As an electrical contractor who knows what's inside of your panel, each and every J-box, as well as your walls and ceiling, this makes me giggle. To each their own, and you can hit me up for a whole house electron alignment service that I provide, which will align the electrons correctly and will provide substantially better audio that anyone can actually hear...... Your friends will be jealous.
If a high end power cable sounds any different than a well made IEC power cable in the $10 range, then the power supply on the device being connected is poorly designed. Any power supply in a device should make the assumption that the incoming AC power may be noisy, and it should be capable of filtering that noise out. If it cannot, a snake oil power cable isn't going to solve the problem.
This is a golden comment. Cause you're running at least a 8 meter cable from your power divide box thingy to your outlet....... and those cables are not properly insulated.....
Exactly right. That power cord delivers a given amount of current at a given voltage. That's really about it. The only other concern would be if the geometry of the cord conductors is off, then one of the conductors could induce a small voltage into the grounding conductor. That could cause some noise problems (hum, buzz) in unbalanced systems.. But, that really should not be an issue. The talk here is nonsense..
So you probably have 50' worth of 12/2 Romex Solid Copper wire traveling from your main panel to the outlet for your equipment. Then you install 6' Sigma Power Cord for $2500 and you have better sound? Somebody needs to do a Double Blind Study
A retired IBM Main Frame eng, all cables are the same, unless made with broken strands of Copper, period. When was the last time the editor got a comprehensive “Hearing Check”? The Hydro-Sound sensors on the USA Submarines are overseen by 20 year olds, who have never inserted a ear-bud, blasting into their ear. Why? They have to used their hearing to tell the difference between a Whale swimming at depths and the “Propeller, minimal cavitation of another sub.” Much less a 60 something, standing at “0” inches to a Loudspeaker, at full “Gain” for most of their lives. Marketing to the “Must Have” is easy, but to the real “Educated, science base” it is a “Pie in the sky”. Don’t every Home Owner knows that behind the AC outlet is a single wire conductor, attached together by wire nuts? Not soldered together, and long runs. So buyer beware. There is a real hi-fi geek in Japan, he payed his City electrical provider to run a dedicate line from the main Transformer, to his input of his Amplifier.
I am using electrically insulated pipe copper tubing , surrounded with Litz wire ...the tube carries HIGH END snake oil ( extracted from snakes from Amazon forest) ..to get cooled in a heat exchanger.that runs on solar power.... all available easily on Amazon with free shipping & installation.... Now I CAN HEAR that 1/16 dB change of 80 kHz signal that's processed through my 256 .... no 512 bit ultrafast DAC....
I was lucky. I was @ a local hifi purveyor around 30 years ago when I got in on a demo by John Dunlavy. It was "testing " the sound of speaker cables. What John did was behind a screen that hid the playback components (but of course not his speakers which sounded excellent). He had an assistant hold up various cables. The same test track was played.Then the audience of around a dozen would comment on the sonic differences. I said I couldn't hear any which was my innocent & honest assessment which was regarded with loathing & smug contempt by the "audiophiles". When no one was looking John winked @ me. I thought to myself what is he up to? Turns out to the horror & disgust of the "audiophiles" who had waxed lyrical over certain high end looking cables when John revealed he never changed or swapped out a single cable. I think John made a strong point that day about the power of suggestion & some enemies with their pride wounded. Even though I never saw the man again he made one lifelong friend that day.
Wow, great story. Placebo is under-acknowledged in every field, but when it comes to audio it is ignored to a criminal extent. I don't care how expert you think your ears are, your unconscious mind is more sophisticated.
@@Spaniard47 Cheers. Here in Australia. Solar panels & huge storage batteries are becoming more popular. Mains power chords/ cables that was under discussion. I don't think make that much of a difference. What does is running the audio system through a digital power filter ( like PS audio make) Or direct off batteries. I Have a 1.5 wrms pure class A power amp run off 4 12 v 350 Amp hour mobile phone relay station backups. At least thats what my ears tell me. The sweetest, cleanest watt you will ever hear. I use it for testing speaker efficiency & amp output connected head phones like AKG K 1000's if Battry backup solar takes off the clean power source (real issue) is solved.
@@gorillafunk725 that is fascinating. You've inspired me to look into this topic more. I built a small solar powered generator for my family for reasons completely unrelated to audio (power outages; sustainability), and now I've just realized that the concept of 100% off-grid power may have real merits in the field of high end audio. When I built the system I was sure to buy deep cycle AGM cells and a decent quality pure sine wave inverter. I'm curious, if I can get it hooked up to a good audio system, do you think there will truly be an audible difference? I live in the country and our mains power is relatively clean. Also my audio system is great but certainly not worth thousands. But I'm always looking for quirky projects like this to experiment with.
@@Spaniard47 Hi Evan. Thats what my ears suggested to me when I first hooked up "Big Red" my 23 KG transformer coupled on speaker out in class A 1.5 watter on battery power. That was with 6 12v parallel connected. Now it only runs 4 but I can't hear any loss of fidelity. ( Quicker recharge) And it is definitely cleaner than when it ran off mains power. That was clearly (pun intended) audible. Win ,Win Get off the grid nipple paying power utilities lots of money for variable & often dirty power & clean green power for all your audio toys. No more surges/ black/brown outs. The major production cost in both high end d/a conversion & pre/power or integrated amps is a huge transformer & bank of heavy duty caps to filter the mains power grunge into something stable. Besides any of that in these crazy times the less reliant you are on any public utility, the safer & more secure you are long term. Cheers
What I find interesting about subjectivists is that the quality they assign to things that are not scientifically measurable always match intuition. For example, silver, with its shiny surface sounds sharp while copper, with its reddish color, sounds warm. For power cables, the strong and heavy Romex sounds more bassy than the thin and flexible zip cord. That looks a lot like a psychological effect. But if people think it sounds better, even if it only sounds better in their own minds, why try stopping them.
@@legrandmaitre7112 Still boils down to taste and your own ears... Would you be able to say that because what YOU hear sounds better than what I think sounds better, your brain has better neurons by a superior manufacturer or that your ears were designed by a "high end" engineer and mine weren't? Give me a break... There is nothing superior in trying to make others feel "inferior". Go buy your overpriced audio gear for your overpriced listening pleasure... Comparing two outstanding composers who had never had the "pleasure of high end audio equipment" is typical of someone who understand very little about music and more about irrelevant technology...
Regardless of whether there's a noticable difference: - if the cabling in your home is 12gauge solid-core aluminium.. then having your powercord be 12gauge solid-core aluminium has ZERO effect on the ability to supply your electrical device with power (aside from the fact that the total length of cable is slightly longer). If having a hollow core stranded cable has an effect on the sound produced by your electrical device that simply means that your device is influenced by power-delivery.. which means your device has poor power filtering/cleaning. I would much rather buy a device that properly cleans the power it receives than a device that passes the flaws in the power delivery along to the output of it's (amplified) audio signal.
I would suggest that since there is not a scientific theory to explain any audible differences when such cables are used, a double-blind test would be in order. It would be quite easy to do with employees and visitors. This kind of test would rule out confirmation bias as the source of perceived improvement in sound -- and any statistically significant difference shown in the test results would be a good substitute for the scientific explanation or theory that is lacking.
@12:20 'in the fine wires you get a LOT more high frequencies come thru as opposed to thick heavy solid core' what frequencies, coming from where? does the AC outlet need to send other frequencies to the transformer other than the 50-60Hz we use for 220/110V? do frequency generators use special power cables? do oscilloscopes? how about medical ultrasound machines? these would benefit greatly from this cable technology since the difference in fq realm is so major one can actually hear it on a very low efficiency transducer (your regular speaker-driver is below 1% efficiency, a very-very-very inappropriate probe or sensor so to call it )
Absolutely ridiculous that people think the last few feet of copper/aluminum that the electricity travels through makes any difference. This should be common sense to anybody with the most basic of technical backgrounds.
Sort of in response Andy Delle's comment, when i first heard that power cable make a difference i said the same thing, "that seems like the dumbest thing i've ever heard of." But then i recall from technical school that i had an instructor tell me in no uncertain terms that me wanting to put a bigger capacitor in the audio path of my radio project we built that semester was not going to work. No Way! No How!!! Thank God i didn't listen. Later when i wanted help to get an audio op amp from Radio Shack to work, the power supply was oscillating so bad that it did seem hopeless, he said you'll never get that to work either. I not only got both items to work, i'm still using the audio amp 28 years later. The radio I destroyed by continuing to make it better. if I had listened to my instructor, he was actually my favorite teacher at that school, I would have missed out on hearing the best music played back on systems that play music the way I want to hear it. I've played guitar for 50 years and grew up pounding on a upright piano for 14 years. Almost all of the stereo systems that I've listened to do not sound like real music. They can sound really good but not like live music. My experiments have gotten me close. Power cables make a huge difference even on cheap stuff, which is what i mostly have (raising two daughters takes most of married income so audio is usually a low priority). I've replaced all the power cables with 12 gauge romax, it's cheap and it works. The only thing it doesn't seem to help that much is televisions. Tried it didn't notice any difference. But for audio it makes a huge difference. i was converted ten years ago. (I could give a ton of examples of how it improves the audio, but this is already too long. i'm an audiophile not because i have great hearing, just the opposite i have one eardrum covered with scar tissue from endless earaches when i was young. I need my systems to speak clearly to help me enjoy them). My favorite quote from Mark Twain is; "If you grab a cat by the tail you'll learn things that you can't learn any other way". Enjoy the music any way you can!!!
I find it odd as an engineer for another engineer to discover a combination of materials which apparently makes a difference to sound, yet is totally unaware what change is happening and has no curiosity to investigate. It's especially strange considering he's selling them and has a vested interest in demonstrating to his customers that his cables make a difference.
Excellent explanation. No one can take exception, but of course they do. I make my own power cords. Only about 1.5' and shocked to find they make a substantial difference. I have 400 amp service to my home, so 3/4" thick copper cable from the transformer to the house. But here is the rub. Only one 14 gauge copper wire to the system. 30 feet of 14 gauge and somehow the last 1.5 feet makes a difference. Who cares. I just enjoy the improved sound.
True story. I bought a second hand Valve (tube) headphone amp a while back that came with an expensive power chord. From the moment I started using it I was aware of a very slight hum in the background, couldn't hear it when the music was playing though. Anyway I though otherwise it sounded great. Last week I switched the expensive cable for a cheap nasty one (no earth). No hum! Sounds 10x better!
I still say snake oil! Yes, if the power cable you are using is very small gauge and/or aluminum wire, a heavier gauge cable will make a difference. BUT if your power cable is already a fairly heavy gauge, copper, good connectors that really grab the pins in the receptical they are connected to, NO it is ridiculous! Just think..... what is the wiring INSIDE the amp like? How about the gauge used for the power switch? The gauge used to wind the power transformer? The weakest link WOULD be a cheap power cable, but if it is good quality and heavy gauge, at least the same gauge or heavier than the wiring used INSIDE the device you are powering, a high priced power cable WILL NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE!!!! What is the wiring from your breaker panel to the receptical? Romex? Stranded? How about the power drop from the pole to your house? Aluminum? Copper? How about the distribution transformer on the pole? Usually they are wound with flat copper strips. How good are the connections from the transformer, to the power lines to the drop to your weatherhead to your breaker panel bus bars to the cips on your breakers to the wiring conneting the run to your receptical? How good is the receptical? Is is spec grade or cheap $0.39 bargain basement receptical that barley grab the plug pins? There are TONS of things that are between you and the distribution transformer and a measly high dollar 6 foot power cord ain't gonna make much difference!!!!!!!!!! There is no real mention of what is being compared to... is it a cheap light cable that you are using to power your computer monitor? I STILL say SNAKE OIL!!!!
Ampacity is effected by power supply cables being radiated by solar energy during the day -As the temperature of a cable increases , its current handling capacity is diminished -It should be audible at the user end if a day/night comparison is made. But it might be all bollocks !
Inductance and capacitance of the cable are important to some extent, due to interactions with the transformer affecting how it responds to demand for load, but remember that a coiled up cable will have much higher inductance than a straight wire, and that's probably a big part of why you've found better performance from solid-cored cable, (coiled cable will also generate a lot more EMI). Before anyone starts spending money on power cables, everyone should start out with a pack of cable ties. Sort out your cable management, get all the power cables into neat straight runs, making sure that AC is as far from DC and signal cables as possible. If you're confident cut the power cables down to just the length you need so that there's no excess to coil up.
As long as the power cable meets proper certifications and is being used for its intended purpose, it will not make a difference. A linear power supply is built with provisions to manage minor fluctuations from the input AC -- which are far more detrimental than any inductance and capacitance related issues. I think Paul here needs to read a little on how linear power supplies actually work and then do some proper blind testing with these cables of his. This video is pure horse-puckey as Paul so eloquently puts it.
But wait what are the objectives of home audio reproduction from source against open air high-wattage PA systems holy crap extension cords at least use the same 12/3 romex wire that you're tapping from, did you know you can buy bulk wire and then also attatch plugs to it, this post, my sides
I instantly noticed a huge difference when I added silver XLR cables (reasonably priced) from my DAC to the preamp. As always I never expected anything to change, but it was undeniable. I had to check where the volume was at because it sounded considerably louder (like 2 dB on the preamp), yet it was at the typical volume I always listen to. The sound was more detailed and had more air, and it was was even smoother and sweeter. Interconnect cables do make a difference on low level signals (like DACs, phono, preamp....) which will go through several amplification stages. However, you don't need to break the bank to buy decent cables. Anything over a couple hundred dollars is a pure ripoff and many insanely overpriced cables actually measure worse than generic Amazon cables. There is nothing magical to put inside a simple (quality wire, proper shielding and low impedance terminations) cable to warrant ridiculous prices. Power cables need to be of adequate gauge to carry the necessary current for the devise, thus an 18 gauge cable will not cut it to run 500 watt mono blocks. You do not need a 12 gauge cable to run a 10 watt DAC and doing so will only be a waste of money. Running 8 gauge power cables will do jack shit for sound quality, because a 6' cord is only an extension of the 50+ feet of plain run of the mill 14 gauge lumex in your walls. The smallest gauge will always be a bottleneck in the chain of wires. AC current flows back and forth 60 times per second and electron only see one wire. It really matters if noise gets on your low level DAC cable, because the noise will be amplified 100s of times when it reaches your speakers. Any noise getting on speakers cables is past all amplification, thus you will hear the same very low level noise as much as you can hear it with your amp turned off (absolutely nothing).Speakers do not amplify the signal, thus if you can not hear the ambient noise in your environment, then how in the hell can you hear it unamplified in your speakers? OFC speaker wire is not very expensive, so why pay so much money for snake oil cable that at best only cause a placebo effect where you fool yourself into hearing a difference that just isn't there. I suppose it helps people to justify the $5000 they spent on snake oil cables. These companies prey on people's susceptibility to the placebo effect.
