The Last Power Cable Question EVER (from me)


Not trying to be argumentative but I can never seem to get an acceptable answer to what I think is a straightforward question.  Whenever the subject of clean power comes up, the “power cable” is suggested to be of prime importance in the quest for better sound.  It’s a given we are not using lamp cord to power our amps but going past any quality piece of 3-foot copper cable raises questions for me. 

The power cable is designed to transfer electricity from the wall outlet to your amp, or power conditioner if you are using one.  In theory, the worlds best power cable will complete this task without allowing any outside “noise” to get into the line over that 3-foot span.  To the best of my understanding of physics, copper wire does not have the capacity to act as a filter nor does it have any ability to impart tonal qualities.  In fact, no sound signal passes through the power cable.  Just electricity. 

So using what many would consider to be the crème de la crème in power cables, the famed Nordost Odin Gold Reference Power Cable, yours for one easy payment of $34,000, and assuming it does exactly what it is intended to do, move electricity for wall to amp without allowing anything else to interfere, then you are still just getting the same power that’s in you wall line, delivered right into your amp?  As dirty as that power may be, how is the $34000 cable NOT just transferring that exact same power from point A to point B?  I would love to learn something new today, but my common sense keeps telling me there’s a lot of Kool-Aid in the whole power cable discussion.  Someone given an explanation based in fact. 

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Showing 2 responses by acman3

Good to see you started your own thread. Can you see how your question would mess up a thread? Asking about powercords usually starts the pig wrestling portion of our program.

Ghdprentice got it pretty close.