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Thread: Power Cord

  1. #1
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    Power Cord

    I was just wondering why some of the vintage equipment has such cheap-o power cords.I just picked up a kenwood 4400 receiver off of e-bay to run a pair of jbl 610s for my pc system and the power cord looks like it belongs to a lamp instead of a receiver. I've seen this before when i was a kid back in the 70s on other audio equipment. A lot of guys have always said that audio equipment was built a lot better in the 70 & 80s then it is now which is more than likely ture so i wander why on some of the audio stuff they used lamp cord. I have also seen the same light stuff on other vintage equipment on the e-bay photos The power cord on my denon 4800 is 3x heavier than the cord on the kenwood, BTW the kenwood does sound very good.

  2. #2
    Crackhead Extraordinaire Dusty Chalk's Avatar
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    Because back then no-one had heard of aftermarket power cords. Or had figured out how important the quality of the electricity was to the overall sound.
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  3. #3
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    Power Cord

    Quote Originally Posted by Dusty Chalk
    Because back then no-one had heard of aftermarket power cords. Or had figured out how important the quality of the electricity was to the overall sound.
    Thanks for the info, that makes sense to me.

  4. #4
    Suspended Smokey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dusty Chalk
    Because back then no-one had heard of aftermarket power cords. Or had figured out how important the quality of the electricity was to the overall sound.
    That is true. Quality does matter.

    But it might also be worth mentioning that effect of power cord in quality of AC is minimal. It is the internal Power Supply that deteremine the quality

  5. #5
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    I agree you have to have a good power supply but an aftermarket power cord can make an improvement as well. Krell has some of the best power supplies going and upgrading the power cord improved sound quality of mine. The most noticeable was on lower signal sources but the sound of the amp improved as well.

    Vintage gear also lacks the terminals for the better speaker connects as well. I first saw better speaker wire in the late 80's when the place I worked picked up Audioquest. It was bulk on the spool back then and sold by the foot. I'm not sure when RCA connects became the rage.

    I think most of the thought behind vintage being better is because all receivers back then had discrete circuits. But even discrete circuits can have cheap parts. Whether that can still sound as bad as an IC chip....

  6. #6
    Crackhead Extraordinaire Dusty Chalk's Avatar
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    Thumbs up

    Quote Originally Posted by Smokey
    But it might also be worth mentioning that effect of power cord in quality of AC is minimal. It is the internal Power Supply that deteremine the quality
    Well, that's your opinion, and since I do not share it, I didn't feel like bringing it up.
    Eschew fascism.
    Truth Will Out.
    Quote Originally Posted by stevef22
    you guys are crackheads.
    I remain,
    Peter aka Dusty Chalk

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