I also run powerline ethernet throughout my house rather than cat5e for that very reason. Thicker solid core cables. Gives a much bigger colour gamut to youtube videos and a warmer, deeper bass to accompanying tracks. Also zoom calls with my psychiatrist are much more life-like, three-dimensional...
If an amplifier is getting, let's say 24 volts DC from a power supply that is made to deal enough current for that amplifier, and is providing a steady DC supply, then how can the amplifier "see" what kind of wire is supplying the power supply with power? It's a simple question, but no one seems to have the direct answer. It seems very possible to use an oscilloscope to measure voltages at every stage, compere waveforms, and track exactly where the differences are and why, but that logic is missing for some reason. Certainly, if I spend hundreds of dollars on a set of cables, I will NOT trust my ears or brain to give me the absolute truth about which is better. It seems to me that if there IS a audible difference between normal and expensive power cables, then it's also fine to conclude that I should be able to bend a spoon just by thinking hard enough about it.
Considering the audio circuits are *after* rectification and *FILTER* capacitor circuits, (as close to pure DC as possible), how could the AC power cable influence the audio unless it is too thin of a gauge, and there is a voltage drop to the audio equipment power supply?
You said it right. , while conducting, the curcuit is passing all components and the color they each give off gets imprinted in the audio signal to a minute degree. So if a thin wire can strangle the flow a thicker wire will do this less. They each have characteristics beyond resistance only. Capacitance, fieldlines behave differently etc. Try lifting your wires off the ground... let someone else do it. blind test. Your equipment must have the quality to show it of course.
@@comiplaynow4624 I have made my own Lapp power cables. They look lovely but I am not going to say they sound stunning. If you understand electronics and how your kit power supply operates saying the difference is stunning is questionable. Glad it works for you.
I was a skeptic of power cables, how on earth the last meter of connection from the grid to my amp could make a difference, until an installer brought along a fairly "beginner/cheap" hifi power cable, I immediately noticed the difference in both sound and visual, it sounded louder and contains more detail at the same level, and the color of my projector has given a more darker or a few shades of color, like scenes somehow has more details as compared to before. at first I thought it's psychological and I was fooling myself so I had the guy conducted a blind test to me, watched the same scene of Fast 5 over and over again, and I could pin point with 100% accuracy of guessing which cable he is putting in each and every time, the same explosion scene looked and sounded different! I was blown away, til this day I still don't understand how it works but the installer did sell me this cable, he knew from the start I was going to buy it as soon as he puts it into my system, what a sale. I tried telling my friend this story but without inviting them over they would just treat me like a lunatic !
OK I know this an old video but I can't help but comment. If changing the last 6 feet of the power source wiring (which is miles long back to the power plant) changes the "sound" of your equipment, then your equipment must, by definition have the worst power supply ever.
Yeah, as simple as that logic goes, I don't understand why people still are arguing about this. Let's be honest, ps audio is not being a good company by doing this and even spread false info.
Paul, you add huge transformer which (who would guessed) transforms alternate current and reduces 99% of noise and say that power cables make difference in sound? Why power cables do not make difference in lamp colors in a home lighting?
I have heard these things from a friend of mine, who bought an expensive power cable for himself. He say it's better. I don't hear it, despite i do have good hearing, really. So i'm a bit sceptical about this. The power travels into your wall socket from the street, and you don't know what kind of cables are in your wall, especially if you living in an older building. They can be some crap quality cables from 50 years ago, or more. What's the point of using a crazy expensive 1 meter long cable, if those Ampers travelling 40-50 m in a shit quality cord? You want to tell me, that 1 m long "super cable" is going to do the miracle? I don't thik so...
in another video he talks about proximity to a power station affecting audio as well, hence buying a regenerator for your system. Presumably he would say, first replace the wiring in your house, then get the nice power cable. Some people would do it, too.
@@ar_xivrecommend ... An underground house that's about 100 metres below the lowest level of that power station.. enclosed in a " HIGH END " Faraday Shield..
So IF there is a difference between power cables, WHY arent there any scientific proof? Why is it that hifi is the only thing in the world where you don't need any kind of proof for your claims? And why is it ONLY in audio that cables matters, why doesnt computer geeks for example use "better" power cables to get more stable clocks on their graphics card to get higher fps?
Gurra Tell exactly right. And noticed that the people making the claims are the one selling the products. No companies outside of sales makes these claims.
Sound measurements on paper have fuck all to do with what you hear. If that were the case we'd all be buying gear based on paper graphs. Who needs to audition gear when you have this paper graph to go by? It tells you EVERYTHING you need to know. See how ridiculous that sounds? Peasants get so butthurt over more fortunate people spending their own money shit they'll never afford anyway. You'll never own a $20,000 pair of speakers anyway but if you do I bet you won't be wiring them up with Best Buy Rocketfish cabling either.
Round Earth Shill not ridiculous at all. If you're going to say that Test A sounds differently from Test B, then those tests can be easily measured.. if a speaker itself is reacting to the difference, then our precise instruments will also react to the difference. And of course, Paul will never show those measured differences... Ever..
Exactly! Look at the solar power industry. Electric cars. If there were any truth to these audiophool power cord claims, those billion dollar industries would be all over it. Even 1% less electrical transmission loss in an electric car internal wiring would be worth millions alone. Why is consumer audio the only application of such technology?
today i made up a new Furutech DPS-4.1 Limited Edition High End Audio Grade Power Cable.i fitted the cable with a high end furutech socket and plug. the cable cost £ 400 per meter.i made up a 1 meter cable. when i fitted the power cord into my ps audio bkh 250 amp it defiantly changed the sound.i run monitor audio pl 300's which are on the bright side in the highs.the cable knocked off the harshness from the highs and they now sounds much better. i have DIY'd lots of power cords for myself but usually they are no way the price of this cable .i usually use lorad 2.5 silver plated cable to which ive had no issues.however after listening to this new cable it looks like im going to have to upgrade them all again. the copper in the new cable was more harder and it cut more brittle than normal copper.that must be the single grain crystal design making the difference. plus this new cable had many layers of different materials to keep the noise out.i know it sounds unbelievable and im all for been very weary when it comes to this snake oil subject and in the beginning i didnt believe any of this including speaker cable and interconnects.but after a few years of asking the same old questions , i am starting to believe cables do make a difference.
I have an amazing cable I think you'd really like, amazing change in sound quality, more musical and the soundstage is transformed. It's also a bargain at only £50k per meter. Magic beans also available on request.
I was a skeptical as they come when I first heard about these ubeaut aftermarket power cables. I had bought some fairly expensive interconnects and speaker wire, and could not say I could hear any real difference to speak of from any of them. So why should a power cable which has nothing to do with sound make any difference? Well I got a Consonance power cable thrown in with a Butler Audio amp I bought, and I was astounded by the difference. I kept switching back and forth between it and the standard cable to make sure it wasn't my imagination. No cable to that time had ever made such a big impact on my system as that cable did. I have since bought some Furutech Alpha series power cable and have made up my own cables. The weird thing is not every device shows the same massive gain. Some are so small it is barely if at all noticeable, while other devices are like a punch in the face.
You say you kept switching back and forth to make sure it wasn't your imagination. What you need to do to make sure it's not your imagination is have someone else switch the cables without you knowing which one is in.
so Paul, explain to me this if you would, you say thin strand gets you better highs, but from breaker box to outlet is 12 awg roamex, how then, even if we use your power cable, does the kind of power to produce better highs get to the outlet for your cable to then carry over to the equipment??? (if the thin strand is not everpresent from the outlet to the breakerbox and then also to the power plant?) Not being combative, just want this avenue to be made sense to me....
8:54 ... I think you meant to say copper. I thought that in commercial buildings the standard was conduit with 12 GA. solid copper wire. You mentioned aluminium which was used for a short time for residential wiring. I rented a place that had aluminium wiring and it was dangerous. The contact at the breaker box became unreliable and the voltage was fluctuating between the two 120 volt line. The lights were getting brighter and dimmer as I used different appliances. I fixed it by re securing all the wires in the breaker box. I only lived there two years.
In this context, I'm sure he meant to say copper. But, aluminum, while less popular, is still used for electrical power wiring. Because it expands and contracts at a different rate than copper, there are lots of specifications on making connections and tightening screws. Also, most of the what you see in the big high tension towers is aluminum. It has low resistance and is much lighter than copper.
Also, electrical code forbids Romex type cable in commercial and industrial indoor applications. There, 12AWG THHN in metal conduit is required for 15 amp circuits, and armoured (BX) cable is the only exception.
Aluminum wire was often used in residential between 1969 and 1976 when the price of copper went to the moon. The aluminum wire would be 12/2 to handle 15 amps, whereas copper would be 14/2 for the same current capacity. Aluminum wires themselves are safe, the connections are the main concern for overheating and fire risk. Aluminum over time oxidizes, and the coating of aluminum oxide on the outer surface of the conductor is an insulator, and causes connections to heat, arc and expand / contract compounding the problem until the connection burns up. You can live safely in a home with aluminum wires, but the connections need to be checked for tightness, coated with anti-oxidant gel, and overall be done with care. Aluminum wire has zero tolerance for sloppy termination.
While aluminum wiring is now illegal in residential installations (due to all the electrical fires it's caused throughout history), it is still permitted in commercial and industrial installations. I have no idea why. The physics and the dangers of aluminum wire are still the same.
In theory the only signal that should be in a power cable is 50 or 60hz, if it affects the sound then it stands to reason that the sound signal somehow resonates with the power cable, in that case it should extend from the AC/DC transformer as far as possible, preferably all the way to the wall. It would be interesting to conduct an experiement to see if the sound signal can be detected in the power cable itself, and possibly in other plugs on the same circuit.
Question: Why cant the equipment internal power supplies not be improved to the point where full performance is realised as long as the supply voltage is in tolerance and of reasonable quality taking into account typical fluctuations and noise? For instance designing with larger regulation headroom, more storage capacitance? Is there a property in the cable that does not exist in an electronic component or practical circuit that cannot be fitted inside the equipment?
Short answer: it's a mix of solid and stranded BS mixed togerher that makes Paul cough while trying to explain it and blaming it on fires. As usual with power cables, there's actually zero science in the mix. But I atill love Paul. 👍
Saw a measurement between expensive audioquest and a rusted cable. Negligible difference. I recon as long as the cables are not damaged, it should be just fine. The only thing i can come up with is that with heavy amps, you need a sturdy cable.
If there’s a difference you can HEAR you can measure it, that’s an engineer talking. Do a double blind test to prove it is real, that’s a scientist talking. There’s a difference you can FEEL, that’s a rich guy that have more money than common sense sooner to be milked for cash. That’s not objectivism, science is the process that gave us semiconductors to play music and it was not by feeling that amplifier designs and recording supports changed a lot, it was by measurable evidence. Get your nostalgia and your ego at check, your hearing degrades with age, as long as your paycheck increases you hearing shrinks, no money will compensate for that
Buy it or don’t buy it. Simple. Ford, Dodge, Chevy you pick that. Coke or Pepsi? You pick that. Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, your local pizzerias, you pick the one you like. Whatever anyone, anywhere is offering, try it and if you don’t like the result, return it. Simple. I’m amazed by the people that think their thoughts and comments on this or any video are making a difference. You and your comments don’t matter. Someone told you they did and they were wrong. Oh, wait... that’s my opinion and it doesn’t matter.
Great thankyou Paul, but surely that means we need to change the cables from our supply transformers out in the field to our power outlets aswell by using both solid drawn and flexible conductors. Mine are approx 400m across the field so this could be quite expensive. I'm in no way dissing what you have said but find it hard to believe that a 300mm cable change could alter the sound that much when my supply cables are 400m to the transfomer and then 64373m from the power station. Thats an impressive 215,910 times longer than the my amp supply cable. Sorry.
It would be nice if you could do an audio test with your gear next to that supply transformer, Yes that would probably dictate a headphone based test, and you'd need a friendly electrician to rig it up. The only conclusion I can make of all this high-end power lead thing, is that there are quite a few issues with having a power lead anywhere near the back of your audio gear, as in speaker leads & interconnects. otherwise, as you said, we are only talking 0.0001% or the wire between your gear and the power generators. Maybe high end needs to run on batteries, and keep the AC well away. - as in high end leads couple less into the surrounding rats nest behind your HiFi.
The only way I can think of a cable affecting sound quality would be if the cable picks up or emits electromagnetic interference. If it emits interference and you can hear it, there is probably some part of your system that is defective, or unproperly shielded. Moving your power cable away from this equipment may help. It it picks up interference and you can hear it, the thing that is powered must have the worst power supply in the universe. Other things that can affect the sound is the presence/lack of an earth wire (ground loop) and a really bad contact (ex: heavy oxydation). Changing the throwaway cable with a $200 cable may incidentally fix these problems. But changing the throwaway with another throwaway may have fixed the problem the same way.
Most power in the US and elsewhere is very dirty and full of noise. Note that hospitals go to incredible lengths to "clean up" the power to their radiological imaging systems (as is the case with their dedicated backup generators).
