Wow, discussions here can get nasty in a hurry...
Roger, I must say you asked for it...
I stuck my neck out but it didn't get cut off yet. I wanted to correspond with people who are really into it and I found one.
How does length affect power cable sound quality?
Wanted to bug y'all about a basic power cord question: How does the length of the cord affect sound quality? My gut says that shorter is better, but maybe there is some form a filtering required that makes length a necessity. For me, a standard 6 foot cable is estheticly 3 feet too long (at least--I could use some one and two foot cords).
Does an 8 footer sound better than a 6? is 10 better than 8? How much worse is 3 feet instead of 6?
In short, what is the optimum length, and how does sound quality suffer when that length is shortened or lenghened? Obviously, the exact type of cable used must be considered. Specificly I've ordered a "$200 msrp, $150 retail, cord for $50" for a Virtual Dynamics Power 3 Power cord, currently on AudiogoN, and available at that price for about 30 days, according to Rick.
Does an 8 footer sound better than a 6? is 10 better than 8? How much worse is 3 feet instead of 6?
In short, what is the optimum length, and how does sound quality suffer when that length is shortened or lenghened? Obviously, the exact type of cable used must be considered. Specificly I've ordered a "$200 msrp, $150 retail, cord for $50" for a Virtual Dynamics Power 3 Power cord, currently on AudiogoN, and available at that price for about 30 days, according to Rick.
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Or perhaps a tube amp for everything. Whoa! Did I just say that?! Of course tubes are great for many applications. When I was a child I built transistor amplifiers, but now as a man I must give up those childish ways. :) The first thing that struck me about transistors is how fragile and unforgiving they were and still are. Protecting them is difficult and many protection circuits cause premature clipping into reactive loads like ESLs. Tubes need no such protectors. RCA advertised a sweep tube that could take a 400% overload for several seconds. No transistor can do that. The output transformer has become a particular curiosity of mine and making them better and better has been a long and exciting journey. I also went down the road of making an OTL with a built in Autoformer. It has many interesting characteristics, one of them being power bandwidth out past 100Khz and very high damping, Futterman style. I have no fear of high voltage or the quips of those who know little about how amplifiers work. |
I'm just sitting here thinking..... I'm about 34 miles from the nuclear power plant powering my stereo right now. I've hauled the cable the power company uses. I'm struggling very hard to see how after 34 miles of aluminum and copper cable and buss bar a few extra feet between my wall and my stereo are going to make a big difference. |
kosst_amojan I'm struggling very hard to see how after 34 miles of aluminum and copper cable and buss bar a few extra feet between my wall and my stereo are going to make a big difference.It's a puzzle. Your friendly local audio dealer will probably be willing to loan you a PC so that you can try it for yourself and discover if you can hear a difference. Of course, you may suffer expectation bias because of your "struggling," and that may obscure whatever difference there may be. Incidentally, the distance between your home and the power plant isn't really important - it's the distance between your home and the substation that really matters. And that's likely to be a lot less than 34 miles. |
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