AudiogoN Forums: Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Having been a long time audiophile living with countless high end compnents I have to wonder about the theory and practicality of high end power cords.

I have yet to hear the difference a power cord makes. Ive owned, synergistic, Shunyata, BMI and cardas. I in no way can detect any sonic signature or change. Give me a pair of interconnects and I imeadiately notice a difference somewhere in the sonic spectrum. Not the PC though. I have accomplished 4 blind tests with my friends. 3 out of the 4 they did not know their cord was replaced. All 4 were using a stock factory supplied cord. Each of the 4 tests were done on different components. Amp, CDP, Preamp & dac.

My electrical backround tells me that provided you supply the component with its required voltage bet 110vac or 220/240vac its happy. Now, change the incoming frequency from 60hz to say 53hz and watch how quickly your soundstage collapses.! This is often the case during the summer months when home air conditioners are in use and the utility company power output is taxed to the max. A really good power conditioner should however take care of the frequency fluctuations. But 110vac is still 110vac regardless of the conductor it passes through as long as its remains 110vac when it reaches the intended circuit. Does your 8k amp or preamp know the difference of the path the voltage took to reach it ? Many an audiophile will use a dedicated 20amp circut for their equipment.That is a good idea as voltage & frequency fluctuations will occur in the home circuit to to other loads on the main breaker panel but again, A power cord simply is the means of transporting the voltage from the wall to the component. IF there is a clean 110vac @ 60hz at the wall socket, no matter what the medium is to go from the socket to the component, it will still be 110vac @60hz.

Could somebody expand on this a bit more. I just dont understand it. ??

Jetmek (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

12-12-03

Responses (201-227 of 227)

Click title to read one, or click date to read all below it.

06-07-11 Jive big time hello!!!! Ebm

06-07-11 The way i understand power is that it does not start at the ... Stringreen

07-12-11 Stringreen, respectfully, you are not even close. there is c ... Liguy

07-19-11 So if its snake oil dont buy any!! Ebm

07-19-11 Why resurrect a seven year old thread? r.i.p Don_s

07-19-11 Reasons why you might think cables are snake oil. 1. liste ... Bjesien

07-20-11 Bjeisen, i suspect that most happily married men with a lov ... Shadorne

07-23-11 Solution to #7... i wear cotton in my ears and also my nose. ... Isochronism

07-23-11 The input terminals on the back of all powered audio equipme ... Danomcroo

07-23-11 Is that a fact? well now, we can retire this thread and mov ... Abucktwoeighty

07-24-11 In another thread, danomcroo wrote: not looking for that her ... Metralla

07-24-11 He has, by now, learned it all and has become the audio pope ... Rodman99999

07-24-11 I am a relative noobie when it comes to high end audio speak ... Danomcroo

07-24-11 I am by no means attempting to besmirch any product. if a pe ... Danomcroo

07-25-11 yes you are. but, $1200 worth of acoustic wall panels and ... Johnnyb53

07-26-11 Let's look at the term "snake oil". its an old te ... Lacee

07-26-11 Buy fm acoustics, they don't provide any option of pc but oe ... Quanmer

08-24-11 I wonder how many people that have said "sanke oil" ... Jp1208

01-09-12: Williewonka
No snake oil - good ones make a difference - here's why...

NOTE: For brevity I am going to bypass the power requirements of the electronic circuits and the many factors that influence circuit design etc.....mainly because I don't recall them from 40 years ago when I did have some understanding of them :-)))

So looking at the back-end of the amplifier - i.e. Speaker terminals...

The signal "sent" to a loudspeaker consists of a varying VOLTAGE (i.e. at the musical frequencies and various volume levels of instruments) - a very dynamic and complex signal

The "impedance" of the speaker governs the amount of CURRENT that is "drawn from the amp"
- impedance is like resistance, except...
- you have to factor in inductive and capacitive elements
- those vary with frequency - so impedance too is very dynamic!
- Current Drawn = voltage(which is dynamic) / impedance (which is very dynamic)
- net result - the frequencies in the music causes very dynamic variations in current "drawn from the amp"
- if you could see a waveform of the current delivered to the speaker it would resemble the musical waveform - sort of :-))
- So - POWER CONSUMED = CURRENT x VOLTS - all of which are directly related to the musical waveform and very dynamic

Now - at the wall outlet end of the amp -

The mains supply to all components is constant at 120v ac (I'm not debating power fluctuations here OK!)

Basically remembering that "POWER IN = POWER OUT"
- if POWER = CURRENT x VOLTS and the volts are constant @ 120v
- then CURRENT = POWER/120v
- if the power at the speaker terminals is dynamic (from above)
- then the CURRENT required from the mains supply will be dynamic also
- WHY? - because the voltage at the outlet is constant!

So, providing your house supply is sufficient, you can see that the mains supply current requirements are directly related to the musical frequencies and very dynamic and will have all the same requirements as interconnects and speaker cables - it needs good quality copper.

So what happens if the component cannot get the instantaneous current levels required?
- the component experiences an internal instantaneous voltage drop
- this seriously impacts the performance of the component across the board!

So we spend a lot of money on the best quality copper for speaker cables and interconnects, having low resistance/inductance/capacitance and quality connectors to get better transmission

- then a component manufacturer sticks a crappy 18 gauge mains cable in the box and we use it !
- but first we toss the crappy interconnect (that is about the same quality) - because that's not good enough!
- GO FIGURE!

SO - Doesn't the component also deserve a Mains Cable of similar quality as ALL other cables in our system?
- probably more so.

Only with good power cords can we hear the real differences further down the line!

So snake oil? - some cables market a lot of hype, when in fact it is pretty simple - look for...
- good quality copper
- some form of noise cancelling geometries or shielding
- good quality plugs/connectors

Yes - the supply fluctuates - cables won't help that
Yes - some amps may benefit from a cable that has some smoothing properties (verdict still out on this one)
Yes - silver cables are probably better than copper (verdict still out on this one)
And a million other claims.

Bottom line - a good cable like a Furutech (that's what I know works on my system) will provide sonic improvements

If it doesn't then the power cord is not your problem - look elsewhere!
Williewonka (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

01-16-12 I wonder if the people who can't hear improvements, be it po ... Lacee

01-16-12 "i wonder if the people who can't hear improvements, be ... Rok2id

01-16-12 Lacee - don't forget that the differences they may fail to d ... Williewonka

01-19-12 The armonico power cord from fono acustica is changing the v ... Pierre620

01-19-12 Hmmm...first post by pierre620. i suspect a shill. Drubin

01-19-12 At $7300 - i would hope it would change peoples minds - at l ... Williewonka

03-28-13 Ok, so since my last posting i've had a chance to revamp a f ... Williewonka

03-29-13 If power cords can't make a difference, then nothing else in ... Lacee

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