@@Telemed911 Mains certainly is noisy, but a well designed power supply will convert it into nice, clean DC, that's its job! Radio imaging is a different thing, radio signals are harder to deal with than audio signal (much higher frequency). And if we are talking about sound, medical ultrasound is way more sensitive than what bats can hear, let alone humans.
PS Audio makes some great products but should steer more clear from snake oil to grow credibility overall...this is what PS Audio advertises for the PerfectWave AC12 power cable qualities: 1. PCOCC single crystal construction 2. 8 gauge power cable 3. Quad shielded low noise 4. Hollow tube conductors for treble performance 5. Rectangular conductors for midrange performance 6. Multiple gauge conductors for bass performance 7. Gold plated connectors 8. Welded connector to conductor 9. Quiet for digital 10. Unrestricted for analog Paul, sorry, but why do you allow such snake oil talk for PS Audio (item 3,4,5,6,9,10)? If a true professional blind test came to such conclusions, we could all have some respect for it. So how are these points made? Without either measurements or blind tests to support those claims, they all sound like an incredible pile of snake oil talk for a few feet of power cable (that are in series with many factors more of house wiring). I wish you could promote a much better no-nonsense approach to audiophile performance and whenever something "smells" a bit like snake oil, do some honest true blind tests and publish them here; and it will be truly awesome.
3 conductor 12 gauge Romex --TO-- 10 gauge stranded, shielded, 99.9% oxygen free copper, gold plated --TO-- 14 gauge MTW lead soldered to cladded components. Forgive me if I think you should have more scientific information to back up the justification for a $500 dollar power cable. If it works, great. Inductance is magical no one really gets how it works either. But it should be easy enough to see if noise is being omitted, prevented or the cable is somehow changing the power values with pretty basic instrumentation. But yet you tell your viewers to just try it and laugh, as if to imply that it's not worth your time to investigate the reason for its value just take my word for it. Stop comparing cooking to audio it makes you appear frustrated.
I hate to complain about free videos, but people’s time isn’t free. 10 minutes into a 13 minute video, and still hasn’t started to answer the question. It’s finally answered in the last minute or two, but it’s a very brief and simple answer because there’s no time left to go into detail.
Hi, totally agree with the first pjtruslow comment! when you put your 200$ mains cable, what about the rest of the mains network inside of your walls? Remember that the mains network is in serial with your mains cable. Will the 2m expensive mains cable do magic? The job of cleaning the signal and store the power is done by the power supply. Putting a good quality mains cable you can just avoid adding some problems, but that's it. Does it worth to spent 200$? You decide :-) I am working in a very serious and famous company selling some very expensive active speakers. They are very powerful. Our mains cables are just normal ones :-)
Here's a thought. What if the superior (expensive) mains cable fixes the evil which the skimpy supplied cable induces? My receiver (95 watts x7) came with 4' of truly craptastic 18g wires I wouldn't power my clock radio/alarm with. Maybe, the super cords Paul sells do make a difference at high volume demand.
@@jamesplotkin4674 hi James, the cheap cable will not introduced more problem than those already introduced by the rest of the mains network (before the wall socket), and not more than an expensive cable. The problems don't start at the wall socket. The final cable is only a few part of the mains network. As I told, for a very powerful active speaker (class D, 8200 W each speaker) we use a normal mains cable. The job to clean the signal is done by the power supply in the product, not by a simple cable.
All high end audio equipment should come with open disclaimer .. " this equip. is guaranteed to sound good to YOU EARS only if connected by HI END KABULLS " ... OTHER THAN THESE MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR EARS , INSTALLATION BASE , ASSOCIATED EQUIP. for which we are not responsible. Legally or otherwise..
OK just please answer me one question... Why recording studios don't use these very expensive speaker cable's,interconect's,power cable's etc.? They do use quality product's but not exagerated things. So if it works fine in studio where the quality of sound is everything it means that it is perfect to use in home to reproduce good quality sound like it's intended. All big "high end"audio companies are altering the sound in a certain way to fool the consumer that that's the "good sound" the "real sound" but in reality there is no need for all that mambo-jumbo,snake oil,cryogenically frozen crap! Sorry but that's the truth and all big high end companies know that!
1:10 Cambridge! The center of the Great British sound! I have a CA Dacmagic Plus. I can highly recommend that for digital audio playback. You have a valid point on the oversized transformers, when it comes to impedance. It is called high damping factor. But "high end" power cables is just beyond my suspense of disbelief.
Total bunch of hogwash. Not only am I an accredited EE, my career is in broadcast engineering, primarily in high end post production and mastering. You know, the people and facilities that make your BluRays. Plus I have a lot of experience with recording studios. So..... 1) As stated below and on countless other forums, there is no accredited scientific evidence supporting the claims of these power cables. None! These audiophool trinkets are the laughing stock of the professional electronics industry as a whole. 2) Why are these effects solely limited to high end audio? What about the ultra sensitive scientific measurement devices in labs. I once got an extensive Saturday tour of JPL as a member if the local Los Angeles IEEE. All that gear to receive minuscule analog signals from deep space yet they use plain old $3 power cords. Ditto that for fuses as well. And don't discount the fact that these are some of the top scientific and most educated minds in the world. I think they know what they are doing. 3) These power cords and associated accessories are also not used in the pro audio and video industry. I know! Now there are some esoteric recording studios run by fools that do subscribe but none of the top studios buy into this crap. Why? because they employ real systems and maintenance engineers. 4) The argument often eschewed by the audiophools of all that cheap Romex cable in your walls is perfectly valid. Any engineering system is only as strong as it's weakest link. Audio power cables are no exception - especially at six feet in length. 5) Another audiophool claim that the power cord is the first six feet the component sees is also seriously flawed. All electrical current, AC or DC, runs in a loop. The current always returns to the source, in this case the street utility transformer. So much for the "first" six feet! 6) Paul's power cords have different internal conductor geometry for bass, midrange, and treble. Care to explain the physics behind that? 7) Almost without exception the "designers" of these power cords and cables lack any traceable background in electrical, chemical, materials engineering and physics. Oh there are many claims of top scientific credentials but you never find verifiable employment or traceable educational credentials. Bunch of charlatans.
You are mostly right,actually i didnt believe that shit about speakers cables giving better sound at all,so i used lamp cables for connecting speakers(maybe 1mm2),i used them that way for quite some time till i bought some random box of electric components and inside were set of thick speaker cables(they are maybe 5mm2 or something),so i put those new ones on,just because they looked better than shitty white ones i had.And believe me or not,i heard that difference,and everyone else did.Dont get me wrong i still believe its because that cable was thicker,not because it was made by some fancy company,but difference is still there.However i dont belive that anyone should think that two different cables made of same material,with same girth,from two different companies will sound totally different
Well yes, any electrical wire with enough resistance will compromise performance based on current demands. After all a wire is a resistor among other things as well, capacitance and inductance. I'm sure no engineer here will argue that. And a speaker is a power (current) hungry device. Also if I have an 18ga power cord on a 1kw amp running close to full power, then replace that 18ga cord with a #12 or even #14, I do expect to hear a decent difference as well. That's basic I2/R or Ohm's law. It's this junk science and magic fairy dust we professionals have a problem with. Like Paul's power cords having different geometry conductor for bass, midrange, and treble. That's just hogwash. I think he is trying to equate RF theory to an audio cable, a power cord no less. First skin effect has no significance in the audio band. I'm not saying it doesn't occur. Of course it does at any frequency. The issue is the magnitude which is miniscule at 20khz. And the further glaring fraud here is this is a power cord. Even if there was significant skin effect at 20khz we needed to compensate for in audio signal cables, why would that matter on a power cord mostly conducting a 60hz sinewave. And let's take this a bit further. If the hollow conductor in the cord Paul claims is for treble response, being a waveguide it will in fact be a very good RF conductor. So now we have optimized a power cord to aid with the ingress of RF noise! So while this cable construction has no positive benefit for an audio component, it does have some potential negative benefits. This just shows how silly and ridiculous the audiophile vendor community is.
Show me the evidence. Show me these measurements. used in what medical field? Don't bother with that Shunyata crap. His products lack any recognized safety certification. There is no way they would be allowed to be used in patient care facilities. He may have done off hours testing with a doctor customer to make his claims but that's it. As for the credentials, thre's nothing to search. All most of these guys list is generic information. No employers names, no university attended. How can such be searched and verified?
LOL! That video! I called that scam out months ago. Notice he is testing an 18ga power cord against one of his #12 or #14ga power cords. Rigged test. Of course the 18ga cord will show less current delivery. It has more resistance. Why not compare his overpriced power cord to a commodity #12 or #14ga cord. Let's see those numbers. As for the certifications, what are they? Why not simply list them rather than generically saying you have them. Furthermore just because the connector he uses is UL listed, that does not automatically mean any power cord he makes with that connector is also UL listed. Far from it. UL and any other recognized lab requires the ENTIRE ASSEMBLY to be tested and listed. The use of listed parts does not extend to the entire cable assembly. And over on AVS Forum a technician who works at one of the member hospitals called out in his press did confirm they do not use any non-listed products. That's an automatic rejection. The DTCD test is also not valid. All it proves his power cord can deliver fast RF pulses. So what? Our power systems is a 60hz sinewave. What difference does a power cord designed for RF make? Furthermore why have a power cord that excels in RF propagation? And note Mr. Shunyata's bio. The only employment listed by name is the NSA. How convenient! good luck getting any information about their employees. No mention of universities attended, no degrees or coursework listed.
Do a video of a double blind test with people consistently picking the expensive power cable. I've yet to see one on all the audio channels on UA-cam or anywhere else.
You wont see one and I have seen audiophiles on UA-cam actuality claiming that double blind tests are flawed, that's their get-out for not doing them of course.
Paul, I think you have a great opportunity to help put his debate to rest: With your new, larger facility, why not set up a lab to demonstrate how different power cables (and even interconnects) can affect sound? I'm skeptical but keeping an open mind. If I could try it out before shelling out big bucks on a power cable, that would be great. :-)
I like your videos, Paul. But you lost some of your credibility in my eyes after this video. The mind sees what it chooses to see. Or rather hears what it chooses to hear. The placebo effect is very important. I am a doctor and I can see it every day at my job and we go to some lengths to account for the placebo effect in clinical trials. So I dare you to make a double blind testing to prove the differences in audio you are claiming.
Larry Niles no one is telling you what you can or cannot hear. But people are rightfully saying how these modifications actually affect a piece of gear. You can hear what you want. We're more concerned with the output of the gear. And this snake oil power cord does nothing. But if you spend lots of money on it, I guarantee you will hear a difference.
Problem is double blind tests are flawed too. I don't know why people care so much anyway. If people want to spend their money this way. It doesn't affect you in any way. If you just like helping people. Why not help people that really need it? People with too much money on their hands are probably doing okay by themselves, and don't even want your help anyway. But there's lots of other people out there that would be more then happy to take it I'm sure. Especially since you're a doctor. Or at least you claim to be anyway. I'm not calling you out, but this is the internet my friend. And I've seen some serious shite in the past 20 plus years I've spent on it. That's for sure. Plus if I don't say that. Some troll will probably come along, and call me gullible for even giving you the benefit of the doubt. 😂😂😂
I routinely do blind testing and make a point not to know what A or B is before listening. It makes it actually easier to not know because it allows me to relax and get away from any preconceived notions. So, I am with you. Placebos are indeed powerful - in medicine, as I am sure you're well aware, some times they're more effective than medicines and cures. Powerfukl indeed and not necessarily always a bad thing.
I have a couple questions Paul. 1 are you using aluminum for your electrical wiring in your buildings? That's a no no. 2 do you know about "geoengineering" weather management programs? When you go to England try greenlaning , dirtbike preferred or walking but you will see more country side that way.
Have you ever tried running the romex straight out of the wall cavity (no wall socket or junction box) and terminated it straight into the power transformer in an amplifier (no back panel IEC socket either) to see how that sounds? Yes there are all sorts of regulatory/code issues, however as a one off test, it would be interesting. as in how far back from the amplifiers back panel does this flash cable have to run? To me, an ideal power lead should have a good twist in the three conductors & a good shield so that no AC mains born noise can couple into my intereconnects & speaker leads. Where I used to work, they used flat wide plated copper strap as earthing/shielding connection, as that gave the best results when they sent their gear of for EMI etc testing/certification, so then would having a dedicated wide flat earthing strap from the back of your audio gear to a dedicated earth point help in getting the noise floor down etc.
In that case, stick a test signal through one of your amps, show the output on a high resolution oscilloscope, then put one of your "high-end" power cables on and show the difference.
Maybe not an oscilloscope, but an audio analyzer would. Paul claims that bass is lost on stranded and the highs are thin with solid core. Clearly the cable is affecting frequency response or maybe distortion at certain frequencies. I find it odd as an engineer for another engineer to discover a combination of materials which apparently makes a difference to sound, yet is totally unaware what change is happening and has no curiosity to investigate. It's especially strange considering he's selling them and has a vested interest in demonstrating to his customers that his cables do make a difference.
@@sswpp8908 All you need to do to tell whether there is a difference is to LISTEN. The problem with measurement tools is they only measure what they are designed to, and our auditory systems pick up on things that aren't shown on an oscilloscope.
Wire/cable current noise is different according to current direction, IOW current noise for positive half cycle is different to current noise for negative half cycle, IOW wires/cables are directional. Test equipment employs full wave rectification so will never display differences in half cycles. Also cable current noise is slew rate dependent and also has directional decay time behaviour, sine wave by definition means constant rate of change which means noise mechanisms are not excited as they are by dynamic/music signals and therefore are not apparent when using sine test signal. Once one accepts that wires/cables have directional properties the 'errant' subjectively noted system behaviours are perfectly explainable and also are able to be eliminated. I use self made non-directional cables throughout my system and this enables clean clear spectrally balanced sound with outstanding staging and depth imaging. Swapping in one only 'standard' cable be it power, signal or speaker cable causes collapse of depth imaging and overall subjective distortion. If I revert all cables to 'standard' cables my quite decent system becomes unlistenable in comparison. My modified $5.00 K-Mart power strip renders any system 'hi-fi' and is universally preferred by multiple test subjects. Who cares about the power station transmission lines, transformers, street wiring and house wiring, the last section of AC supply cable is the most important, similarly loudspeaker internal cable is of great importance subjectively. Reversing direction of signal cable or speaker cable in one channel only causes sideways skewing of centre/mono information and loss of depth information and cannot be corrected by balance control.....this is cable directionality at work and is to be expected. Lesson over, class dismissed.
