Power cords

[hifiashok]

No No No !!!
Please HALT !!!
I did not mean anything the way you have interpreted my post. If anything, the female is more important than the male ! Anyway, I was only responding to the question Ajay had raised, as in where do we find equivalent female of a male, to that I responded that I could only get some cheap local Rs.60 stuff from a store in Bangalore. /QUOTE]

Now now now, Dr. Bass, that is a sexist comment....pls let us not get into who is more important - male or female

see what happens when the mandatory 'disclaimer' is not incl.!

 

[srinisundar]

Posted in another thread.. thought here it will be appropriate...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hiten
Tell me if one particular amp though sounding good has abnormal distortion what logic or common sense it makes to have a Rs, 10,000 power cord in it which is considered to improve sonics. None. But people do put expensive power cords in them.

.
Hiten,

Very nicely put, but got crazy with below... Just for information... But referring about the power cords to the review of Music hall a25.2 combo, the reviewer has put the combination could not give the desired midbass...By changing the power cord he could achieve. Page 2 of the review given below and also link... Music Hall a25.2 Integrated Amplifier and cd25.2 CD Player | AVguide

Then, on a tip from Roy Hall at Music Hall, I changed the power cord in the CD player to the Acoustic Zen Tsunami, and it instantly rewarded me with a wall of sound very like its name. Ive had interconnects and speaker cables open up the sound of a system, but never before a power cord, or not to this degree. Ordinarily Im loath to fiddle much with modest gear to get it up to par. Par is what you get out of the box, to my way of thinking. Unless warned, most customers are not going to tweak, particularly if in the process they add significantly to the cost of their equipment. But here I wanted to be sure I was giving this unit every opportunity in a system that was above its price range.

And, indeed, the new power cord was worth keeping on this player in the big system; the sound bloomed around me. Lyrics, particularly from the Cohen backup singers, which before had skirted comprehension, now were clear. Gary Karrs Basso Cantante [Firebird] was full and detailed, and the acoustic bass was indeed singing, though there are some higher notes on this instrument (heard in The Swan) that are not as melodic as the same notes on the cello, but this is the instrument, not the recording or the system. This is the kind of critical nuance you will hear on this player. This recording also showed a bit of midrange forwardness that was not present with the MF A5 in the system, indicating a slight difference in frequency balance.

__________________

 

[Dr.Bass]

But I think only digital system would benefit from well made (not insanely high priced) powercords. Only a guess because in audio one never knows.

"Think" is not enough to resolve such issues, give it a genuine try, if not at your place may be at some other audiophile's place who has a power amp with good after market power cords. You will know.

The thing is, almost every cable thread meets with scepticism, criticism by non-believers and the debate goes on but how often do you see a non-believer owning high quality audio gear and having tried good number of cables ? If I come across someone who meets these two criteria and still is a non-believer I would love to talk, discuss, debate, learn and threads like that would come to a conclusion IMO.

 

[hifiashok]

a volume pot is ok but in the end it is a potentiometer and hence a varying resistance (impedance) at each volume level which is not ideal. a transformer based Pre is supposedly better but only of done well as transformers have their own losses.

had meant a TVC (etc.) when i added '(or any similar other device)' since i had tried a modded Apollo preamp from Promitheus Audio.

hav tried to reduce issues with a pot by using a stepped attenuator, DaCT.

Dr Bass has put in the other points which are pertinent as well as he has experimented with CDPs with a built in pre direct to a power amp..

wil definitely need to pick his brain on more assistance with this.

 

[srinisundar]

"Think" is not enough to resolve such issues, give it a genuine try, if not at your place may be at some other audiophile's place who has a power amp with good after market power cords. You will know.

The thing is, almost every cable thread meets with scepticism, criticism by non-believers and the debate goes on but how often do you see a non-believer owning high quality audio gear and having tried good number of cables ? If I come across someone who meets these two criteria and still is a non-believer I would love to talk, discuss, debate, learn and threads like that would come to a conclusion IMO.

Dr.Bass,

Anyway this thread is for power cords, not about interconnects, still would love to mention about it. I just tried numerous some mid level IC's like VDH/Nordost/Kimber/Vandamme and every thing produce an different sound signature and i agreed on that part + regarding speaker cables it is visible for me the sound stage and the music separation is vastly differentiated in different cables for that i tried with Emotiva / Kimber / QED /Jamo.

