Power cord? Why?

cfmartin,
try these simple exercises with the cords you already have and see if they change the overall sound of your system:

1. put the heaviest gauge cords on the most current hungry components. mine are all marked 16/3 or 18/3. 16 is heavier. the insulation can be deceiving. read them if you can.
2. route the cords away from your interconnects. by some miracle of engineering alot of cords exit their components via the left side when viewed from the front. in any case, place your power strip on the side which provides the least interaction with your interconnects. If a power cord must touch an interconnect make sure they cross one another at right angles.
3. keep the power cords apart from each other, even by an inch. don't coil any excess. don't bundle them together even if it looks tidy.
4. keep the accessible metal surfaces of the plugs free of oxidation. i use car wax but i'll bet there's something more trick to clean the copper or brass they're made of.

quite by accident, i'd ignored one or more of these simple procedures while setting up a new rack and found my system immediately sounding thin. getting all of them right restored its full body.

fatparrot...If you read my comment you will note that I did not say that special power cords can make no difference. I simply remarked that the difference, if any, would be of an electrical nature and therefore able to be objectively measured. I am a scientist: like the ones who disproved the subjective opinion that the earth must be flat. Show me the data about power cords. I am anxious to be enlightened.

And Pbb...sorry, the bridge has been sold.

To the "unbelievers", please read and respond to the thread entitled "Philips SACD 1000 / power cords in general accordingly.

Prior to doing so, please be aware that i too was an "unbeliever" up until about 5 years ago. In fact, i was involved in a thread that "debated" the effects of AC cords that had 60+ responses in less than 4 hours time. Most of those responses were between a small group of individuals on both sides of the fence. My position was similar to those promoted by Eldartsford, Bomarc, Pbb, etc... i.e. i was under the impression that a power cord could NOT alter the sonics of a component. That was until i tried various power cords on different components and did hear a difference. As such, all of my previous posts were done in haste as i had relied on "common sense" and my prior level of education on the subject rather than first hand experience and trusting one's own senses.

As discussed in the thread that i linked to, i was able to measure a difference in frequency response / apparent sonics when changing power cords. Granted, this was an "impromptu" test that wasn't performed under lab grade conditions, but the conditions that were present were as close to identical for both DUT's ( Device Under Test ) that could be achieved at the time. As such, any errors that were in place for one cord were also present for the other and would cancel each other out in the end readings.

While i can't explain the differences in perceived sonics and measured frequency response abberations in "techno-speak", i do know what i heard and i do know what the test instruments confirmed. How susceptible or noticeable other designs / systems are to such changes, i don't know. Sean
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PS... I wish you folks could see one of the highly intellectual T-shirts that i wear. It says "I used to have an open mind, but my brain kept falling out" : )

I don't really understand the measurments thing at all. Who cares how something measures unless the function of the DUT is to be measured? Audio gear is to be listened to so the only thing of importance is how it sounds. History is riddled with people measuring the wrong things or not having sufficent sensitivity in the measuring systems to accurately judge the DUT. Audio gear in particular seems to show a pretty large chasm between how things measure and how they sound. I have been reading the graphs since the early days when Dick Heyser joined Audio and, other than items that are just broken, I havn't been able to correlate a lot of measurements with what I hear. Not to discount that there may be someone else out there that can accurately judge a component by measurements alone. Pbb, if you wish to buy my open mind be sure to bring a very small box.

Viridian: As i've mentioned before, i do think a lot of what we hear can be collaborated with specs. That is, to a certain extent and taking into account that the specs and testing were done in proper fashion. Obviously, spec's can be made to lie and / or be presented in a manner that is less than completely telling.

Being able to decipher and interpret which specs are most important and "telling" of how a component might perform is no different than the clues or "evidence" that a well trained detective has to decipher in order to put the pieces of a crime together.

As we have all seen, a good "investigator" can crack cases whereas a less skilled "investigator" could look at the very same "clues" and come up with a different interpretation of events and / or have nothing to go on at all. While it is true that a lot of what the "super snooper" comes up with is based on "educated guesswork" and requires "logical deductions", it is sometimes spooky what one can conclude by looking at the spec's / test results and corraborating this with what one actually hears.

Having an idea of what all those charts / graphs mean is a good starting point, as you can't interpret what you can't understand. After all, if test results meant absolutely nothing, we would not have been able to refine products / designs to the point that we have today. Good luck trying to make something better when all you have is guesswork to go on without some way to measure / substantiate the various changes made along the way. Sean
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