Using a good screened mains cable is worth the money. It stops electro-magnetic stray into the rest of the system. I have used many and have had good results. Get good equipment first and buy a mains cable of 5 or 10% of the unit cost. Solid core best but it can be impossible to place. Been there. Now use a cable that has multiple (8) smaller gauge individually insulated wires (each) for live and neutral with heavier gauge earth. Sound great for detail and bass definition. Merlin funnel web FYI.
I have actually installed via soldering to eliminate the IEC socket, as heavy an appliance (wall A/C) power cord which still has a three prong plug into a standard 15/20 amp receptacle. I can buy a screen (shield) to go around this cord. Should I only ground one end and which end should that be?
I always laugh when I hear the term "oversized" when referring to anything from speaker driver magnets to transformers. It's exactly the right size! That's why the engineer chose it. 😁
Rolf Hawkins The only industry this is common practice in is hi-end land. Not in medical equipment, not in highly sensitive measuring devices, and so on... Oversized is just that ; oversized..... and thus overpriced. Whatever makes you happy, I guess.... :-?
@ Rolf Hawkins That's probably because you're looking at this the wrong way. When I purchased my Rotel amp 18 years ago, there were none available for delivery, so the dealer lent me a Sansui amp of nominally the same capability. When it was replaced by the Rotel several weeks later, there were clearly audible differences, mainly in the bottom octaves. The only obvious difference between the amplifiers was the weight of the much larger transformer and power supply capacitors in the Rotel. When I needed to replace the Rotel temporarily with a Sony while I serviced the Rotel a year or so ago, the phenomenon of changed bass response was also readily perceptible. Even the missus noticed! The Sony, like the Sansui had a much smaller transformer. Perhaps it's a case of some engineers preferring undersized parts to save on weight and/or cost.
Of course a power amp is a totally different topic than a phono amp, preamp or DAC when it comes to having headroom in the transformer. Indeed, for a power amp, you are facing some dynamic load condition that depend on how loud you play and how hard your speakers are to drive. It's good for a power amp to have a transformer that can give you extra power that you need especially in the bass when playing loud. But Paul is talking phono amp...LOL
@ ThinkingBetter The engineering side of my brain wants to agree with you. Unfortunately, I have far too much experience of theory being flat out wrong. Most recently, medical theory very nearly killed me on Wednesday. Yesterday I left the hospital confined to a wheelchair. Within six hours I was walking again even though medical theory claims that the pharmaceuticals I was ingesting do not work. "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." LOL! I'm happy to give Paul the benefit of the doubt until I have the opportunity to test his claims for myself.
I don't know about power cords affecting sound, but I did have one dedicated power output on one breaker when my house was built for my primary audio and surround system.
I think that a normal power cable that is correctly sized for the load you're going to be applying on it is whaaaaat more than enough. If you're using a switching PSU inside of your appliances, well, no difference will be heard from a cheap 2 dollar cable and a 2k dollars cable.
Howdy. I wonder if Eddy currents in the wire plays some role. There will be Eddy currents in a wire. That is my understanding. Stranded wires will have surface resistance between strands. Eddy currents will generate losses. The equivalet for solid wires will be the specific resistivity of copper or aluminium. Smaller losses. Have you tried building up the wire using enamelled copper strands ? Kinda like Litz wire. I understand that would reduce Eddy currents. Regards.
Regardless of the arguments, the auction connectors are important. Anyone that loves audio should upgrade their home wall sockets to premium or hospital grade, they're cheap and effective at making a more solid contact to the wire and plug. More surface area equates to better signal transfer.
I probably would have to mail a question in or email but in the chance of paul reading this comment. I'm curious what your always doing with the equipment in front of you when you make these videos? Are you hand building components? Are you bench testing them? Fixing a broken product? You have 3 phono stages infront of you. What are you doing with them right now?
Ok...I had the freebie that came with my amplifier. I hooked it up and sounded fine to me. As with any hobby, I like to add new things and upgrade older things. Well I really disliked the look of the “cheapie” so I bought a “new to me“ power cord from an acquaintance. It looks pretty cool and does it sound better? 🤷🏼♂️ I don’t think so, but I sure like the look just as a car enthusiast likes his spark plug cables he upgraded! It’s a hobby! Do as you like. Spend what you can afford and for crying out loud let people enjoy their hobby without being a hater or so darn negative! If you don’t hear the difference and don’t want/have the cash for new cables...DON’T BUY ANY!
Power cables do change the sound but amplifiers are designed to be used with the provided cable so why color the sound. Its usually not a good change in my experience.
Audiophile high end power cables - when did I first saw one of those? I think it was our 3rd or 4th grade field trip on the USS George Washington on the submarine's sonar room back in 1981. If its good enough for the US Navy, its probably good enough for your high end audio gear, right?
Paul talks about firmer bass through the solid cable and better highs through the stranded cable? Wouldn't these differences be measurable with something? a change in shape of the bass wave or a dB increment... an oscilloscope?, so far in my life as an enthusiast, if the is a difference in the sound, it can always be measured with something.....other than just golden ears. I understand the theory of the two cable constructions on speaker cables........but how does this transfer to the power cable which is only coming in at mains frequency.......there is no high frequency component by which will travel better down the stranded cable. As others have pointed out, and what about the other 200 miles of wire that may be between your amp and the power station- shouldn't it get the same treatment. no, I haven't tried to see what a difference it would make, but even if there was a difference, its unlikely that the cables could be swapped out quickly enough for my acoustic memory to register, but if it could be set up somewhere I'm willing to give it a go.
In a way, the power cable is an audio cable. On a sheet of paper, draw a capital T. Next to its left top end, write "AC", to its right write "speakers". This is the (power) amplification path. This is what is referenced when an amp-designer claims a very short amplification path. Now write "source" at the bottom of the T. The horizontal path starts with AC being de-AC-ed: converted from a polarity switching (alternating) current to a pulsating one-directional current. This is not DC, but pulsating. This undergoes a bit of treatment to make it more like during current (DC), but not perfect. Noise coming in here, is generally not filtered out. Electrical engineers design these AC-power-circuits under the assumption that AC is clean, when power companies already for decades worry about how much noise is reflected back into the grids by dirty consumer electronics. (Imagine they cannot use the grid as their own ethernet anymore because of noise.) Have you heard a click through the speakers when your HVAC switched on? Or your fridge? That click was AC pollution. It could have been relayed via your in-wall AC cabling, or as an electromagnetic pulse via the air. Listen to your music system at peak household and commute time. Now listen again when the wind cries mary (i.e. after all the jacks are in the boxes and the clowns ave gone to bed.) You can hear happiness - peace and quiet in the music. You have a challenge to get that peace and quiet into your system at times everybody is awake, not just when you should sleep. The AC cable between the wall outlet and the amplifier or source component is an antenna. It can both conduce and receive pollution, or may transmit pollution when you play heavy music with a power draining bass that causes the power stage to draw power form the wall in a way that has AM bandwidth characteristics. Shield the cable, and you will hear the difference. Now try to make a shielded cable that is flexible, does not throttle Amperes, has excellent contacts that do not introduce noise (e.g. through capacitance in a less good contact) and turn this into a commercial product sold via distributors via shops - how much would that cost? The T happens a couple times. With a discrete power amplifier, you likely have the current amplification in this box. Then the preamplifier does its T providing voltage to the power amp on the source input. The phono-prepreamplifier in its turn amplifies the micro-phono signal to a level that the preamplifier can handle as source, again in a similar T. Each time, the AC comes into the T and goes out, modulated, to the next domain. Each T could allow AC noise straight through, meaning each stage before the power amp can pass the noise or its consequential damage on to the next amplification stage. Now imagine, a phono stage amplifies a 30 times from 5 mV to 150 for typical moving iron/magnet cartridges, but a 0.4 mV moving coil cartridge already needs 375x amplification to get at 150 mV. Then the pre amp may add some 12 times in Volt but some current too and we end, likely, up with about 30x amplification. At 60A peak per channel, my power amp would multiply that another 60 times. Here we get cumulative explosion. From the 0.4 mV source to the 60A into the speaker cable, we have accumulated between 500,000 and 600,000 times amplification. How difficult can it be to imagine that something can go wrong here that becomes audible when electrical engineers with zero degree in human hearing, relying on simple rules of thumb, design audio circuits? Play the Chinook from Pink Floyd's Wall and see if your wife walks to the window to see if one is landing in your garden. Play some 1950s-1960s RCA Living Stereo recordings of live performances. They used two or three microphones and there is no down-mix of multi-mike * multi-channel recordings, so all the phase-based spatial clues are still in the recording. You'll hear the instruments well placed in space. Play the sing-along track from the Weavers in Carnegie Hall where the musicians are behind each other in the right speaker. Can you walk front to back between your speakers and stick your finger in their mouth or instrument? You "get it"when you hear coughs in the giant space. And the audience starts singing along. In your limited room, does this track sound like a huge (6,500 people) concert hall? No? You have a challenge if that is what you want to hear. It can be done. BTW, this is audiophile territory and not necessarily "music".
I think it's the matching of different cables to different speakers and rooms that make the difference. For example I could be using expensive wires that sound fuller and with more bass, but if my room is small and my speakers big and too energizing that would be detrimental and so I'd be better off with a less expensive cable and a thinner sound.
Electronic devices and the subtle fields around them interact with bodies and brains in ways only beginning to be understood. We are babes in the woods when it come to understanding the totality. In 50 years we are going to marvel at how primitive our understanding was.
If you referance the NEC codes and check the wiring tables they give insulation types etc but they also give you the max voltage amperage etc stranded wire is always rated as being able to carry more this usually doesn't matter because of over current devices for the load range you are looking at
Fully agree on your approach to development - recognizing differences may be the starting point for new developments, technology, and better understanding. It’s not always the other way round. - For example, when Penicillin was discovered/developed it was because somebody kept his bio-lab in a messy state and had fungus spores in all petridishes. While a disciplined EE eng would have just cleaned up the lab, this messy scientist put the petridish under the microscope first, and noticed there are no bacteria where there is fungus and vice versa, and gave it a long thought, which eventually led to penicillin, ie a fungus based medication that kills bacteria, ie the first antibiotic in history. - So, detailed observation (rather than text book “science” that’s already known for decades) CAN be the starting point for new things - but that is a controversial way, no doubt.
8:23 seconds into vid we get to the power cable discussion- you’re welcome.
Great thanks, saved me failing asleep to get to the point lol
As an electrical contractor who knows what's inside of your panel, each and every J-box, as well as your walls and ceiling, this makes me giggle. To each their own, and you can hit me up for a whole house electron alignment service that I provide, which will align the electrons correctly and will provide substantially better audio that anyone can actually hear...... Your friends will be jealous.
If a high end power cable sounds any different than a well made IEC power cable in the $10 range, then the power supply on the device being connected is poorly designed. Any power supply in a device should make the assumption that the incoming AC power may be noisy, and it should be capable of filtering that noise out. If it cannot, a snake oil power cable isn't going to solve the problem.
This is a golden comment. Cause you're running at least a 8 meter cable from your power divide box thingy to your outlet....... and those cables are not properly insulated.....
Go back to your MP3s and crappy stereo. When youre ready to join the big boys club, let us know
Sounds like someone bought snake oil power cables xD
"This seems dubious for reasons x, y and z"
"LMAO U HAVE A CRAPPY STEREO AND A SMALL PEEPEE EXDEE LMAO XD"
Huge win in the battle of ideas
Exactly right. That power cord delivers a given amount of current at a given voltage. That's really about it. The only other concern would be if the geometry of the cord conductors is off, then one of the conductors could induce a small voltage into the grounding conductor. That could cause some noise problems (hum, buzz) in unbalanced systems.. But, that really should not be an issue. The talk here is nonsense..
So you probably have 50' worth of 12/2 Romex Solid Copper wire traveling from your main panel to the outlet for your equipment. Then you install 6' Sigma Power Cord for $2500 and you have better sound? Somebody needs to do a Double Blind Study
A retired IBM Main Frame eng, all cables are the same, unless made with broken strands of Copper, period.
When was the last time the editor got a comprehensive “Hearing Check”?
The Hydro-Sound sensors on the USA Submarines are overseen by 20 year olds, who have never inserted a ear-bud, blasting into their ear. Why?
They have to used their hearing to tell the difference between a Whale swimming at depths and the “Propeller, minimal cavitation of another sub.”
Much less a 60 something, standing at “0” inches to a Loudspeaker, at full “Gain” for most of their lives.
Marketing to the “Must Have” is easy, but to the real “Educated, science base” it is a “Pie in the sky”.
Don’t every Home Owner knows that behind the AC outlet is a single wire conductor, attached together by wire nuts? Not soldered together, and long runs.
So buyer beware.
There is a real hi-fi geek in Japan, he payed his City electrical provider to run a dedicate line from the main Transformer, to his input of his Amplifier.
Ye, same opinion, as long as its not damaged its fine
Side stripes make cars go faster too.
So do chrome air cleaners !!!!!
No! They have to be flames.
no it has to be snakes.Freaking snakes...with oil!
I am using electrically insulated pipe copper tubing , surrounded with Litz wire ...the tube carries HIGH END snake oil ( extracted from snakes from Amazon forest) ..to get cooled in a heat exchanger.that runs on solar power....
all available easily on Amazon with free shipping & installation....
Now I CAN HEAR that 1/16 dB change of 80 kHz signal that's processed through my 256 ....
no 512 bit ultrafast DAC....
You should cryotreat them. It’s way cooler!
