The Truth About Power Cords and there "Real" Price to Performance


This is a journey through real life experiences from you to everyone that cares to educate themselves. I must admit that I was not a believer in power cords and how they affect sound in your system. I from the camp that believed that the speaker provided 75% of the sound signature then your source then components but never the power cord. Until that magic day I along with another highly acclaimed AudioGoner who I will keep anatomist ran through a few cables in quite a few different systems and was "WOWED" at what I heard. That being said cable I know that I am not the only believer and that is why there are so many power cord/cable companies out there that range from $50 to 20-30 thousand dollars and above. So I like most of you have to scratch my head and ask where do I begin what brand and product and what should i really pay for it?

The purpose of this discussion to get some honest feed back on Price to Performance from you the end user to us here in the community.

Please fire away!


 


128x128blumartini

Showing 4 responses by millercarbon

blumartini-

Sorry man your thread has been hijacked. In the museum of What is wrong with Audiophiles geoffkait has a whole wing, three basement levels, and a Raider's of the Lost Ark warehouse. Like a bad accident, best just look the other way.

Everyone has your same ideas about power cords, and cables in general, as being mere conductors of electricity. As you now know from listening your ears are telling you there has to be a lot more to it than that.

Which I am not about to tell you what that is. Because unlike everyone else I know that I don't know. Truth is no one knows. That's why there's so many different ones. That's why they all sound so different. If it was all just transmitting electricity they'd all have been commoditized long ago, and they'd all be cheap as dirt. Like the wall outlets at Home Depot.

So you're excited because you just discovered this which is crazy but true for a lot of audiophiles. What makes it crazy is this is something that has been known for upwards of 30 years, and probably more like 50. Fifty if you go back to J Gordon Holt who founded Stereophile and the whole "the ears are the arbiters of sound" movement, 30 if you go back to Ted Denney who founded Synergistic Research and came out with the first really commercially successful Master Coupler power cord.

Now there's been a zillion power cords before and since, but the reason I say the Master Coupler was the first really commercially successful power cord is both because it came out early in the 1990's AND is still widely considered a quality power cord that retains its value in the used market even to this day. The Master Coupler is in effect the Gold Standard of power cords and at about $150-300 is hard to beat especially for someone with upgrades in mind. As the hijackers have pointed out you can very easily spend a whole lot more. What I am saying is it is nowhere near as easy to do a whole lot better.

Or as someone else said last time I recommended the Master Coupler, "A thousand dollar cable for $250. What's not to like?"

Now understand I am not putting it out there as the best or even the only. I am putting it out there as a benchmark or standard. Because you asked about value. Which value is what I am all about. So yes of course you can do better. But if you want to do better AND keep the budget reasonable then you need a solid standard of value. And this is it.

I am sure that most people reading this thread will want to hear more about The Master Coupler power cable. Can you share its characteristics from your experiences with us,

Thanks!

 
Well, the Master Coupler is Synergistic Research. What that means, it shares the classic SR sonic signature- big, bold, detailed, dynamic, and above all else beautifully balanced. There's simply more there there. That's what turned me onto SR way back in the 90's, and why I continue to prefer them to this day. They just present everything beautifully, never anything hyped or out of balance. They make sacrifices and trade offs of course and these get smaller and smaller as you move up the line in price and time, with the newest/best being almost unbelievably close to perfect. Their newer/ better cables are definitely worth the money. But cables are kind of like wine. You can't really expect the cheap stuff to taste really good. At some level you should just be happy it doesn't have anything really awful going on. The Master Coupler is like that. You won't be blown away by how good it is- except in comparison with everything else that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

at what point does the cost of a power cord outweigh the cost of building your own power generation facility, $75k for a power cord ? I could build my own dedicated power generation system for that kind of money.


This is one of those comments that sounds all smart-assey, until you stop and think about it and realize hey a battery is a dedicated power generation system and people really do that and so its a serious subject after all.

Its also a pretty easy one to answer. Compare even a few power cords with any kind of off-line power and its pretty easy to figure out the even an inexpensive Master Coupler can give you way more. Micro-hydro using a bank of batteries and the venerable Fisher-Paykel washer turned into a generator to keep things nice and economical might run you as little as $1500 to maybe $3k. Assuming you have a stream nearby to keep the plumbing and wire costs low. (Yeah, I've looked into it. You really need to start paying me more for this.) But again, however the power is generated it ultimately winds up coming from a battery and battery power just ain't all that compared to a really good power cord.

Which since a really good power cord begins with the Master Coupler at under $300, is a pretty low price point.
Any kind person have a link to where the Master Coupler is $250? Everything I've found searching online appears to be $500 plus and used...

Wow. I paid $175 for mine, but that was back around 1993 when full retail was around $300. I saw ones a while back on here which is where I got my figures from, but I'm not really in the market. The $500 may have been the Anniversary Edition. I know the original Master Couplers like mine are really good. Not that hyped hifi sound that is so common, but truly well-balanced. Not as good as newer Synergistic but awfully good compared to just about anything else.

At $500, if it was me, I'd start looking at whatever newer Synergistic that would get me. Even back in the day, I have Synergistic Designers Reference which for sure is a whole lot better. Also for sure their newer is better. Synergistic is unique in this regard. Its simply a question of price. 

Take your time, keep looking, and give serious consideration to anything Synergistic around $500, be it Blue tech or CTS or Active or whatever. The downside of Active, some of them depending on when they were made used MPC wall warts. Some don't care for the extra wires. But the neat thing about Active Shielding, Michael Spallone does a killer cap and diode upgrade that elevates everything to an even higher level.

If all else fails PM me, I'll sell you one of mine, use the $$ to upgrade to even better SR.
 I came to discover quite a few things, like how to make 100% inaudible/lossless IC`s, speakercables, spdif coax & powercord


If its inaudible, wouldn't that be a 100% loss?