Power Cord Shoot-Out: 22 Power Cords Reviewed

[square_wave]

If you try to mathematically prove that a Gamut amplifier (or a Mark levinson or any other worthy amplifier) is better than a NAD or Rotel, it is very difficult because both will have their measurable distortion very much under what is audible to the human ear. But are they same ? Not at all. There is a world of difference !
If you measure an SS amp (even the ones that cost below 500$), they will measure much better than any hi-end tube amp which is out there. But most very experienced live concert goers (western classical , Jazz etc..where there is no amplification used), prefer Tube amps. The swear by them ? Why ? I have talked to a couple of them and they say it sounds like the real thing. And these are guys who reside in the west and practically live in concert halls and some have children who are studying music while some are ex-musicians.
I have once participated in a A/B shootout between a Plinius Class A power amplifier costing around 3 lakh and a pair of diy tube mono-blocks. The tubes sounded much better in all aspects.
One member mentioned the "coldness" that people complain about in solid-state amps. There is no coldness when we listen to live music. So if there is coldness, then either the amp design is questionable or there is a mis-match in the setup.
So quantifying these like apples is pretty much meaningless. If something is audible to one person, it is very much a REALITY for that person. It may not be the case for another who cannot hear it or do not care for it.
It is like photography. For most, a 10k worth 10 megapixel camera is actually overkill. They will never use it to even 90 percent of its potential. Some of my friends who are seriously into photography will not touch such a camera even with a barge-pole.
So IMHO it is pretty much an issue of what a person is capable of hearing and appreciating and also a case of priorities. I have a friend in Bangalore who have pretty good quality gear connected with ordinary 250 rupees interconnects and stock cables. I once carried a siltech new-York interconnect and speaker cables to his house and the difference was huge for me and an audiophile friend who accompanied me. But my friend could not make any difference at all. He is a good friend, so I maintained a knowing silence and continued enjoying the single malt.

I agree with Arj that the issues could be " what you look for" and "what you hear and percieve".

 

[SuhasG]

....... so I maintained a knowing silence and continued enjoying the single malt.

Agree! Once you have this SM, then What Cable , What wire, What speaker , What Amp.......AND What Music .....Once SMed all sound the SaMe !

 

[Asit]

Hi,

I am finding the discussion going on in this thread quite interesting and I am tempted to share my own views on this.

In my view, the issue is not as subjective as it is made out to be in this thread. Let us first acknowledge that a musical sound is made up from a wavepacket comprising of one fundamental frequency and its several harmonics (also known as normal modes). Which harmonics and which proportions (in terms of relative amplitudes of each frequency present) determine the sound.

When a singer sings or a sitarist plays, in addition to producing musical sound as described above, there are other factors. As the music is flowing out, the above characteristics of a musical sound are constantly changing --that is -- the relative presence of the harmonics and their relative strengths change. This is of course intimately connected to the emotive content of the
music. But actually, physics-wise this is happening, because the singer (for example) is letting the air out using different cavities inside the body and with different degree of internal simple harmonic vibrations to create the sound. This is commonly referred to as dynamics of the sound. Without this, music will not be music, it will be like a robot talking.

Now you see, why it is hard to reproduce all that in a recording and then to play it back through a source, some interconnect, then an amp, finally through some cable to the speaker drivers.

The conductors are complex materials themselves. Their dynamic behavior under a changing electrical signal is non-trivial. But in music, one has to catch the quality and the dynamics of the sound as described above, otherwise it will not remain as music.

I have a very modest system --- a low end NAD integrated amp, a better than low-end CA CD player, and reasonable speakers. Even in this system, I can hear the qualitative difference of bad cables and reasonable cables. For the kind of music I listen to, it is also quite easy to distinguish. For example, take a popular vocalist (say from Hindi film industry). The quality of the voice changes with changing the interconnects and the speaker cables. Remember what determines the quality of musical sound -- the relative presence and strengths of the harmonics and the fundamental.

Then there are other factors like noise introduction through all kinds of interference. For the sake of this particular posting of mine, I am disregarding that because my system may not have the cleanliness and low noise floor required to make a judgement on those.

Some may talk about the percentages of improvement. I think that is the wrong question to ask or too simplistic a question to ask. When the qualitative content of the music changes, yes, one can express that change quantitavely, but not in terms of a percenatge of improvement, because that is too naive a criterion. One has to then say what is meant by improvement?