I was lucky. I was @ a local hifi purveyor around 30 years ago when I got in on a demo by John Dunlavy.
It was "testing " the sound of speaker cables. What John did was behind a screen that hid the playback components (but of course not his speakers which sounded excellent). He had an assistant hold up various cables. The same test track was played.Then the audience of around a dozen would comment on the sonic differences. I said I couldn't hear any which was my innocent & honest assessment which was regarded with loathing & smug contempt by the "audiophiles". When no one was looking John winked @ me.
I thought to myself what is he up to?
Turns out to the horror & disgust of the "audiophiles" who had waxed lyrical over certain high end looking cables when John revealed he never changed or swapped out a single cable.
I think John made a strong point that day about the power of suggestion & some enemies with their pride wounded.
Even though I never saw the man again he made one lifelong friend that day.
Wow, great story. Placebo is under-acknowledged in every field, but when it comes to audio it is ignored to a criminal extent. I don't care how expert you think your ears are, your unconscious mind is more sophisticated.
@@Spaniard47 Cheers. Here in Australia. Solar panels & huge storage batteries are becoming more popular.
Mains power chords/ cables that was under discussion. I don't think make that much of a difference. What does is running the audio system through a digital power filter ( like PS audio make)
Or direct off batteries. I Have a 1.5 wrms pure class A power amp run off 4 12 v 350 Amp hour mobile phone relay station backups. At least thats what my ears tell me. The sweetest, cleanest watt you will ever hear. I use it for testing speaker efficiency & amp output connected head phones like AKG K 1000's if Battry backup solar takes off the clean power source (real issue) is solved.
@@gorillafunk725 that is fascinating. You've inspired me to look into this topic more. I built a small solar powered generator for my family for reasons completely unrelated to audio (power outages; sustainability), and now I've just realized that the concept of 100% off-grid power may have real merits in the field of high end audio. When I built the system I was sure to buy deep cycle AGM cells and a decent quality pure sine wave inverter. I'm curious, if I can get it hooked up to a good audio system, do you think there will truly be an audible difference? I live in the country and our mains power is relatively clean. Also my audio system is great but certainly not worth thousands. But I'm always looking for quirky projects like this to experiment with.
@@Spaniard47 Hi Evan. Thats what my ears suggested to me when I first hooked up "Big Red" my 23 KG transformer coupled on speaker out in class A 1.5 watter on battery power. That was with 6 12v parallel connected. Now it only runs 4 but I can't hear any loss of fidelity. ( Quicker recharge) And it is definitely cleaner than when it ran off mains power. That was clearly (pun intended) audible.
Win ,Win Get off the grid nipple paying power utilities lots of money for variable & often dirty power & clean green power for all your audio toys. No more surges/ black/brown outs. The major production cost in both high end d/a conversion & pre/power or integrated amps is a huge transformer & bank of heavy duty caps to filter the mains power grunge into something stable. Besides any of that in these crazy times the less reliant you are on any public utility, the safer & more secure you are long term.
Cheers
What I find interesting about subjectivists is that the quality they assign to things that are not scientifically measurable always match intuition. For example, silver, with its shiny surface sounds sharp while copper, with its reddish color, sounds warm. For power cables, the strong and heavy Romex sounds more bassy than the thin and flexible zip cord. That looks a lot like a psychological effect. But if people think it sounds better, even if it only sounds better in their own minds, why try stopping them.
When you can measure the music itself, or measure why Mozart sounds better than Salieri, then you come back and bang on about measuring Hifi - ok?
@@legrandmaitre7112 Still boils down to taste and your own ears... Would you be able to say that because what YOU hear sounds better than what I think sounds better, your brain has better neurons by a superior manufacturer or that your ears were designed by a "high end" engineer and mine weren't? Give me a break... There is nothing superior in trying to make others feel "inferior". Go buy your overpriced audio gear for your overpriced listening pleasure... Comparing two outstanding composers who had never had the "pleasure of high end audio equipment" is typical of someone who understand very little about music and more about irrelevant technology...
Regardless of whether there's a noticable difference:
- if the cabling in your home is 12gauge solid-core aluminium.. then having your powercord be 12gauge solid-core aluminium has ZERO effect on the ability to supply your electrical device with power (aside from the fact that the total length of cable is slightly longer).
If having a hollow core stranded cable has an effect on the sound produced by your electrical device that simply means that your device is influenced by power-delivery.. which means your device has poor power filtering/cleaning.
I would much rather buy a device that properly cleans the power it receives than a device that passes the flaws in the power delivery along to the output of it's (amplified) audio signal.
Rightly said
I would suggest that since there is not a scientific theory to explain any audible differences when such cables are used, a double-blind test would be in order. It would be quite easy to do with employees and visitors. This kind of test would rule out confirmation bias as the source of perceived improvement in sound -- and any statistically significant difference shown in the test results would be a good substitute for the scientific explanation or theory that is lacking.
@12:20 'in the fine wires you get a LOT more high frequencies come thru as opposed to thick heavy solid core'
what frequencies, coming from where? does the AC outlet need to send other frequencies to the transformer other than the 50-60Hz we use for 220/110V?
do frequency generators use special power cables? do oscilloscopes? how about medical ultrasound machines?
these would benefit greatly from this cable technology since the difference in fq realm is so major one can actually hear it on a very low efficiency transducer (your regular speaker-driver is below 1% efficiency, a very-very-very inappropriate probe or sensor so to call it )
Yes you can buy medical grade power cables.
USA is 120/240 VAC. Why does everyone say 110? 🤦🏻♂️
@AJD OLD CHANNEL ARCHIVE, High end audio equipment like medical equipment is suppose to be plugged into an IGR.
@@kalijasin It's supposed to be within 110 to 120 VAC and maybe 110 is easier to say. We also say 220
Nice listening thanks
Absolutely ridiculous that people think the last few feet of copper/aluminum that the electricity travels through makes any difference. This should be common sense to anybody with the most basic of technical backgrounds.
Sort of in response Andy Delle's comment, when i first heard that power cable make a difference i said the same thing,
"that seems like the dumbest thing i've ever heard of."
But then i recall from technical school that i had an instructor tell me in no uncertain terms that me wanting to put a
bigger capacitor in the audio path of my radio project we built that semester was not going to work. No Way! No How!!!
Thank God i didn't listen. Later when i wanted help to get an audio op amp from Radio Shack to work, the power supply
was oscillating so bad that it did seem hopeless, he said you'll never get that to work either.
I not only got both items to work, i'm still using the audio amp 28 years later. The radio I destroyed by continuing to
make it better.
if I had listened to my instructor, he was actually my favorite teacher at that school, I would have missed out on hearing the best music played back on systems that play music the way I want to hear it. I've played guitar for 50 years and grew up pounding on a upright piano for 14 years. Almost all of the stereo systems that I've listened to do not sound like real music. They can sound really good but not like live music. My experiments have gotten me close.
Power cables make a huge difference even on cheap stuff, which is what i mostly have (raising two daughters takes most of married income so audio is usually a low priority).
I've replaced all the power cables with 12 gauge romax, it's cheap and it works. The only thing it doesn't seem to help that much is televisions. Tried it didn't notice any difference. But for audio it makes a huge difference.
i was converted ten years ago. (I could give a ton of examples of how it improves the audio, but this is already too long. i'm an audiophile not because i have great hearing, just the opposite i have one eardrum covered with scar tissue from endless earaches when i was young. I need my systems to speak clearly to help me enjoy them).
My favorite quote from Mark Twain is; "If you grab a cat by the tail you'll learn things that you can't learn any other way".
Enjoy the music any way you can!!!
I find it odd as an engineer for another engineer to discover a combination of materials which apparently makes a difference to sound, yet is totally unaware what change is happening and has no curiosity to investigate. It's especially strange considering he's selling them and has a vested interest in demonstrating to his customers that his cables make a difference.
Excellent explanation. No one can take exception, but of course they do. I make my own power cords. Only about 1.5' and shocked to find they make a substantial difference. I have 400 amp service to my home, so 3/4" thick copper cable from the transformer to the house. But here is the rub. Only one 14 gauge copper wire to the system. 30 feet of 14 gauge and somehow the last 1.5 feet makes a difference. Who cares. I just enjoy the improved sound.
True story. I bought a second hand Valve (tube) headphone amp a while back that came with an expensive power chord. From the moment I started using it I was aware of a very slight hum in the background, couldn't hear it when the music was playing though. Anyway I though otherwise it sounded great. Last week I switched the expensive cable for a cheap nasty one (no earth). No hum! Sounds 10x better!
Snake oil the lot of it
I still say snake oil! Yes, if the power cable you are using is very small gauge and/or aluminum wire, a heavier gauge cable will make a difference.
BUT if your power cable is already a fairly heavy gauge, copper, good connectors that really grab the pins in the receptical they are connected to, NO it is ridiculous!
Just think..... what is the wiring INSIDE the amp like? How about the gauge used for the power switch? The gauge used to wind the power transformer?
The weakest link WOULD be a cheap power cable, but if it is good quality and heavy gauge, at least the same gauge or heavier than the wiring used INSIDE the device you are powering, a high priced power cable WILL NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE!!!!
What is the wiring from your breaker panel to the receptical? Romex? Stranded?
How about the power drop from the pole to your house? Aluminum? Copper?
How about the distribution transformer on the pole? Usually they are wound with flat copper strips.
How good are the connections from the transformer, to the power lines to the drop to your weatherhead to your breaker panel bus bars to the cips on your breakers to the wiring conneting the run to your receptical?
How good is the receptical? Is is spec grade or cheap $0.39 bargain basement receptical that barley grab the plug pins?
There are TONS of things that are between you and the distribution transformer and a measly high dollar 6 foot power cord ain't gonna make much difference!!!!!!!!!!
There is no real mention of what is being compared to... is it a cheap light cable that you are using to power your computer monitor?
I STILL say SNAKE OIL!!!!
It's important to dress the plug ends with high quality anti venom for the best results.
can't stop laughing. Release the snakes. releasee thee snakes...
You should do a podcast. You have a wealth of information to share and deliver what you are talking about in a great way.
Power supplies are a million times more important as well as influential in sound quality than the power cable.
any in particular you would recommend?
The power cables are the controllable subject, but not the power supply beyond the main switchboard in the house.
Listen in the early hours. Power supplies are usually better then.
@@Coneman3 Apparently the current understanding -no pun intended , is that there is no solar radiation at night .
Ampacity is effected by power supply cables being radiated by solar energy during the day -As the temperature of a cable increases , its current handling capacity is diminished -It should be audible at the user end if a day/night comparison is made.
But it might be all bollocks !
Inductance and capacitance of the cable are important to some extent, due to interactions with the transformer affecting how it responds to demand for load, but remember that a coiled up cable will have much higher inductance than a straight wire, and that's probably a big part of why you've found better performance from solid-cored cable, (coiled cable will also generate a lot more EMI).
Before anyone starts spending money on power cables, everyone should start out with a pack of cable ties. Sort out your cable management, get all the power cables into neat straight runs, making sure that AC is as far from DC and signal cables as possible. If you're confident cut the power cables down to just the length you need so that there's no excess to coil up.
As long as the power cable meets proper certifications and is being used for its intended purpose, it will not make a difference. A linear power supply is built with provisions to manage minor fluctuations from the input AC -- which are far more detrimental than any inductance and capacitance related issues. I think Paul here needs to read a little on how linear power supplies actually work and then do some proper blind testing with these cables of his. This video is pure horse-puckey as Paul so eloquently puts it.
I love your open minded view of audio design. I think it’s essential to optimise hifi.
Love Paul's use of the words: "... God be with you..." as it clearly shows how deep he has sunk into faith based audio.
We run outdoor concerts with home depot extension cords at thousands of watts. This guy is telling me I need better power cable. Got it.
But wait what are the objectives of home audio reproduction from source against open air high-wattage PA systems holy crap extension cords at least use the same 12/3 romex wire that you're tapping from, did you know you can buy bulk wire and then also attatch plugs to it, this post, my sides
I instantly noticed a huge difference when I added silver XLR cables (reasonably priced) from my DAC to the preamp. As always I never expected anything to change, but it was undeniable. I had to check where the volume was at because it sounded considerably louder (like 2 dB on the preamp), yet it was at the typical volume I always listen to. The sound was more detailed and had more air, and it was was even smoother and sweeter. Interconnect cables do make a difference on low level signals (like DACs, phono, preamp....) which will go through several amplification stages. However, you don't need to break the bank to buy decent cables. Anything over a couple hundred dollars is a pure ripoff and many insanely overpriced cables actually measure worse than generic Amazon cables.
There is nothing magical to put inside a simple (quality wire, proper shielding and low impedance terminations) cable to warrant ridiculous prices. Power cables need to be of adequate gauge to carry the necessary current for the devise, thus an 18 gauge cable will not cut it to run 500 watt mono blocks. You do not need a 12 gauge cable to run a 10 watt DAC and doing so will only be a waste of money. Running 8 gauge power cables will do jack shit for sound quality, because a 6' cord is only an extension of the 50+ feet of plain run of the mill 14 gauge lumex in your walls. The smallest gauge will always be a bottleneck in the chain of wires. AC current flows back and forth 60 times per second and electron only see one wire.
It really matters if noise gets on your low level DAC cable, because the noise will be amplified 100s of times when it reaches your speakers. Any noise getting on speakers cables is past all amplification, thus you will hear the same very low level noise as much as you can hear it with your amp turned off (absolutely nothing).Speakers do not amplify the signal, thus if you can not hear the ambient noise in your environment, then how in the hell can you hear it unamplified in your speakers?
OFC speaker wire is not very expensive, so why pay so much money for snake oil cable that at best only cause a placebo effect where you fool yourself into hearing a difference that just isn't there. I suppose it helps people to justify the $5000 they spent on snake oil cables. These companies prey on people's susceptibility to the placebo effect.
I also run powerline ethernet throughout my house rather than cat5e for that very reason. Thicker solid core cables. Gives a much bigger colour gamut to youtube videos and a warmer, deeper bass to accompanying tracks. Also zoom calls with my psychiatrist are much more life-like, three-dimensional...
