I go with the plug that the manufacturer includes with the piece of equipment. It works well and sounds good in my experience. I’ve tried more expensive cables. They look cool and make solid connections which is good if it’s a cable I unplug occasionally but I rarely do. I haven’t been able to detect a sound difference but my old guy ears aren’t what they used to be. Maybe my dog could but I no longer have a dog. I know friends that switch out the power cords and they tell me it sounds better to them. Good for them. I don’t try to dissuade them from doing so. Upgrading equipment is a fun part of the hobby. If you switch out cables and you’re happy, I’m happy for you. As Hans says, enjoy the music.
To All Cable Deniers, 1 Very Simple Question.
There are people coming into cable threads and saying all cables sound identical. So I have 1 question for y'all.
Today, it is about power cords.
The end-plug, the metal part, the one you plug into the wall outlet. Without knowing the % of copper in the plug of your basic cable, can you absolutely certain say it sounds identical to a plug with 98% copper?
How about 60% copper plug vs 98% copper? Identical?
40% copper, Identical?
20% copper, Identical?
0% copper, Identical?
To wrap up, the question is very simple. If the copper % is different, would the 2 plugs still sound the same?
A bonus question, if a plug is 60% gold, will it sound identical vs a 98% copper?
- ...
- 132 posts total
Once, for shits and giggles, we took several different quality cables, ranging from a pair of Audioquest cables (they were like $500, so not crazy stupid cables, but this was almost 20 years ago) to literally barbed wire (which we spliced into a run of lamp cord and wrapped in a roll of electrical tape for “insulation”, and not a one of us could tell the difference in sound from the Audiquest alone. For us,that shut down this argument forever. The only thing I make sure of now is that it’s a well made, well terminated cable that is insulated with something better than electrical tape and I’ve never looked back. I also figure that if the manufacturer of my $2500 CD player and $3000 energizer, etc. include a set of cables (power and/or interconnects), then those should be good enough for me. funny enough, I came across this today: https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/s/EhA6V1Nfg1 |
@samureyex I have very simple, single question for you. Your power cord is likely about 3-6 feet long, correct? Your wires in the walls, connecting a power outlet with the main electrical box is most likely tens of times longer, if you live in a house. Can be much longer in apartment buildings. |
@toro3 what you write is no BS, if you'll forgive the pun. May I offer a partial answer to your question of why people on hifi forums don't stick to answering the original poster's question but instead engage in caustic and tangential rants? It may be that grumpy old retired men tend to fight despair over their feelings of irrelevancy that develop after ceasing to work for pay by raging at the dying of the light, as Dylan Thomas did at his father's death. On the other hand, wise old men (who don't drink as much as Dylan Thomas), a group in whose company I hardly belong, more often remain quiet, gathering their limited energy to simply stay focused on matters at hand. |
- 132 posts total