It is entirely a different matter whether a costly cable is worth its cost. I know I cannot afford very costly cables, so I do not worry about an interconnect or 5m of speaker cable costing a few tens of thousands of rupees. But I try, test and then buy interconnects and speaker cables which cost a few thousand rupees apiece, and they make a difference and I can demonstrate that they make a difference in the quality of music.

I hope I have not come on too strong. Music lovers, at least, should value others' opinions. I have thought about these things a bit and whatever I have written above came out very spontaneously. It may not be completely out of place here to mention that I am a theoretical physicist by profession, at the same time I have been rigorously trained in music (mostly north Indian classical vocal, some Karnatic too) since I was five (I am fifty now) although I have not taken that as a profession.

For whatever it is worth, the above is my view in regard to interconnects and speaker cables. If I can find something shareable with respect to power cables too, I would, in future.

 

[murali]

Well said, Asit, and your thoughts and views are simple but quite honest and wise. Yes, it is wisdom that matters in the end and not just knowledge which I am sure many of us believe we have plenty.
Now some more simpler truths. Cables, whether interconnect or speaker or power, can never improve the signals which contribute ultimately to the sound when they reach the speakers. What they can do best is to minimise degradation of the signals as the basis for the ultimate sound is already decided by the track being played from the CD or vinyl. Let us say we have the source component, CD player or turntable, which can reproduce what-is-there-on-the-track-as-it-is, originating the signal. All the cables and amplifiers in between the source and speakers do their best when they don't further degrade that original signal. Talking of power cords, let me recall what I had already written in an earlier posting, that the amplifiers, pre and power, do not directly boost the source signal, all they do are to reproduce similar amplified signals, the latter being created from the power source they are supplied with. This is where power cords become important, especially in amplifiers. Even in the source, many audiophiles agree that the power cord should ideally be shielded type to minimise noise entering the basic signal. In summary, what I have learned is that all the cables in the system should be so chosen as to first be within one's purchasing capability, and number two, keep the source signal as pure as possible.
Certain people do like colorations in the signals and that is why another way of looking at cables is as tuning accessory to compensate the system drawbacks. So cables can be considered as either to maintain purity and transparency in the system or to color the music in the way the listener wishes to hear. Well, which camp one belongs to, is one's own decision. But one thing is for certain - those who worry about purity and transparency (I belong to this camp and am not ashamed of it) always try to get the best source and speakers possible in the first instant, then the amplifiers, and once you have the base system assembled, start mobilising funds and spend 10-30% of the system cost on accessories like racks and stands, cables etc etc. I would never personally advise those with entry level systems or even mid-fi systems to throw money at these things, even a subwoofer for that matter. Many disagree first unfortunately, but later they realise.
Just to highlight the importance of the quality of track recording as well as the CD, a subject which many neglect though that is where the game starts, an example, if I may. When I want to listen to a live carnatic music recorded, I wish to sit in my listening chair and feel the violin and mridangam sounds coming from precisely where they should have been in the concert (we all know as the two sides of the vocalist), more than 90% recordings I have heard, they are hardly truthful. Either the recording is not done in stereo and rather in multi-mono or the mixing guys have made a mess of it. I go and switch off the system the moment I start hearing the instruments coming from the center as if the vocalist plays everything. This is our problem in that we don't pay attention to basic details. I have some recordings made by JVC for example, where the Japanese guys had come all the way and recorded concerts live professionally and those to me give the feeling of listening to something true and divine. Why don't we be truthful, and it is time we come out of the bang-bang-music-thumping-from-car-stereos tastes.
Just sharing my experiences and opinions, please.

> murali

 

[arj]

nicely said Murali.

The most important part about cables is that the best cable is no cable at all..ie it neither adds not subtracts

but that is the ideal world.
they are highly unpredictable in the real world. but as long as they are "Decent" they shuld not impact the sound more than 5% the most ignored compomnent is the Room which can have the maximum impact on the system...

 

[venkatcr]

Murali:

If you are a connoisseur of Carnatic Music and are looking for good recordings, take a look at recording from a company called Charsur (Charsur Digital Work Staion). As I have mentioned elsewhere OS Arun is a schoolmate of mine since I mix with him regularly I know his voice intimately. I have even had him drinking and singing in my house without any instruments. I have even caught him making a couple of boo boos on stage, and we have argued about this.

