Better Power Chord for a Better Tone?

Charlie4

Was doing some reading on Mercury Magnetics and read here (http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/mainframe.htm)
that using a thicker more "coppery" power supply is going to better your tone. I guess that makes sense considering
cables DO make a difference in tone (Mogami vs generics etc.), just never came to mind that the same probably applies to
quality power chords.

Has any one ever compared power chords (waiting on the pun jokes here ?) and heard a difference?
Your insight please.

Attila

Charlie

I read that the Audiophiles swear by using good A/C power cords but that is the total sum of ALL the components, so using silver hook-up wire and top rated parts all round will contribute to great sound……

Problem is if you A/C power is dirty or your house has bad earthing etc. etc, things which you don’t always have control over or know about will have an impact.

Power Chords for better tone - is a different kettle of Macaroni

Attila

AlanRatcliffe

Complete and utter snake oil... There is no evidence to support any kind of difference between a standard decent cable and the most expensive "audiophile" cable. As long as the resistance is low enough to not affect the current...

Anyway, even if power cabling could make a difference - how is the cable between your wall and your amp going to "make up for" the tens of metres of cheap bog standard power cable that wires all your wall sockets to your mains board?

deefstes

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:Anyway, even if power cabling could make a difference - how is the cable between your wall and your amp going to "make up for" the tens of metres of cheap bog standard power cable that wires all your wall sockets to your mains board?

That's the first thing I was thinking when I saw the post...

DonRoos

Or the kilometeres of cheap Eskom cable from your neighbourhood to the power station.

Norman86

DonRoos wrote: Or the kilometeres of cheap Eskom cable from your neighbourhood to the power station.

Jip... supplying everyone! Cant fix THAT unfortunately!!!
But thats what power conditioners were created for!!
Though im highly skeptical that it does anything more than clean the power supplied!
Better tone, i doubt it!!!

Mr-M

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Complete and utter snake oil... There is no evidence to support any kind of difference between a standard decent cable and the most expensive "audiophile" cable. As long as the resistance is low enough to not affect the current...

Anyway, even if power cabling could make a difference - how is the cable between your wall and your amp going to "make up for" the tens of metres of cheap bog standard power cable that wires all your wall sockets to your mains board?

This!

DonRoos wrote: Or the kilometeres of cheap Eskom cable from your neighbourhood to the power station.

And this!

Case closed. 8)

deefstes

Mr T wrote:
Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Complete and utter snake oil... There is no evidence to support any kind of difference between a standard decent cable and the most expensive "audiophile" cable. As long as the resistance is low enough to not affect the current...

Anyway, even if power cabling could make a difference - how is the cable between your wall and your amp going to "make up for" the tens of metres of cheap bog standard power cable that wires all your wall sockets to your mains board?
This!

DonRoos wrote: Or the kilometeres of cheap Eskom cable from your neighbourhood to the power station.
And this!

Case closed. 8)

Or the Eskom at the very origin of the chain. None of this is of any value to your tone during load shedding ?

RobbieZ

Absolute Hogwash! The cable is there to supply power to the power supply which feeds the amplifier. If the cable gets warm, get a bigger one because you are drawing to much current through it. If you get bad sound from your amplifier, there might be a million and one reasons, the cable is not one of them.
Robbie

singemonkey

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Complete and utter snake oil...

I can just see ezietsman cooling down from a boil as he reads this... ?

dewets

Extra special hard pressed cape cobra oil!!!

What diffs does it make if you bring in those "THICKER" copper leads into your power tranny equipped with a thinner grade (less copper) enameled transformer wire?

Show that to me on a 'scope trace with a 1khz pure sine wave signal, and then I maybe, just maybe if'n the diffs are greater than 10%, I'll believe it...

VellaJ

dewets wrote:
Show that to me on a 'scope trace with a 1khz pure sine wave signal, and then I maybe, just maybe if'n the diffs are greater than 10%, I'll believe it...

Replicate those results more than once, and I may be convinced...

Attila

I think that you will find all kinds of "fixes" if you’ve already spent ZAR 100 000.00 + on a new Audio tube amp which sound crappy, so what’s another 500.00 for an AC cable......

Many amps suffer from several earthing related problems, scan the AV forums some time, you will be surprised at the buyer’s remorse that comes through. have you ever heard these guys describe sound to justify the price un comprehendible

peace

Charlie4

So the consensus is:
Your amp (tone) works with what is given (electricity from power cable) but it can degrade after that, cheap cables (dirty signal) trough the pre-, poweramp?

ezietsman

Charlie4 wrote: So the consensus is:
Your amp (tone) works with what is given (electricity from power cable) but it can degrade after that, cheap cables (dirty signal) trough the pre-, poweramp?

The only thing cheaper cables result in is more noise from outside sources (read: Hum).

The power cable has no effect.
The speaker cable has no effect.
Hell even the jacks have no effect, better ones just last longer than the silly cheap ones.

AlanRatcliffe

ezietsman wrote: The speaker cable has no effect.

I'd modify that statement a bit and rather say say beyond a certain point the speaker cable has no effect. Use an instrument cable between a head and cab or a cable with a high resistance and you will notice a difference in tone and response.

Averatu

Or use an instrument cable and start a fire.(seen it happen).

Norman86

http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=458

For those thinking that instrument and speaker cables are interchangeable...

Averatu

Attila wrote: Charlie

I read that the Audiophiles swear by using good A/C power cords but that is the total sum of ALL the components, so using silver hook-up wire and top rated parts all round will contribute to great sound……

Problem is if you A/C power is dirty or your house has bad earthing etc. etc, things which you don’t always have control over or know about will have an impact.

Power Chords for better tone - is a different kettle of Macaroni

Attila

One Audiophile I've had the displeasure in working with told me all about how much better 1.5mt gold iodized cables at R15k a pair are than normal speaker cable to go with his R250k set of speakers and monoblock valve amps at R80k each(you need 2 for stereo) and pre apm at R40k. He swore blind he could hear the difference.

AlanRatcliffe

Averatu wrote: He swore blind he could hear the difference.

To be honest, so would I if I'd spent R15K on a pair of speaker cables. ?