If an amplifier is getting, let's say 24 volts DC from a power supply that is made to deal enough current for that amplifier, and is providing a steady DC supply, then how can the amplifier "see" what kind of wire is supplying the power supply with power? It's a simple question, but no one seems to have the direct answer. It seems very possible to use an oscilloscope to measure voltages at every stage, compere waveforms, and track exactly where the differences are and why, but that logic is missing for some reason. Certainly, if I spend hundreds of dollars on a set of cables, I will NOT trust my ears or brain to give me the absolute truth about which is better. It seems to me that if there IS a audible difference between normal and expensive power cables, then it's also fine to conclude that I should be able to bend a spoon just by thinking hard enough about it.
Considering the audio circuits are *after* rectification and *FILTER* capacitor circuits, (as close to pure DC as possible), how could the AC power cable influence the audio unless it is too thin of a gauge, and there is a voltage drop to the audio equipment power supply?
You said it right. , while conducting, the curcuit is passing all components and the color they each give off gets imprinted in the audio signal to a minute degree. So if a thin wire can strangle the flow a thicker wire will do this less. They each have characteristics beyond resistance only. Capacitance, fieldlines behave differently etc. Try lifting your wires off the ground... let someone else do it. blind test. Your equipment must have the quality to show it of course.
@@comiplaynow4624 LOL
@@comiplaynow4624🤣
@@a0r0a7 i made a few power cables since then and the results are stunning. They can improve the dynamics and tune the sound.
@@comiplaynow4624 I have made my own Lapp power cables. They look lovely but I am not going to say they sound stunning. If you understand electronics and how your kit power supply operates saying the difference is stunning is questionable. Glad it works for you.
I was a skeptic of power cables, how on earth the last meter of connection from the grid to my amp could make a difference, until an installer brought along a fairly "beginner/cheap" hifi power cable, I immediately noticed the difference in both sound and visual, it sounded louder and contains more detail at the same level, and the color of my projector has given a more darker or a few shades of color, like scenes somehow has more details as compared to before. at first I thought it's psychological and I was fooling myself so I had the guy conducted a blind test to me, watched the same scene of Fast 5 over and over again, and I could pin point with 100% accuracy of guessing which cable he is putting in each and every time, the same explosion scene looked and sounded different! I was blown away, til this day I still don't understand how it works but the installer did sell me this cable, he knew from the start I was going to buy it as soon as he puts it into my system, what a sale.
I tried telling my friend this story but without inviting them over they would just treat me like a lunatic !
nice story lol
OK I know this an old video but I can't help but comment. If changing the last 6 feet of the power source wiring (which is miles long back to the power plant) changes the "sound" of your equipment, then your equipment must, by definition have the worst power supply ever.
Yeah, as simple as that logic goes, I don't understand why people still are arguing about this. Let's be honest, ps audio is not being a good company by doing this and even spread false info.
Paul, you add huge transformer which (who would guessed) transforms alternate current and reduces 99% of noise and say that power cables make difference in sound? Why power cables do not make difference in lamp colors in a home lighting?
I have heard these things from a friend of mine, who bought an expensive power cable for himself. He say it's better. I don't hear it, despite i do have good hearing, really. So i'm a bit sceptical about this. The power travels into your wall socket from the street, and you don't know what kind of cables are in your wall, especially if you living in an older building. They can be some crap quality cables from 50 years ago, or more. What's the point of using a crazy expensive 1 meter long cable, if those Ampers travelling 40-50 m in a shit quality cord? You want to tell me, that 1 m long "super cable" is going to do the miracle? I don't thik so...
in another video he talks about proximity to a power station affecting audio as well, hence buying a regenerator for your system. Presumably he would say, first replace the wiring in your house, then get the nice power cable. Some people would do it, too.
@@ar_xivrecommend ... An underground house that's about 100 metres below the lowest level of that power station.. enclosed in a
" HIGH END " Faraday Shield..
So IF there is a difference between power cables, WHY arent there any scientific proof? Why is it that hifi is the only thing in the world where you don't need any kind of proof for your claims?
And why is it ONLY in audio that cables matters, why doesnt computer geeks for example use "better" power cables to get more stable clocks on their graphics card to get higher fps?
Gurra Tell exactly right. And noticed that the people making the claims are the one selling the products. No companies outside of sales makes these claims.
@Larry Niles feel better pushing a lie to consumers?
Sound measurements on paper have fuck all to do with what you hear. If that were the case we'd all be buying gear based on paper graphs. Who needs to audition gear when you have this paper graph to go by? It tells you EVERYTHING you need to know. See how ridiculous that sounds?
Peasants get so butthurt over more fortunate people spending their own money shit they'll never afford anyway. You'll never own a $20,000 pair of speakers anyway but if you do I bet you won't be wiring them up with Best Buy Rocketfish cabling either.
Round Earth Shill not ridiculous at all. If you're going to say that Test A sounds differently from Test B, then those tests can be easily measured.. if a speaker itself is reacting to the difference, then our precise instruments will also react to the difference. And of course, Paul will never show those measured differences... Ever..
Exactly! Look at the solar power industry. Electric cars. If there were any truth to these audiophool power cord claims, those billion dollar industries would be all over it. Even 1% less electrical transmission loss in an electric car internal wiring would be worth millions alone. Why is consumer audio the only application of such technology?
it's magic inside them. Made by leprechauns....
today i made up a new Furutech DPS-4.1 Limited Edition High End Audio Grade Power Cable.i fitted the cable with a high end furutech socket and plug. the cable cost £ 400 per meter.i made up a 1 meter cable.
when i fitted the power cord into my ps audio bkh 250 amp it defiantly changed the sound.i run monitor audio pl 300's which are on the bright side in the highs.the cable knocked off the harshness from the highs and they now sounds much better. i have DIY'd lots of power cords for myself but usually they are no way the price of this cable .i usually use lorad 2.5 silver plated cable to which ive had no issues.however after listening to this new cable it looks like im going to have to upgrade them all again. the copper in the new cable was more harder and it cut more brittle than normal copper.that must be the single grain crystal design making the difference. plus this new cable had many layers of different materials to keep the noise out.i know it sounds unbelievable and im all for been very weary when it comes to this snake oil subject and in the beginning i didnt believe any of this including speaker cable and interconnects.but after a few years of asking the same old questions , i am starting to believe cables do make a difference.
I run in the new single thick coil power cables by boiling water with a kettle.
I have an amazing cable I think you'd really like, amazing change in sound quality, more musical and the soundstage is transformed. It's also a bargain at only £50k per meter. Magic beans also available on request.
I was a skeptical as they come when I first heard about these ubeaut aftermarket power cables. I had bought some fairly expensive interconnects and speaker wire, and could not say I could hear any real difference to speak of from any of them. So why should a power cable which has nothing to do with sound make any difference? Well I got a Consonance power cable thrown in with a Butler Audio amp I bought, and I was astounded by the difference.
I kept switching back and forth between it and the standard cable to make sure it wasn't my imagination. No cable to that time had ever made such a big impact on my system as that cable did. I have since bought some Furutech Alpha series power cable and have made up my own cables. The weird thing is not every device shows the same massive gain. Some are so small it is barely if at all noticeable, while other devices are like a punch in the face.
You say you kept switching back and forth to make sure it wasn't your imagination. What you need to do to make sure it's not your imagination is have someone else switch the cables without you knowing which one is in.
@@arpakyna that test is reserved for small minded impressionable people.
Dodgy..... welcome aboard.
It's called placebo ... you pay more for the same thing so it has to sound better ... like putting stripes on a car lol !!
@@janinapalmer8368 , oh ye of little faith.
so Paul, explain to me this if you would, you say thin strand gets you better highs, but from breaker box to outlet is 12 awg roamex, how then, even if we use your power cable, does the kind of power to produce better highs get to the outlet for your cable to then carry over to the equipment??? (if the thin strand is not everpresent from the outlet to the breakerbox and then also to the power plant?) Not being combative, just want this avenue to be made sense to me....
8:54 ... I think you meant to say copper. I thought that in commercial buildings the standard was conduit with 12 GA. solid copper wire.
You mentioned aluminium which was used for a short time for residential wiring. I rented a place that had aluminium wiring and it was dangerous. The contact at the breaker box became unreliable and the voltage was fluctuating between the two 120 volt line. The lights were getting brighter and dimmer as I used different appliances. I fixed it by re securing all the wires in the breaker box. I only lived there two years.
In this context, I'm sure he meant to say copper. But, aluminum, while less popular, is still used for electrical power wiring. Because it expands and contracts at a different rate than copper, there are lots of specifications on making connections and tightening screws. Also, most of the what you see in the big high tension towers is aluminum. It has low resistance and is much lighter than copper.
Also, electrical code forbids Romex type cable in commercial and industrial indoor applications. There, 12AWG THHN in metal conduit is required for 15 amp circuits, and armoured (BX) cable is the only exception.
Aluminum wire was often used in residential between 1969 and 1976 when the price of copper went to the moon.
The aluminum wire would be 12/2 to handle 15 amps, whereas copper would be 14/2 for the same current capacity.
Aluminum wires themselves are safe, the connections are the main concern for overheating and fire risk. Aluminum over time oxidizes, and the coating of aluminum oxide on the outer surface of the conductor is an insulator, and causes connections to heat, arc and expand / contract compounding the problem until the connection burns up.
You can live safely in a home with aluminum wires, but the connections need to be checked for tightness, coated with anti-oxidant gel, and overall be done with care. Aluminum wire has zero tolerance for sloppy termination.
While aluminum wiring is now illegal in residential installations (due to all the electrical fires it's caused throughout history), it is still permitted in commercial and industrial installations. I have no idea why. The physics and the dangers of aluminum wire are still the same.
@@Orcinus24x5 the service cable coming into your house is aluminium
I don't think all engineers hear a difference. I know many who don't. What do recording studios use I wonder?
Where should the special power cable start? At your power regenerator I suppose.
In theory the only signal that should be in a power cable is 50 or 60hz, if it affects the sound then it stands to reason that the sound signal somehow resonates with the power cable, in that case it should extend from the AC/DC transformer as far as possible, preferably all the way to the wall. It would be interesting to conduct an experiement to see if the sound signal can be detected in the power cable itself, and possibly in other plugs on the same circuit.
The AMD (anger management device) is present on the right side of the video frame for when all goes wrong after assembly and testing at PS audio.
A cable is a cable is a cable. Do copper, make it thick enough to deliver the power. Plug it in. Rinse and repeat.
Leather is leather is leather, right?
A garden of roses will produce roses and a garden of tulips will give tulips'n stuff... something like that
Question: Why cant the equipment internal power supplies not be improved to the point where full performance is realised as long as the supply voltage is in tolerance and of reasonable quality taking into account typical fluctuations and noise? For instance designing with larger regulation headroom, more storage capacitance? Is there a property in the cable that does not exist in an electronic component or practical circuit that cannot be fitted inside the equipment?
Short answer: it's a mix of solid and stranded BS mixed togerher that makes Paul cough while trying to explain it and blaming it on fires.
As usual with power cables, there's actually zero science in the mix.
But I atill love Paul. 👍
Saw a measurement between expensive audioquest and a rusted cable. Negligible difference.
I recon as long as the cables are not damaged, it should be just fine. The only thing i can come up with is that with heavy amps, you need a sturdy cable.
If there’s a difference you can HEAR you can measure it, that’s an engineer talking. Do a double blind test to prove it is real, that’s a scientist talking. There’s a difference you can FEEL, that’s a rich guy that have more money than common sense sooner to be milked for cash. That’s not objectivism, science is the process that gave us semiconductors to play music and it was not by feeling that amplifier designs and recording supports changed a lot, it was by measurable evidence. Get your nostalgia and your ego at check, your hearing degrades with age, as long as your paycheck increases you hearing shrinks, no money will compensate for that
Buy it or don’t buy it. Simple. Ford, Dodge, Chevy you pick that. Coke or Pepsi? You pick that. Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, your local pizzerias, you pick the one you like. Whatever anyone, anywhere is offering, try it and if you don’t like the result, return it. Simple. I’m amazed by the people that think their thoughts and comments on this or any video are making a difference. You and your comments don’t matter. Someone told you they did and they were wrong. Oh, wait... that’s my opinion and it doesn’t matter.
Best comment here! Hands down. 👍
Agreed!
Hahaha... Funny one
Ford, Dodge or Chevy?
Let's ride the bike instead.
Great thankyou Paul, but surely that means we need to change the cables from our supply transformers out in the field to our power outlets aswell by using both solid drawn and flexible conductors. Mine are approx 400m across the field so this could be quite expensive. I'm in no way dissing what you have said but find it hard to believe that a 300mm cable change could alter the sound that much when my supply cables are 400m to the transfomer and then 64373m from the power station. Thats an impressive 215,910 times longer than the my amp supply cable. Sorry.
It would be nice if you could do an audio test with your gear next to that supply transformer, Yes that would probably dictate a headphone based test, and you'd need a friendly electrician to rig it up.
The only conclusion I can make of all this high-end power lead thing, is that there are quite a few issues with having a power lead anywhere near the back of your audio gear, as in speaker leads & interconnects. otherwise, as you said, we are only talking 0.0001% or the wire between your gear and the power generators. Maybe high end needs to run on batteries, and keep the AC well away.
- as in high end leads couple less into the surrounding rats nest behind your HiFi.
Is there a microphone and software test that can be done to show how different power cables sound?
yes but never in this channel
The only way I can think of a cable affecting sound quality would be if the cable picks up or emits electromagnetic interference. If it emits interference and you can hear it, there is probably some part of your system that is defective, or unproperly shielded. Moving your power cable away from this equipment may help. It it picks up interference and you can hear it, the thing that is powered must have the worst power supply in the universe. Other things that can affect the sound is the presence/lack of an earth wire (ground loop) and a really bad contact (ex: heavy oxydation).