I have found the Charsur recordings of OS Arun to the closet I have heard to his original voice.

Cheers

 

[murali]

Thank you, venkatcr. I am afraid I am not a connoisseur of carnatic music or for that matter any music in the real sense. I listen to all kinds of music, carnatic, film songs new (Malayalam, Tamil), film songs old (plus Hindi), western classical, jazz, vocal, blues etc plus several worldmusic and plenty of old nostalgic Beatles and other such recordings. Most of my collection is from purchase abroad and some from Musicworld, Planet M etc which don't last more than a few months to an year (I still have CDs of Malayalam and Tamil songs bought in USA more than 15 years back still singing without a pause). I am more concerned about quality of the discs and the recording.
Of late, I am moving to SACDs which I find exemplary.
The worst - the so-called digitally remastered discs of old film songs which I find an insult to listening.
I like to listen than to just hear. You know the difference or we go back to the lyrics in 'The Sound of Silence'.
Thank you, once again.

> murali

 

[square_wave]

Hi,

I am finding the discussion going on in this thread quite interesting and I am tempted to share my own views on this.

In my view, the issue is not as subjective as it is made out to be in this thread. Let us first acknowledge that a musical sound is made up from a wavepacket comprising of one fundamental frequency and its several harmonics (also known as normal modes). Which harmonics and which proportions (in terms of relative amplitudes of each frequency present) determine the sound.

When a singer sings or a sitarist plays, in addition to producing musical sound as described above, there are other factors. As the music is flowing out, the above characteristics of a musical sound are constantly changing --that is -- the relative presence of the harmonics and their relative strengths change. This is of course intimately connected to the emotive content of the
music. But actually, physics-wise this is happening, because the singer (for example) is letting the air out using different cavities inside the body and with different degree of internal simple harmonic vibrations to create the sound. This is commonly referred to as dynamics of the sound. Without this, music will not be music, it will be like a robot talking.

Now you see, why it is hard to reproduce all that in a recording and then to play it back through a source, some interconnect, then an amp, finally through some cable to the speaker drivers.

The conductors are complex materials themselves. Their dynamic behavior under a changing electrical signal is non-trivial. But in music, one has to catch the quality and the dynamics of the sound as described above, otherwise it will not remain as music.

I have a very modest system --- a low end NAD integrated amp, a better than low-end CA CD player, and reasonable speakers. Even in this system, I can hear the qualitative difference of bad cables and reasonable cables. For the kind of music I listen to, it is also quite easy to distinguish. For example, take a popular vocalist (say from Hindi film industry). The quality of the voice changes with changing the interconnects and the speaker cables. Remember what determines the quality of musical sound -- the relative presence and strengths of the harmonics and the fundamental.

Then there are other factors like noise introduction through all kinds of interference. For the sake of this particular posting of mine, I am disregarding that because my system may not have the cleanliness and low noise floor required to make a judgement on those.

Some may talk about the percentages of improvement. I think that is the wrong question to ask or too simplistic a question to ask. When the qualitative content of the music changes, yes, one can express that change quantitavely, but not in terms of a percenatge of improvement, because that is too naive a criterion. One has to then say what is meant by improvement?

It is entirely a different matter whether a costly cable is worth its cost. I know I cannot afford very costly cables, so I do not worry about an interconnect or 5m of speaker cable costing a few tens of thousands of rupees. But I try, test and then buy interconnects and speaker cables which cost a few thousand rupees apiece, and they make a difference and I can demonstrate that they make a difference in the quality of music.

I hope I have not come on too strong. Music lovers, at least, should value others' opinions. I have thought about these things a bit and whatever I have written above came out very spontaneously. It may not be completely out of place here to mention that I am a theoretical physicist by profession, at the same time I have been rigorously trained in music (mostly north Indian classical vocal, some Karnatic too) since I was five (I am fifty now) although I have not taken that as a profession.

For whatever it is worth, the above is my view in regard to interconnects and speaker cables. If I can find something shareable with respect to power cables too, I would, in future.

Wise words Asit. It is a privilege to have a learned musician and experienced listener among us

 

[prem]

At various points i have owned four of the cables in the 22 cords reviewed. FWIW what is mentioned in the review on these cables is what i heard on my system. So the assessment of these power cords is fairly bang on.