aftermarket power chords

[JohnMichael]

Sir you asked a QUESTION; if purchasing three after market chords was warranted.

John Micheal said; NO , try one at a time and suggested a cheaper one.

Pelly3s said; NO, but suggested making your own.

Feanor said; NO, he had tried it and noticed no difference and suggested you spent the money on music instead.

I said; NO and gave some reasons why.

I call the above providing ANSWERS to your QUESTION and being helpful but it seems from your last post that you didn't want ANSWERS, you just wanted someone to agree with you.

Just to clarify I stated I noticed an improvement with the addition of the better power chord. I also know that I also can hear differences in speaker cables and interconnects. My point was for him to try one at a time to see if it would be a benefit to him. We can be sensitive to different aspects of sound. What is musical to some might be torture for me. I know people who like bright agressive systems and after about 20 minutes I have to excuse myself. If a better cable improves the sound of your system then enjoy.

[Chas Underhay]

Just to clarify I stated I noticed an improvement with the addition of the better power chord. I also know that I also can hear differences in speaker cables and interconnects. My point was for him to try one at a time to see if it would be a benefit to him. We can be sensitive to different aspects of sound. What is musical to some might be torture for me. I know people who like bright agressive systems and after about 20 minutes I have to excuse myself. If a better cable improves the sound of your system then enjoy.

I did acknowledge that you suggested that he tried one at a time.

To be honest I have never heard any significant differences when comparing speaker cables or interconnects unless I'm comparing the adequate with the inadequate, maybe I just have cloth ears. From a technical point of view I accept that cable has different characteristics; inductance, impedance, capacitance etc however the legnths involved are normally too short to have much impact. You infer that you do not like bright agressive systems and allude that a better cable may improve it but I would suggest that it may well be a worse (high capacitance) cable that 'apparently' improves the sound by slightly attenuating the HF.

In my experience, equipment that sounds 'musical' isn't necessarilly accurate. I find that it is either particular records or very often certian tracks on records that sound bright and agressive, a similar number, to me, sound too wooly or bass heavy. Most however sound fine to my ears. I don't like bright and agressive and I don't like fat and wooly either.

The thing that makes me laugh is that I have seen adverts for £4,000 speaker cables, give me 4 grand and I'll by a pair of electrostatics and hook em up with 4mm mains wire I'll guarantee they will sound fine.

All the best

[daviethek]

I guess I'm in the camp that notices diffferences. Only recently though. For about 20 years I didn't think wire of any kind had that much effect until recently with my new system I had the "chore" of selecting speaker cable and interconnects I could live with.
I say chore because the experience got to be less than enjoyable after a while. Most economy speaker cables just got in the way of some aspect of the music or bloated one end of the spectrum a noticeable bit. When I found a pair that didn't interfere with the music, I stopped looking. I was at the 180.00 price point for the speaker wire when that happened. thank God.

As far as the power cables go, I guess I was tempted like a lot of people are, by the potential of some noticeable benefit. The sugestion to use the economy power cable upgrade on the CA CD deck was to me a good suggestion since I noticed differences in speaker cable, I thought what the hell. It was I think a good purchase. I'm certainly not going to exagerate the benefit, but I am left with the feeling that if the manufacturers should spend a few pennies more on the power chord.

[pelly3s]

My theory on power cord is pretty much this, you dont see recording studio changing the cords on the gear they have. and like I always say no matter what you play something through it cant get better than what it was recorded on

[TerryB]

I've had mixed results.

When i changed the power cord on an old portable cassette/radio to a Russ Andrews Yello, the difference was absolutely noticeable, no question about it.

But on my main system, where i have Russ Andrews hi-current Powercords throughout, i'm really not so sure they make the biggest difference in the world, maybe because the equipment is of a much higher quality to begin with and therefore less susceptible to differences in mains leads.

However! I've been advised that all of these leads WILL come into their own as and when i have a seaparate spur installed from the fusebox specifically for the hi-fi, installed with decent woven, shielded mains cable. So if the electrician who's visiting next week tells me it will be possible to do at reasonable cost, i'll let you know if this theory holds true once the work is complete!

[Chas Underhay]

When i changed the power cord on an old portable cassette/radio to a Russ Andrews Yello, the difference was absolutely noticeable, no question about it.

Quite likely that the connectors on the 'as issued' lead had oxidised and were not conducting as well as they should or possibly even periodically arcing.

But on my main system, where i have Russ Andrews hi-current Powercords throughout, i'm really not so sure they make the biggest difference in the world, maybe because the equipment is of a much higher quality to begin with and therefore less susceptible to differences in mains leads.

Correct, in fact I bet you can't really hear any difference at all, can you.

However! I've been advised that all of these leads WILL come into their own as and when i have a seaparate spur installed from the fusebox specifically for the hi-fi, installed with decent woven, shielded mains cable. So if the electrician who's visiting next week tells me it will be possible to do at reasonable cost, i'll let you know if this theory holds true once the work is complete!

For christ's sake don't get caught on that one. (see my previous posts) People spend a fortune on things like this. Once it has been done you can't directly compare it with as it was before and you will then have mental torture trying to convince yourself the sound has improved and that the expense was worthwhile. It wont make a scrap of difference!!!!

