Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Nrchy...Science is not quite as primitive as you suppose. Don't be snowed by this string theory bs.

In particular it is very simple to measure whether two amps produce identical outputs. Simply feed the same input (a real musical waveform if that turns you on) to both amps (with level adjusted for gain difference) and make a voltage measurement, or oscilloscope observation across the two outputs. The difference voltage in units of millivolts can be compared with the output voltage in volts and expressed in units of dB. This would not be a very useful measurement for an amp designer, but it would give a user an idea of how well two amps compare... for example an inexpensive model vs an expensive one, or a modified vs stock one. It would not tell you which amp was better, just if there was any difference large enough to be audible.

Claiming that science hasn't reached a point to reliable measure audio equipment is absurd. I really doubt you can find two amps that measure identically. That myth is from the anti-measurement crowd, usually people with an agenda to hype over-priced and under-performing audio equipment and accessories.

What no one will do however is take those measurements and claim how you will percieve them.

steve

I'll eat the mylar in my Martin-Logans when an article on the theoretical underpinnings of power cords appears in Science magazine. If the techonology of electro-magnetism wasn't already well understood we wouldn't be having this exchange over the internet.

To the people opposed to not making measurements:-

You are fooling yourselves if you are thinking that mankind has very understanding of electricity! In fact, we have a very vast understanding of this subject - more than you can imagine. I'm quite sure that you do not have much visibilty to this fact. Some of the best minds of Planet Earth have worked & are working on the subject of electricity & electronics. It's just that these people are not/do not want to be employed in the audio manuf &/or retail business. The manuf., retail & user community is as good as the people that comprise it. We do have a lot of kick-butt people in this field but there seems to be a very large mass of un-educated people. In my experience I have observed that the more educated the person is in this audio hobby/obsession field the simplier their systems are - they spend more money on this things that make a real diff such as dedicated circuits to their setup, clean power supply & even battery supply if possible, their electronics is rarely the highly advertised hi-end brands rather it is some esoteric make where the designer concentrated on making gear dedicated to the accurate repro of sound, their connections between systems are simple using un-hyped interconnects & power cords & I see them talk more about music software, the emotional impact of their repro sound on them.
I'm convinced that this does not come from running from pillar to post trying every power cord under the Sun! I think "Slappy" said it correctly right in the beginning of this thread - you can't crawl thru a 20 or 200 foot tunnel of cr** & then appear in a tuxedo expecting us to believe that you are clean! The final presentation might be appealing, but you are still covered!
Power off the grid to most homes in the USA is seriously flawed in that it bears a lot of noise that would ruin the impact that any hi-end stereo should have on its user. If that user will not fix this problem at the source i.e. fix the power source & will rather fall into the trap of using various hyped power cords as a solution has a SERIOUS issue with problem solving 101! I shudder to think what criteria this person uses to select his/her electronics!!
Some of the people here are convinced of this line of reasoning thru their experience or from logical thinking of problem solving. Others will learn but the hard way by spending their hard earned $ on hype & having their skeptism turn in cynicism & still others will never learn!! As they say, it takes all sorts.....
Do not get me wrong - I'm not against power cords! I'm against power cords that are hyped to us users which have no technical merit of solving the cruddy electricity problem. Any manuf or retailer who suggests buying his/her power cord without ensuring that the user's power supply is clean enough to take advantage of the power cord is leading the user astray. This will lead to more & more cyncism from us users & will kill our hobby gradually.

There is no little irony in one poster (Narchy) supporting Corona by attacking numbers/measurements, while Corona claims to rely on string theory which, is entirely based upon mathematics, and which always will be.

PS:if anyone wants a nicely written, easy to read overview of string theory try Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe”. It has a very well written overview of the state of physics leading up to string theory too.

Cheers,
I remain