Changing the throwaway cable with a $200 cable may incidentally fix these problems. But changing the throwaway with another throwaway may have fixed the problem the same way.
Most power in the US and elsewhere is very dirty and full of noise. Note that hospitals go to incredible lengths to "clean up" the power to their radiological imaging systems (as is the case with their dedicated backup generators).
@@Telemed911 Mains certainly is noisy, but a well designed power supply will convert it into nice, clean DC, that's its job! Radio imaging is a different thing, radio signals are harder to deal with than audio signal (much higher frequency). And if we are talking about sound, medical ultrasound is way more sensitive than what bats can hear, let alone humans.
PS Audio makes some great products but should steer more clear from snake oil to grow credibility overall...this is what PS Audio advertises for the PerfectWave AC12 power cable qualities:
1. PCOCC single crystal construction
2. 8 gauge power cable
3. Quad shielded low noise
4. Hollow tube conductors for treble performance
5. Rectangular conductors for midrange performance
6. Multiple gauge conductors for bass performance
7. Gold plated connectors
8. Welded connector to conductor
9. Quiet for digital
10. Unrestricted for analog
Paul, sorry, but why do you allow such snake oil talk for PS Audio (item 3,4,5,6,9,10)? If a true professional blind test came to such conclusions, we could all have some respect for it. So how are these points made? Without either measurements or blind tests to support those claims, they all sound like an incredible pile of snake oil talk for a few feet of power cable (that are in series with many factors more of house wiring). I wish you could promote a much better no-nonsense approach to audiophile performance and whenever something "smells" a bit like snake oil, do some honest true blind tests and publish them here; and it will be truly awesome.
3 conductor 12 gauge Romex --TO-- 10 gauge stranded, shielded, 99.9% oxygen free copper, gold plated --TO-- 14 gauge MTW lead soldered to cladded components. Forgive me if I think you should have more scientific information to back up the justification for a $500 dollar power cable. If it works, great. Inductance is magical no one really gets how it works either. But it should be easy enough to see if noise is being omitted, prevented or the cable is somehow changing the power values with pretty basic instrumentation. But yet you tell your viewers to just try it and laugh, as if to imply that it's not worth your time to investigate the reason for its value just take my word for it. Stop comparing cooking to audio it makes you appear frustrated.
I hate to complain about free videos, but people’s time isn’t free. 10 minutes into a 13 minute video, and still hasn’t started to answer the question. It’s finally answered in the last minute or two, but it’s a very brief and simple answer because there’s no time left to go into detail.
Hi, totally agree with the first pjtruslow comment! when you put your 200$ mains cable, what about the rest of the mains network inside of your walls? Remember that the mains network is in serial with your mains cable. Will the 2m expensive mains cable do magic? The job of cleaning the signal and store the power is done by the power supply. Putting a good quality mains cable you can just avoid adding some problems, but that's it. Does it worth to spent 200$? You decide :-) I am working in a very serious and famous company selling some very expensive active speakers. They are very powerful. Our mains cables are just normal ones :-)
Here's a thought. What if the superior (expensive) mains cable fixes the evil which the skimpy supplied cable induces? My receiver (95 watts x7) came with 4' of truly craptastic 18g wires I wouldn't power my clock radio/alarm with. Maybe, the super cords Paul sells do make a difference at high volume demand.
@@jamesplotkin4674 hi James, the cheap cable will not introduced more problem than those already introduced by the rest of the mains network (before the wall socket), and not more than an expensive cable. The problems don't start at the wall socket. The final cable is only a few part of the mains network. As I told, for a very powerful active speaker (class D, 8200 W each speaker) we use a normal mains cable. The job to clean the signal is done by the power supply in the product, not by a simple cable.
There is no powercable good enough to make up for the carbage coming out of the wallsocket.
Exactly thats why you will also need one of pauls power plants.
EXACTLY!
Not to mention the completely standard cables and internal wiring in studio devices used to produce the music you're listening to.
All high end audio equipment should come with open disclaimer .. " this equip. is guaranteed to sound good to YOU EARS only if connected by HI END KABULLS " ...
OTHER THAN THESE MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR EARS , INSTALLATION BASE , ASSOCIATED EQUIP. for which we are not responsible.
Legally or otherwise..
OK just please answer me one question... Why recording studios don't use these very expensive speaker cable's,interconect's,power cable's etc.? They do use quality product's but not exagerated things. So if it works fine in studio where the quality of sound is everything it means that it is perfect to use in home to reproduce good quality sound like it's intended. All big "high end"audio companies are altering the sound in a certain way to fool the consumer that that's the "good sound" the "real sound" but in reality there is no need for all that mambo-jumbo,snake oil,cryogenically frozen crap! Sorry but that's the truth and all big high end companies know that!
PS audio: cables make a noticeable difference. But the high noise and distortion of our overpriced dacs are totally ok.
But he sounds friendly so he knows what he's talking about.
1:10 Cambridge! The center of the Great British sound!
I have a CA Dacmagic Plus. I can highly recommend that for digital audio playback.
You have a valid point on the oversized transformers, when it comes to impedance.
It is called high damping factor.
But "high end" power cables is just beyond my suspense of disbelief.
Total bunch of hogwash. Not only am I an accredited EE, my career is in broadcast engineering, primarily in high end post production and mastering. You know, the people and facilities that make your BluRays. Plus I have a lot of experience with recording studios. So.....
1) As stated below and on countless other forums, there is no accredited scientific evidence supporting the claims of these power cables. None! These audiophool trinkets are the laughing stock of the professional electronics industry as a whole.
2) Why are these effects solely limited to high end audio? What about the ultra sensitive scientific measurement devices in labs. I once got an extensive Saturday tour of JPL as a member if the local Los Angeles IEEE. All that gear to receive minuscule analog signals from deep space yet they use plain old $3 power cords. Ditto that for fuses as well. And don't discount the fact that these are some of the top scientific and most educated minds in the world. I think they know what they are doing.
3) These power cords and associated accessories are also not used in the pro audio and video industry. I know! Now there are some esoteric recording studios run by fools that do subscribe but none of the top studios buy into this crap. Why? because they employ real systems and maintenance engineers.
4) The argument often eschewed by the audiophools of all that cheap Romex cable in your walls is perfectly valid. Any engineering system is only as strong as it's weakest link. Audio power cables are no exception - especially at six feet in length.
5) Another audiophool claim that the power cord is the first six feet the component sees is also seriously flawed. All electrical current, AC or DC, runs in a loop. The current always returns to the source, in this case the street utility transformer. So much for the "first" six feet!
6) Paul's power cords have different internal conductor geometry for bass, midrange, and treble. Care to explain the physics behind that?
7) Almost without exception the "designers" of these power cords and cables lack any traceable background in electrical, chemical, materials engineering and physics. Oh there are many claims of top scientific credentials but you never find verifiable employment or traceable educational credentials. Bunch of charlatans.
You are mostly right,actually i didnt believe that shit about speakers cables giving better sound at all,so i used lamp cables for connecting speakers(maybe 1mm2),i used them that way for quite some time till i bought some random box of electric components and inside were set of thick speaker cables(they are maybe 5mm2 or something),so i put those new ones on,just because they looked better than shitty white ones i had.And believe me or not,i heard that difference,and everyone else did.Dont get me wrong i still believe its because that cable was thicker,not because it was made by some fancy company,but difference is still there.However i dont belive that anyone should think that two different cables made of same material,with same girth,from two different companies will sound totally different
Well yes, any electrical wire with enough resistance will compromise performance based on current demands. After all a wire is a resistor among other things as well, capacitance and inductance. I'm sure no engineer here will argue that. And a speaker is a power (current) hungry device. Also if I have an 18ga power cord on a 1kw amp running close to full power, then replace that 18ga cord with a #12 or even #14, I do expect to hear a decent difference as well. That's basic I2/R or Ohm's law. It's this junk science and magic fairy dust we professionals have a problem with. Like Paul's power cords having different geometry conductor for bass, midrange, and treble. That's just hogwash. I think he is trying to equate RF theory to an audio cable, a power cord no less. First skin effect has no significance in the audio band. I'm not saying it doesn't occur. Of course it does at any frequency. The issue is the magnitude which is miniscule at 20khz. And the further glaring fraud here is this is a power cord. Even if there was significant skin effect at 20khz we needed to compensate for in audio signal cables, why would that matter on a power cord mostly conducting a 60hz sinewave. And let's take this a bit further. If the hollow conductor in the cord Paul claims is for treble response, being a waveguide it will in fact be a very good RF conductor. So now we have optimized a power cord to aid with the ingress of RF noise! So while this cable construction has no positive benefit for an audio component, it does have some potential negative benefits. This just shows how silly and ridiculous the audiophile vendor community is.
Show me the evidence. Show me these measurements. used in what medical field? Don't bother with that Shunyata crap. His products lack any recognized safety certification. There is no way they would be allowed to be used in patient care facilities. He may have done off hours testing with a doctor customer to make his claims but that's it. As for the credentials, thre's nothing to search. All most of these guys list is generic information. No employers names, no university attended. How can such be searched and verified?
LOL! That video! I called that scam out months ago. Notice he is testing an 18ga power cord against one of his #12 or #14ga power cords. Rigged test. Of course the 18ga cord will show less current delivery. It has more resistance. Why not compare his overpriced power cord to a commodity #12 or #14ga cord. Let's see those numbers. As for the certifications, what are they? Why not simply list them rather than generically saying you have them. Furthermore just because the connector he uses is UL listed, that does not automatically mean any power cord he makes with that connector is also UL listed. Far from it. UL and any other recognized lab requires the ENTIRE ASSEMBLY to be tested and listed. The use of listed parts does not extend to the entire cable assembly. And over on AVS Forum a technician who works at one of the member hospitals called out in his press did confirm they do not use any non-listed products. That's an automatic rejection. The DTCD test is also not valid. All it proves his power cord can deliver fast RF pulses. So what? Our power systems is a 60hz sinewave. What difference does a power cord designed for RF make? Furthermore why have a power cord that excels in RF propagation? And note Mr. Shunyata's bio. The only employment listed by name is the NSA. How convenient! good luck getting any information about their employees. No mention of universities attended, no degrees or coursework listed.
@@sgals3395 so you're telling me that your home system is going to pull over 400 amps of peak current?
$100 is a small price to pay for placebo effect. Some times I buy equipment right before it goes on discount, just so it will sound better to me.
more like 7000 Dollars for their powercables
Do a video of a double blind test with people consistently picking the expensive power cable.
I've yet to see one on all the audio channels on UA-cam or anywhere else.
You wont see one and I have seen audiophiles on UA-cam actuality claiming that double blind tests are flawed, that's their get-out for not doing them of course.
Paul, I think you have a great opportunity to help put his debate to rest: With your new, larger facility, why not set up a lab to demonstrate how different power cables (and even interconnects) can affect sound? I'm skeptical but keeping an open mind. If I could try it out before shelling out big bucks on a power cable, that would be great. :-)
I like your videos, Paul. But you lost some of your credibility in my eyes after this video. The mind sees what it chooses to see. Or rather hears what it chooses to hear. The placebo effect is very important. I am a doctor and I can see it every day at my job and we go to some lengths to account for the placebo effect in clinical trials. So I dare you to make a double blind testing to prove the differences in audio you are claiming.
Larry Niles no one is telling you what you can or cannot hear. But people are rightfully saying how these modifications actually affect a piece of gear. You can hear what you want. We're more concerned with the output of the gear. And this snake oil power cord does nothing. But if you spend lots of money on it, I guarantee you will hear a difference.
Problem is double blind tests are flawed too. I don't know why people care so much anyway. If people want to spend their money this way. It doesn't affect you in any way. If you just like helping people. Why not help people that really need it? People with too much money on their hands are probably doing okay by themselves, and don't even want your help anyway. But there's lots of other people out there that would be more then happy to take it I'm sure. Especially since you're a doctor. Or at least you claim to be anyway. I'm not calling you out, but this is the internet my friend. And I've seen some serious shite in the past 20 plus years I've spent on it. That's for sure. Plus if I don't say that. Some troll will probably come along, and call me gullible for even giving you the benefit of the doubt. 😂😂😂
If you can't show it you don't know it.
Show us that you can hear the difference, talk is cheap, demonstrate your claims or else shut up.
I dare you too do a double blind to prove you cannot tell. I certainly agree there can be a placebo effect. but, that can go both ways
I routinely do blind testing and make a point not to know what A or B is before listening. It makes it actually easier to not know because it allows me to relax and get away from any preconceived notions. So, I am with you. Placebos are indeed powerful - in medicine, as I am sure you're well aware, some times they're more effective than medicines and cures. Powerfukl indeed and not necessarily always a bad thing.
I have a couple questions Paul. 1 are you using aluminum for your electrical wiring in your buildings? That's a no no. 2 do you know about "geoengineering" weather management programs? When you go to England try greenlaning , dirtbike preferred or walking but you will see more country side that way.
Is that hammer to your left for fixing the units?
Employee Motivation...
Have you ever tried running the romex straight out of the wall cavity (no wall socket or junction box) and terminated it straight into the power transformer in an amplifier (no back panel IEC socket either) to see how that sounds?
Yes there are all sorts of regulatory/code issues, however as a one off test, it would be interesting.
as in how far back from the amplifiers back panel does this flash cable have to run?
To me, an ideal power lead should have a good twist in the three conductors & a good shield so that no AC mains born noise can couple into my intereconnects & speaker leads.
Where I used to work, they used flat wide plated copper strap as earthing/shielding connection, as that gave the best results when they sent their gear of for EMI etc testing/certification, so then would having a dedicated wide flat earthing strap from the back of your audio gear to a dedicated earth point help in getting the noise floor down etc.
In that case, stick a test signal through one of your amps, show the output on a high resolution oscilloscope, then put one of your "high-end" power cables on and show the difference.
Which would be the case if an oscilloscope can measure everything that makes a difference in what we hear… and it doesn't.
