Power Cord Length


In another thread it was posted that power cords should be no shorter than 5 feet. Can anyone explain why a 5 foot power cord should sound better than a 3 footer?

A friend was recently told by a famous cable maker that a 1.8 meter cable sounds better than a 1 meter cable.
kana813

Showing 1 response by ivyinvestor

Okay...I wasted my undergraduate tuition for my physics degree if I said anything other than "a power cord needs to be longer than 5 feet to be a clean conductor? What are you smoking?!"

What I *have* heard, though, is that some manufacturers (myself included, when I used to put together my own lab cables) use particular kinds of casings and antistatic/insulators that can actually pinch the conducting core if the cables are so short that their curves are of some, often small, angle or less (pinching). Thus, if you have a cable of "sufficient length" cabling loops are allowed, as long as they're not too tight. This generally describes home-grown, and often *cheaper* cables, though, not high end lab/mil spec/a/v cables...

I seriously doubt that such precarious storage/use requirements were employed by the company you used: after many years in a lab, I've only used one material - a flexible carbon fiber-aluminum hybrid - whose characteristics for best signal passage demanded relatively unkinked runs. It cost ~$2200/6". Thus, unless that was one, well, really costly power cord, I'd say it is unlikely a realistic concern for you.

Sheesh...