hospital grade or commercial grade receptacles ?

11-12-04: Swklein
Another pointless battle between those who hear differences and those who don't- which has to depend, I have come to believe, not on differences of hearing but on the resolution and nature of the equipment used.

Hmmm... My equipment is mid-line. An ML39 feeding a Sony TA-E1, driving twin ML334's vertically biamping a pair of Legacy Focus. Pretty good resolution, though below, say, Maggie 20.1's, IMO. Still, better than a boombox.

As someone already said, ANOTHER one of these 'I can't hear it so it doesn't exist' guys.

I personally cannot hear lots of differences others can hear. That doesn't mean those differences don't exist. I believe it's the height of egotistical arrogance to believe that if it can't be measured, it doesn't exist, and some engineers are that arrogant. Reminds me of the medical practitioners of decades ago.

Obviously some claims made by designers/sellers are bogus; most aren't. ALL deserve to be viewed sceptically...to be investigated one by one, by anyone with ears. Just as some systems resolve more information than others, some PEOPLE can hear some differences others can't.

I believe that EVERY change makes an audible difference. It's up to each of us to determine which of those differences are significant..."audible"...and which aren't. Saying they can't exist really doesn't help.
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11-12-04: Jburidan
Here's a plausible explanation as to why power cords make a difference:

It's my understanding that standard wiring for 15 amp house circuits is 14 AWG with three conductors. Many components come with detachable cheap 18 AWG power cords with molded connectors. The 18 AWG cords can present a bottleneck between house wiring and a component's internal wiring. Whether one hears a difference with thicker wires, depends on the quality of the component's internal wiring. High quality amplifiers may use anywhere from 14 to 8 AWG internally. In that case, common sense tells me that better cables will make a noticeable difference.

No difference unless the component draws enough current so that 18ga power cord heats up, increases in resistance, and therefore lowers the available voltage to the component. 18ga might not be enough for a Krell KMA-100, but for most Class AB amps you'd have to drive them really hard to make an 18ga power cord the limiter. It'll be more of a fire hazard than a hazard to bad sound quality. I'm not recommending 18ga power cords, but in reality for a 6ft length with most components there won't be a difference, except in our heads. :)

Hi everyone,

Receptacles can definitely make a difference. Hospital grade receptacles grip *tighter* for safe use in oxygen-rich environments (like hospitals where they often pump oxygen into people.) Tighter connection = better energy transfer.

Tighter is better -- if you have an electric stove, put a kettle on a burner (turned to high) and wait for it to boil. When it starts to make that pre-boiling sound, apply pressure to the top of the kettle, pushing down. The sound will get louder. By applying pressure, you improved the contact from the burner to the kettle, and you can hear the difference. Your water will boil a lot faster if you keep pressing down on the kettle.

Similar principles apply to receptacles. If this weren't the case then hifi equipment designers wouldn't need to solder anything -- they could just make sure that the ends of their wires sorta touch. Of course they don't do that because they know that the quality of the contact is important.

Maybe I'm missing something, but among all of the posts that I've read by those who report scientific data to insist that PC's and outlets don't make any difference, I don't recall anyone saying, "I've tried, XYZ $50 cord against XYZ $600-1000 cords (or outlets), and found no audible difference in the sound." Just curious, but isn't scientific theory confirmed by lab work these days?