DAC, in term of cost, and I don't understand why he did not try the the cable, listening to it, with good equipment.

I am pretty sure the results are stellar if he can add the Tice TPT to the system.

I agree withe the question of blind test, it is not a waste of time, it is the right way to prove the benefits to the agnostics.

Well, we need innovative people and designs, and for sure this Tice equipment is less dangerous than a submersible.

 

[JSmith]

This may be a first, no one has voted great... yet.

JSmith

 

[Endibol]

This is a review, teardown and measurements of the Tice Power Conductor 2 vintage AC power cable. It is on kind loan form a member (cost unknown):
View attachment 304841

While the terminations are beefy, no self-respecting high-end audiophile would want to be near a cable looking like it was left over from Radio Shack store of 1970s! There is scant information on this cable. The bit that is there is in used market and states exactly the following on the function of the switches:

View attachment 304842

Makes perfect sense, no? Well, let's take the box apart:
View attachment 304843

Nothing in there but the switch. It seems at first glance that the neutral white wire is being disconnected in one orientation of the switch. This made no sense as you can't power the device that way. Meter confirmed that the connection remained even when the switch is in disconnect mode! So I took the ends off and it was then that I realized there were 5 conductors, not 3 in the cable. We have the standard Line, Neutral and Ground in thick gauge. The white neutral is hiding under the black and green and yo only see it if you look sideways. The three wires go from one end to the other so switches do not impact those at all.

The thinner white and black wires simply mirror their corresponding thicker conductors. Put another way, if you close the switch on neutral, you just get an additional thinner wire terminating at the same two ends. Ditto for black. This simply changes the resistance of the cable ever so slightly so no way it can have the impacts the company claims.

I was tempted to stop here as there is not even a remote chance of this having an effect but thought we should measure so here we are.

Tice Power Conductor 2 Measurements
I started by powering my Topping D70s using a standard AC cable. Here is its output, the thing we eventually listen to:
View attachment 304844

Here is the response when the Tice cable is used to power the DAC with either switch variations:
View attachment 304845

There is a tiny performance degradation but I think that is just run to run variation.

Let's measure frequency response as that is where we see the impact on bass and treble:
View attachment 304846
All three curves land so accurately on top of each other that it leaves no room for any variation. Not a thing is changed in the tonality of the DAC.

Conclusions
It is fascinating to see the nature of such tweaks years ago, vs the sophistication today. We have a box with just two parallel wires being taken in an out. Today they don't make it so obvious with talk of nano particles, EMI, etc. My sense is that whoever put this together had no engineering experience and just imagined such an implementation would change the sound. Anyway, there is nothing here to even lend imagination to make the sound different let alone be tube like and such.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome. Click here if you have some audio gear you want me to test.

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Snake oil in its purest form, and they don't even try to mask it. Should we laugh or cry, I don't know..

 

[Endibol]

This may be a first, no one has voted great... yet.

View attachment 304868


JSmith

That's just a matter of time...

 

[Endibol]

I think you're being remarkably good faith there Amir! I suspect they knew exactly what they were doing (or lack of), it's at the level of egregiousness that I almost respect it, almost.

Amir is not only of good faith, but simply too kind in this case. You don't need to be an electrical engineer to understand that their claims are nonsense based on this design...

 

[kevinh]

Back in the early 70's I had a little Stereo, Kenwood integrated amp and Jensen Speakers. Hooked up with zip cord. Was looking to upgrade my speakers, the salesman offered to let me try a Cobra Cable, Hooked it up and my amp started to oscillate. Definitely heard a difference. Turned the amp off before it blew up and returned the cables high capacitance caused problems but the cables looked pretty.

 

[solderdude]

Wow... it has no less than 2 placebo switches !

 

[calugg]

That was just embarrassing. Thanks for the quick debunking.

 

[Palladium]

That was just embarrassing. Thanks for the quick debunking.

I'm numb to these now.

 

[Mnyb]

it's no need for a listening test when there is no measurable difference if the signal is the same it's sounds the same .

Of some one claims otherwise , it really is audio homeopathy maybe the electrons remember traveling trough the inferior cable vs the good cable ..

 

[jbrown]

As someone who lived in Jupiter and actually met George Tice while he was in business (30-ish years ago), it is interesting to see this and SUPREMELY disappointing to learn that there is literally NOTHING of redeeming quality in either of these two reviews.

This is the epitome of snake oil. There should be a special panther, worse than piggy bank, for this level of deception.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Ha …if only commoners could hear like me, then they would buy this device. You probably did not break it in for the recommended 36 hours . Also it must be run in the correct direction for electron Flo to be correct. Perhaps you need to replace The panthers with this…

 

[spigot]

It doesn't work if you open it up and look inside. It also doesn't work if you do measurements. If you spend enough and believe that it works, then it works.

 

[fpitas]

That's really it. You gotta believe.