@@VideoArchiveGuy lol
Maybe not an oscilloscope, but an audio analyzer would. Paul claims that bass is lost on stranded and the highs are thin with solid core. Clearly the cable is affecting frequency response or maybe distortion at certain frequencies.
I find it odd as an engineer for another engineer to discover a combination of materials which apparently makes a difference to sound, yet is totally unaware what change is happening and has no curiosity to investigate. It's especially strange considering he's selling them and has a vested interest in demonstrating to his customers that his cables do make a difference.
@@sswpp8908 All you need to do to tell whether there is a difference is to LISTEN.
The problem with measurement tools is they only measure what they are designed to, and our auditory systems pick up on things that aren't shown on an oscilloscope.
Wire/cable current noise is different according to current direction, IOW current noise for positive half cycle is different to current noise for negative half cycle, IOW wires/cables are directional.
Test equipment employs full wave rectification so will never display differences in half cycles.
Also cable current noise is slew rate dependent and also has directional decay time behaviour, sine wave by definition means constant rate of change which means noise mechanisms are not excited as they are by dynamic/music signals and therefore are not apparent when using sine test signal.
Once one accepts that wires/cables have directional properties the 'errant' subjectively noted system behaviours are perfectly explainable and also are able to be eliminated.
I use self made non-directional cables throughout my system and this enables clean clear spectrally balanced sound with outstanding staging and depth imaging.
Swapping in one only 'standard' cable be it power, signal or speaker cable causes collapse of depth imaging and overall subjective distortion.
If I revert all cables to 'standard' cables my quite decent system becomes unlistenable in comparison.
My modified $5.00 K-Mart power strip renders any system 'hi-fi' and is universally preferred by multiple test subjects.
Who cares about the power station transmission lines, transformers, street wiring and house wiring, the last section of AC supply cable is the most important, similarly loudspeaker internal cable is of great importance subjectively.
Reversing direction of signal cable or speaker cable in one channel only causes sideways skewing of centre/mono information and loss of depth information and cannot be corrected by balance control.....this is cable directionality at work and is to be expected.
Lesson over, class dismissed.
Your system needs a turbo encabulator to sound its best, though.
@@schorman Nah they sound bad.
I'd be more interested in a "What's inside our amplifiers" video.
Using a good screened mains cable is worth the money. It stops electro-magnetic stray into the rest of the system. I have used many and have had good results. Get good equipment first and buy a mains cable of 5 or 10% of the unit cost. Solid core best but it can be impossible to place. Been there. Now use a cable that has multiple (8) smaller gauge individually insulated wires (each) for live and neutral with heavier gauge earth. Sound great for detail and bass definition. Merlin funnel web FYI.
I have actually installed via soldering to eliminate the IEC socket, as heavy an appliance (wall A/C) power cord which still has a three prong plug into a standard 15/20 amp receptacle. I can buy a screen (shield) to go around this cord. Should I only ground one end and which end should that be?
What’s the big hammer for 🤔
It's for the phono amp assembly.
To kill the snake if it doesn't give enough oil.
What's the use for the rubber Hammer in the corner?
The rubber hammer is because it won't leave marks when he adjusts the listeners who can't hear the difference in power cables?
I always laugh when I hear the term "oversized" when referring to anything from speaker driver magnets to transformers. It's exactly the right size! That's why the engineer chose it. 😁
Rolf Hawkins The only industry this is common practice in is hi-end land. Not in medical equipment, not in highly sensitive measuring devices, and so on... Oversized is just that ; oversized..... and thus overpriced. Whatever makes you happy, I guess.... :-?
Tubetinkerer exactly the audiophile group is the only group that makes any of these claims.
@ Rolf Hawkins That's probably because you're looking at this the wrong way. When I purchased my Rotel amp 18 years ago, there were none available for delivery, so the dealer lent me a Sansui amp of nominally the same capability. When it was replaced by the Rotel several weeks later, there were clearly audible differences, mainly in the bottom octaves. The only obvious difference between the amplifiers was the weight of the much larger transformer and power supply capacitors in the Rotel. When I needed to replace the Rotel temporarily with a Sony while I serviced the Rotel a year or so ago, the phenomenon of changed bass response was also readily perceptible. Even the missus noticed! The Sony, like the Sansui had a much smaller transformer. Perhaps it's a case of some engineers preferring undersized parts to save on weight and/or cost.
Of course a power amp is a totally different topic than a phono amp, preamp or DAC when it comes to having headroom in the transformer. Indeed, for a power amp, you are facing some dynamic load condition that depend on how loud you play and how hard your speakers are to drive. It's good for a power amp to have a transformer that can give you extra power that you need especially in the bass when playing loud. But Paul is talking phono amp...LOL
@ ThinkingBetter The engineering side of my brain wants to agree with you. Unfortunately, I have far too much experience of theory being flat out wrong. Most recently, medical theory very nearly killed me on Wednesday. Yesterday I left the hospital confined to a wheelchair. Within six hours I was walking again even though medical theory claims that the pharmaceuticals I was ingesting do not work. "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." LOL! I'm happy to give Paul the benefit of the doubt until I have the opportunity to test his claims for myself.
I don't know about power cords affecting sound, but I did have one dedicated power output on one breaker when my house was built for my primary audio and surround system.
Same here. Also added a power regenerator to it.
Of all the cables it's most easy to hear differences between power-cables.
I think that a normal power cable that is correctly sized for the load you're going to be applying on it is whaaaaat more than enough. If you're using a switching PSU inside of your appliances, well, no difference will be heard from a cheap 2 dollar cable and a 2k dollars cable.
An amp cannot be good without a good power supply. Current can be higher with better cable. Connect the dots.
Howdy.
I wonder if Eddy currents in the wire plays some role. There will be Eddy currents in a wire. That is my understanding.
Stranded wires will have surface resistance between strands. Eddy currents will generate losses. The equivalet for solid wires will be the specific resistivity of copper or aluminium. Smaller losses.
Have you tried building up the wire using enamelled copper strands ? Kinda like Litz wire. I understand that would reduce Eddy currents.
Regards.
You actually have to be an old man to hear the difference.
Regardless of the arguments, the auction connectors are important. Anyone that loves audio should upgrade their home wall sockets to premium or hospital grade, they're cheap and effective at making a more solid contact to the wire and plug. More surface area equates to better signal transfer.
Is it April 1st?
I probably would have to mail a question in or email but in the chance of paul reading this comment. I'm curious what your always doing with the equipment in front of you when you make these videos? Are you hand building components? Are you bench testing them? Fixing a broken product? You have 3 phono stages infront of you. What are you doing with them right now?
Ok...I had the freebie that came with my amplifier. I hooked it up and sounded fine to me. As with any hobby, I like to add new things and upgrade older things. Well I really disliked the look of the “cheapie” so I bought a “new to me“ power cord from an acquaintance. It looks pretty cool and does it sound better? 🤷🏼♂️ I don’t think so, but I sure like the look just as a car enthusiast likes his spark plug cables he upgraded! It’s a hobby! Do as you like. Spend what you can afford and for crying out loud let people enjoy their hobby without being a hater or so darn negative! If you don’t hear the difference and don’t want/have the cash for new cables...DON’T BUY ANY!
This video is so fundamentally great
Have you tried a double blind test?
Power cables do change the sound but amplifiers are designed to be used with the provided cable so why color the sound. Its usually not a good change in my experience.
In the era of B & W television
THERE WAS NO " COLOURED SOUND "
Yes Please. I'll like some more.
Does a 240v power source (like we have here in Australia) sound better than a 110v power source?
Audiophile high end power cables - when did I first saw one of those? I think it was our 3rd or 4th grade field trip on the USS George Washington on the submarine's sonar room back in 1981. If its good enough for the US Navy, its probably good enough for your high end audio gear, right?
Paul talks about firmer bass through the solid cable and better highs through the stranded cable? Wouldn't these differences be measurable with something? a change in shape of the bass wave or a dB increment... an oscilloscope?, so far in my life as an enthusiast, if the is a difference in the sound, it can always be measured with something.....other than just golden ears.
I understand the theory of the two cable constructions on speaker cables........but how does this transfer to the power cable which is only coming in at mains frequency.......there is no high frequency component by which will travel better down the stranded cable. As others have pointed out, and what about the other 200 miles of wire that may be between your amp and the power station- shouldn't it get the same treatment.
no, I haven't tried to see what a difference it would make, but even if there was a difference, its unlikely that the cables could be swapped out quickly enough for my acoustic memory to register, but if it could be set up somewhere I'm willing to give it a go.
Very interesting, Paul, thank you!
In a way, the power cable is an audio cable. On a sheet of paper, draw a capital T. Next to its left top end, write "AC", to its right write "speakers". This is the (power) amplification path. This is what is referenced when an amp-designer claims a very short amplification path. Now write "source" at the bottom of the T.
The horizontal path starts with AC being de-AC-ed: converted from a polarity switching (alternating) current to a pulsating one-directional current. This is not DC, but pulsating. This undergoes a bit of treatment to make it more like during current (DC), but not perfect. Noise coming in here, is generally not filtered out. Electrical engineers design these AC-power-circuits under the assumption that AC is clean, when power companies already for decades worry about how much noise is reflected back into the grids by dirty consumer electronics. (Imagine they cannot use the grid as their own ethernet anymore because of noise.) Have you heard a click through the speakers when your HVAC switched on? Or your fridge? That click was AC pollution. It could have been relayed via your in-wall AC cabling, or as an electromagnetic pulse via the air. Listen to your music system at peak household and commute time. Now listen again when the wind cries mary (i.e. after all the jacks are in the boxes and the clowns ave gone to bed.) You can hear happiness - peace and quiet in the music. You have a challenge to get that peace and quiet into your system at times everybody is awake, not just when you should sleep.
The AC cable between the wall outlet and the amplifier or source component is an antenna. It can both conduce and receive pollution, or may transmit pollution when you play heavy music with a power draining bass that causes the power stage to draw power form the wall in a way that has AM bandwidth characteristics. Shield the cable, and you will hear the difference. Now try to make a shielded cable that is flexible, does not throttle Amperes, has excellent contacts that do not introduce noise (e.g. through capacitance in a less good contact) and turn this into a commercial product sold via distributors via shops - how much would that cost?
The T happens a couple times. With a discrete power amplifier, you likely have the current amplification in this box. Then the preamplifier does its T providing voltage to the power amp on the source input. The phono-prepreamplifier in its turn amplifies the micro-phono signal to a level that the preamplifier can handle as source, again in a similar T. Each time, the AC comes into the T and goes out, modulated, to the next domain. Each T could allow AC noise straight through, meaning each stage before the power amp can pass the noise or its consequential damage on to the next amplification stage.
Now imagine, a phono stage amplifies a 30 times from 5 mV to 150 for typical moving iron/magnet cartridges, but a 0.4 mV moving coil cartridge already needs 375x amplification to get at 150 mV. Then the pre amp may add some 12 times in Volt but some current too and we end, likely, up with about 30x amplification. At 60A peak per channel, my power amp would multiply that another 60 times.
Here we get cumulative explosion. From the 0.4 mV source to the 60A into the speaker cable, we have accumulated between 500,000 and 600,000 times amplification. How difficult can it be to imagine that something can go wrong here that becomes audible when electrical engineers with zero degree in human hearing, relying on simple rules of thumb, design audio circuits?
Play the Chinook from Pink Floyd's Wall and see if your wife walks to the window to see if one is landing in your garden. Play some 1950s-1960s RCA Living Stereo recordings of live performances. They used two or three microphones and there is no down-mix of multi-mike * multi-channel recordings, so all the phase-based spatial clues are still in the recording. You'll hear the instruments well placed in space. Play the sing-along track from the Weavers in Carnegie Hall where the musicians are behind each other in the right speaker. Can you walk front to back between your speakers and stick your finger in their mouth or instrument? You "get it"when you hear coughs in the giant space. And the audience starts singing along. In your limited room, does this track sound like a huge (6,500 people) concert hall? No? You have a challenge if that is what you want to hear. It can be done. BTW, this is audiophile territory and not necessarily "music".
did you do blind tests?
would better power cables be preferable on other equipment such as pc, TV and game console to a positive effect.
Short answer: no. Long answer: Nooooo. They don't make a difference for audio components either.
@@travis1240 have u done a comparasion to verify that
Sometimes people just need to buy Placebo Effect
I think it's the matching of different cables to different speakers and rooms that make the difference. For example I could be using expensive wires that sound fuller and with more bass, but if my room is small and my speakers big and too energizing that would be detrimental and so I'd be better off with a less expensive cable and a thinner sound.
Based on the responses here I think another video is in order. But please spend the time talking about the physics, not going off on tangents... 😁
Electronic devices and the subtle fields around them interact with bodies and brains in ways only beginning to be understood. We are babes in the woods when it come to understanding the totality. In 50 years we are going to marvel at how primitive our understanding was.
I swear, I must be the only one who notices how much Paul leans on expensive audio gear, internals exposed and all.
JioFreedOfOphan Yeah, me too. Annoys me a bit, if I’m being honest :D
lol, I am always woried he knocks some thing off, or destroys something in someones office:)
like Peter Griffin
If you referance the NEC codes and check the wiring tables they give insulation types etc but they also give you the max voltage amperage etc stranded wire is always rated as being able to carry more this usually doesn't matter because of over current devices for the load range you are looking at
Like he said "Try it yourself" If you cant afford Hi End Equipment, You wont notice the differences on your Logitech Speakers. Cheers...
Fully agree on your approach to development - recognizing differences may be the starting point for new developments, technology, and better understanding. It’s not always the other way round. - For example, when Penicillin was discovered/developed it was because somebody kept his bio-lab in a messy state and had fungus spores in all petridishes. While a disciplined EE eng would have just cleaned up the lab, this messy scientist put the petridish under the microscope first, and noticed there are no bacteria where there is fungus and vice versa, and gave it a long thought, which eventually led to penicillin, ie a fungus based medication that kills bacteria, ie the first antibiotic in history. - So, detailed observation (rather than text book “science” that’s already known for decades) CAN be the starting point for new things - but that is a controversial way, no doubt.