Sheilded/Unsheilded Power Cords

A shielded cord will always perform in superior fashion to an unshielded cord of otherwise identical design. If it does not, some simple yet almost always overlooked design criteria were not taken into account during the construction of said cord.

The lack of design integrity with the shielded cord would become more apparent when using devices that produce high current demands on the power cord / wall outlet i.e. power amps, etc... That is why many people have better luck using shielded cords on low current devices ( digital, line level sources, preamps, etc.. ) but run into problems using shielded designs on power amps. I don't know of any commercially designed power cords that take such criteria into account. Those that are smart and / or familiar with magnetic fields will understand what i am hinting at. Sean
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Marty, your "DIY research" has exposed more "truths" than many manufacturers / engineers will ever come to realize in a lifetime. The reason for this is that you can't find the "hands-on" results that you experienced first hand in a text book sitting at a desk or bench. This is NOT a poke at Steve aka Audioengr but a generic comment. I hope that he understands this and does not take it personally. I know that Steve is working very hard to do the best he can and does so with both hands-on testing and using very high grade test equipment. Quite honestly, i know first-hand that Steve has more advanced test equipment than most of the other cable manufacturers out there and knows how to use it. I am not endorsing his products as i have never used them, but i don't doubt that they perform well based on REAL scientific research and listening tests. Sean
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Audioengr: Sorry to step on your toes, but thanks for proving my point. Your line of questioning to Marty just goes to show that even those that i consider to be "worthy" and design / manufacture PC's think of them as nothing more than "an extension cord" ( hypothetically speaking ).

While you have a point about what happens upstream from the PC, you also have to take into account several other factors:

1) One can piss anywhere along the river that they want. So long as the contents of the river are highly filtered prior to delivery to the water fountain, i don't care what takes place. In effect, one could use unshielded wire for a few million miles. This would in no way reduce the effectiveness of a well designed filter at the end of the wire.

2) Why is it that most engineers / designers / manufacturers have such a hard time thinking of a power cord as being anything more than a "conduit for power delivery" ? Aren't the internals of a PLC made up of capacitors, inductors ( which is nothing more than wire or wire on a former), resistors, diodes, impedance altering devices, etc.. ??? What would stop someone from applying filter technology and the associated componentry to a power cord design ?

3) The fields generated by the in-wall wiring are not anywhere near as close to the low level signal carrying cables and components as the power cords are. Therefore, EMI and radiation from the in-wall wiring is far less critical.

4) Stop thinking of a power cord as an extension cord and start thinking of it as a part of the power supply.

Sonic Genius: Your comments apply only to designs that are made by those "thinking within the box". If you were to step outside of the "box", you might begin to see how those factors could be reduced or even put to use as a positive aspect of the design. Certain design attributes are only "negative" when you can't control them or they are not taken into account for. When it comes to AC, signal manipulation is the name of the game. Sean
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Bwhite: I'm trying to do something similar to what you want Audioengr to do. That is, test various cords and collect the results. I do not have some of the equipment that Audioengr does, but then again, i have some equipment that he doesn't have either. Maybe we should move closer to each other : ) Sean
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Audiognr: I think i've got 3 of the 4 covered, at least part of the way. Try and figure out which part of the equation i fall short on... : )

One can be in the cable business and make money at it. It might not be a lot of money to start off with, but it could be very profitable if you know how to market other people's products. After all, isn't that most wire & cable "manufacturers" do ??? : )

Bob Crump told me the amount of money that he made on his "best" year of selling cables. Believe me, nobody here would want to try and live on that amount of money on an annual basis. If Bob did not have other money coming in from previous employment and having planned for his future, he would be in the "lower middle-class" income bracket. I made the amount of money that he mentioned when i was 18 years old working in the mail room of an engineering firm. TG is strictly something that keeps him busy and allows him to to make money off what would otherwise be a thankless hobby.

Obviously, not "everyone" is getting rich off of cables. As mentioned though, the potential to make what most of us would consider "a good living" is definitely there if you know what you are doing and / or know how to market your product. Sean
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