@mzkmxcv, if you have problem excepting mains cables can make an improvement in sound quality (try Sablon Reserva Elite for example our favourite mains cable) you will blow a fuse when I tell you cable lifting makes a difference if done correctly.
Why Power Cables Affect Sound
I just bought a new CD player and was underwhelmed with it compared to my cheaper, lower quality CD player. That’s when it hit me that my cheaper CD player is using an upgraded power cable. When I put an upgraded power cable on my new CD player, the sound was instantly transformed: the treble was tamed, the music was more dynamic and lifelike, and overall more musical.
This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:
I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe.
That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter.
If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please.
This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:
I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe.
That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter.
If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please.
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Kudos to Enid Lumley who 'discovered' lifting cables made an improvement. When she brought that discovery to the World via The Absolute Sound.. she was run out of town on a rail, figuratively Sad.. I am sure there are more examples of folks put down for recognizing things others refuse to see... Gee. what could some of those thing s be??? |
@elizabeth mitch2.. One part of you query is about what else can be in the powercord that is not being measured" (totally parphrasing, if in error, yell at me)No yelling necessary Elizabeth, but that was not actually the question. My questions were in response to Ralph's post from 1-11 at 1:55pm where he pointed out; I’ve seen a power cord make a difference of nearly 30% of output power out of a power amplifier. I could also see that that was caused by a voltage drop across the power cord.and You can measure differences in output power, output impedance and distortion on many power amps just by changing the power cord- and many of these differences are simply caused by voltage drop.and There is more to it than voltage drop though. It also has to do with bandwidth of the power cord as it has to be able to provide current at high frequencies because rectifiers in power supplies often commutate (switch on and off) for very short periods of time, and if the current gets limited during that current pulse the power supply can’t charge completely.I am curious then whether simply the wire gauge of the PC is the primary factor affecting the incidence and severity of voltage drop, which then affects power output and bandwidth. I am not implying that is the only factor affecting power cord performance but, I am skeptical there is much more than wire gauge, geometry, wire type, shielding, and connectors that would make a significant difference. For wire type and geometery, I suspect OFE/OFHC C101 copper and a twisted pair should be just fine, although a star-quad geometry would further lower inductance. I would be interested in knowing what other parameters (than those listed) would make a meaningful difference in a power cord. |
mzkmxcv339 posts01-13-2019 11:30am@jea48 @ mzkmxcv, Sorry, Not what I would call reliable credible proof. Who is the guy? What is his back ground? You’ll have to better than that. His bench setup could have caused his measurements to be flawed. Wouldn’t be the first time. EDIT: Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed, even though they break none of the guidelines. Love the open discussion.Notified by Agon through an email? Was the material copyright protected? From my experience here on Agon they do not edit a post. They just remove the entire post. OR EDIT: Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed, even though they break none of the guidelines. Love the open discussion. "Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed,". Did you mean to say "noticed" instead of "notified"? If you meant to say noticed it could be you did not proof read the page before posting it to make sure everything you typed was there on the page. Maybe it’s just my computer but only on Agon if what I am typing goes beyond the bottom line of the message box it is not being saved. If you find yourself at the bottom of the page, add more space by hitting the enter key several times. . |
@elizabeth The wave form hits the point in space.. how long does it take to touch pass and leave that point. It cannot be instantaneous.. it takes time. how much time? no one cares?? is it spending a lot of time there from start to finish. or fast? from start to finish. True frequency would make to whole thing faster, but ignore that. for any specific frequency, the wave front time from first point to last.. How long? can it be longer? being fuzzy? or faster, being tight? you have NO IDEA. If you say it cannot . be then you are claiming the wave is an infinite point? no time spread at all? Can it BE fuzzy? you don’t know that either I don’t think you have a fundamental understating of how audio (in real life or in a Hi-Fi system) works. We do know of long a waveform should be (at a given temperature). Here’s a nice calculator for 72°F: http://www.mcsquared.com/wavelength.htm A “fuzzy” waveform means distortion/noise. You cannot make a wave faster/slower unless you change the temperature of the room. If you make it “faster” without doing so, all you actually did was change what the actual frequency is. @jae48 I received two emails stating my posts were removed by a moderator, the one talking about how I can’t tell you what food you like, but I can tell you if the output of your speakers changed if you “upgraded you power cords, and another one thanking @stevecharm for the most sensible answer to my question, but then asked him what he thinks about how the OEM cables already provide the performance as stated in specs, and how audible changes could be if distortion and whatnot are already very low, keep in mind the THD of your speakers is magnitudes louder than the THD of a DAC. |
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