So first power cord i ventured is "Choseal" an chinese one which cost only $55 and yet to try it out and I have got hold of same Acoustic zen tsunami recently i will let the results soon once i receive in same hand

 

[square_wave]

Well, there's always going to be a volume control in a pc, whether you want to use it as a preamp or not.

What about as a current supplier to the power amp? Here also, I guess the soundcards like essence that have there own separate power supply might do a little bit better than others.

Not if you do kernal streaming.

 

[odyssey]

had meant a TVC (etc.) when i added '(or any similar other device)' since i had tried a modded Apollo preamp from Promitheus Audio.

hav tried to reduce issues with a pot by using a stepped attenuator, DaCT.



wil definitely need to pick his brain on more assistance with this.

Not sure what you mean by TVC and similar device - if you mean a POT - the way they present the output impedance is actually very different - the complete opposite and more. In an attenuator, at best you can have the source impedance completely shown to the power amplifier (at full volume). With a TVC you have lower output impedance than the source shown to the amplifier at low volume and the same output impedance as the source at full volume. This is the reason why a TVC works best in terms of fuller/balanced sound at lower volumes compared to a regular POT.

cheers

 

[Hiten]

but got crazy with below... Just for information... But referring about the power cords to the review of Music hall a25.2 combo, the reviewer has put the combination could not give the desired midbass...By changing the power cord he could achieve.

srini,
though I am technically challenged, let me say what I can only guess. If power cords makes a difference my best shot at understanding it would be it could improve clarity of the system. But I don't understand how the desired midbass was achieved with a particular power cord.
As far as I know since the invention of amplification midrange of fq. spectrum was not a great deal of problem but to get the both end right without affecting the midrange was difficult. I may be wrong in this as it requires some great deal of know how about amplification. Which I recently gave up on understanding as I read across various forum guru's guru of audio debating to no end.
Regards

 

[prem]

Hi Hiten


Because of rf, emi and power noise, the midbass normally gets bloated. Many power cords correct this aspect and this results in better tone and timing

 

[Hiten]

Oh ! I took a wild guess. As I think radio frequency falls in high fq. range and power noise in low fq. range.
anyway thanks.

 

[prem]

You are right that rf falls in high freq. I do not know technically why mid bass gets affected but power impurities affect mid bass a lot.

 

[square_wave]

I won't measure anything when I go buying. I may not even look at the specs, which are probably written by the marketing department anyway. But I'll continue to argue that there is no voodoo to electonics, and if something sounds different to our coarse listening instruments, our ears, it must, if anybody wants to measure it, be measurable ...because, if not, then music is not recordable in the first place. So we can throw out all our kit!

As an aside;

A random rotel power amp will measure much better in all known parameters for measuring amplifier quality than an Ongaku from audionote or a flagship model from Shindo.

But which one creates better music

 

[jls001]

Dr.Bass

Male connectors from brands like Crabtree, Anchor, MX are available in most shops, but where can I source the female connectors from?

@Ajay: I changed the garden variety Anchor 3 pin to GM brand (Elite model) 3 pin and the IEC end to a brand called Rich Bay (earlier was MX). This is for my DIY solid core power cable using 4 sq mm per core.

GM Elite claims to be brass. I forgot to take pictures of the innards but suffice to say that it the screws are flimsier than a 40 rupees Anchor and one screw actually broke when I tightened it, and the the hot/live and neutral leads have to be looped and pushed from front to back, and not the usual back to front. For a rigid solid core cable, it was a pain fixing it.

Rich Bay IEC is more rigid than MX and doesn't bend when squeezing in less than fitting cables.

I think one should buy good quality power cables and good quality connectors off ebay and DIY it. Will work out much cheaper. Of course this may not be as effective in shielding, etc.

 

[digitalv]

EEVblog #29 - Audiophile Audiophoolery - YouTube

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Burn the man at the stake! :lol:

 

[arj]

What next, post on you tube by Shilpa shetty talking on how theory of relativity is bunkum and Einstein a charlatan ?
This guy says twisted pair makes no difference and coax and toslink are all same as they are digital !


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