Either save the money or if it is burning a hole in your pocket go to your music store and buy a load more records and CDs, or take your wife, girlfriend, secretary, somebody else's wife away for a slap up dirty weekend. Much more fun!

[TerryB]

Chas you might be right, but when the UK's Mark Levinson official engineer lists this as basically his number one upgrade, i for one will give him the benefit of the doubt!! Sure, if it's going to cost £500 or more then forget it, but if it's say £100 plus the cable to do, well what the hell - it can't be any worse, assuming the electrician knows what he's doing!!

[Bernd]

I've had mixed results.

When i changed the power cord on an old portable cassette/radio to a Russ Andrews Yello, the difference was absolutely noticeable, no question about it.

But on my main system, where i have Russ Andrews hi-current Powercords throughout, i'm really not so sure they make the biggest difference in the world, maybe because the equipment is of a much higher quality to begin with and therefore less susceptible to differences in mains leads.

However! I've been advised that all of these leads WILL come into their own as and when i have a seaparate spur installed from the fusebox specifically for the hi-fi, installed with decent woven, shielded mains cable. So if the electrician who's visiting next week tells me it will be possible to do at reasonable cost, i'll let you know if this theory holds true once the work is complete!

Hi Terry,

I read your post with interest. Just take this on board, if you run a separete spur for your rig then you need to have the cable of the quality of your power cords. Otherwise why do it?
I use the new Kimber PK range (the green ones can't remember the number) and have installed an Isotek Titan which worked out cheaper than a run with Kimber cable and I am sure does make more of a difference.
Just my 0.02ct worth.

Peace

Bernd

I rather have my mind opened to wonder than closed by belief

What's playing: Eric Clapton-Unplugged

[Chas Underhay]

I rather have my mind opened to wonder than closed by belief.

I'm more than happy to have my mind opened to wonder but I require irrefutable concrete evedence before I'll open my wallet.

[MCH]

Quote:
My theory on power cord is pretty much this, you dont see recording studio changing the cords on the gear they have. and like I always say no matter what you play something through it cant get better than what it was recorded on

Bravo. Common sense makes my music sound good. Of all the components in the music chain, I put most of the emphasis (money) on speakers.

[hermanv]

The whole power cord idea is certainly hard to believe. All that wire from the substation to your house, from your breaker to your outlet, suddenly that last 5 feet is the path to Nirvana?

Now having said that, I felt the same way about exotic cables, I heard no difference at least right up to the point where I was able to afford a much more exotic system. Now I hear all kinds of differences in the various cables. I have spent real money (drat, damn, can't be) because unfortunately the more expensive interconnects and speaker cables sounded better.

I am afriad to try exotic power cords, too close to magic or too big an impact on the wallet if they work (ignorance is bliss in this case).

My point is that these things must be done in balance, if you have the financial resources to purchase $20,000 electronics boxes or speakers then you will find exotic cables are pretty near manadatory to realize the full capabilities of these devices. On the other hand if you're a mere mortal with a $500 receiver it makes no sense to buy $800 worth of wire, the wire is not your weakest link.

Putting Pirrelli tires on a Volkswagon Van will not make it a race car, putting Grand Auto 4 for $200 tires on your Ferrari will probably kill you on the first mountain turn. Balance is the key.

[E-Stat]

I am afriad to try exotic power cords, too close to magic or too big an impact on the wallet if they work (ignorance is bliss in this case).

Whatever you do, DO NOT audition Kimber Palladians or Harmonic Technology Magics in your system. You'll be sorry!

rw

[daviethek]

Lots of interest in the subject. I am happy with the relatively cheap PS Audio aftermarket job on my CD player ( 49.00 us). Slight improvement in sound separation and quietness. What I should have done is just to buy the 13/3 wire and get some hospital grade connectors and make my own as sugggested here.

The forces of suppy,demand and criticism (technical sobriety checks) should hopefully keep the cost of this tweak under control a little more than the speaker wire explosion. It looks like a DIY project for the average power cord be cone without soldering for about 30.00 using very good wire and hospital grade connectors. Performance may be as good as the very expensive cables and the hobbyst can make them, put them in and not fret about slight improvements from more expensive units ( like I did on speaker cable).

[hermanv]

I have suspected for some time that I may need to finance expensive power cords, so fairly soon I will give them an honest audition.

Does anyone have experience or an opinion (yep, here I go aking for it, think I'd know better by now) about the relative merits of spending money for power cords (hundreds of $$ is easy) vs spending money for a dedicated run from the main panel breaker to the system. 'Course we'd go with the hospital outlets and good distribution box. Seems the two costs could be comparable. Eventually, I plan on doing both, but I am one of those unlucky folks that must dribble out my limited finances in a controlled fashion.

And a related question, there is a strong temptation to make my own fancy cords, connectors and wire are pretty easy to aquire but has anyone really listened to the difference on a first class system (No mine isn't truly first class but it makes a solid second class, and I hope to continously improve it)

As I get more experience in this hobby, I'm kind of determined to not repeat expenses and upgrades in a small step wise fashion like I did early on when I couldn't believe that good sound could cost that much. I could have saved some money by skipping a lot of intermediate steps (not that I wasn't told this) but who can believe this stuff?