Do Audiophile Power Cables Make A Difference?
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- We are sometimes asked our opinion of exotic power cords and cables and whether or not they are beneficial or worth the added cost over the stock power cords that come with A/V electronics. With the help of Blue Jeans Cable, we explore the importance of properly designed power cords while simultaneously debunking the myths and bogus claims perpetuated by many exotic cable manufacturers and A/V review magazines. Always remember the Audioholics.com mantra "only poorly designed cables can be sonically distinguishable" and you will never make a bad purchasing decision. Once all of the nonsensical claims are peeled away, only three very basic and essential metrics are left to ensure quality power transfer from your wall outlet to your A/V gear which we discuss in detail in this UA-cam video and related article.
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#power #audiophile #cables - Наука та технологія
I truly believe in power cables. Without them, my equipment won't turn on.
Hahaha that's true!
I have a friend that works at the CERN. He was able to put some of my old cheap power cables in the most powerful particle accelerator in the world on an off shift. You would not be able to believe the difference it made to the sound! It now funnels muons, pions and quarks and changed the subatomic structure of the wire itself. Anyone want to buy them for $10k?
@@zackschindler8334 Sorry as I am waiting for the new Audioquest Quantum version. They will be pricy but you will be using the cable's superposition and entanglement to hear the audio in the next dimension. They achieved this using a carrot they stick on the cable as it proved to work better than their 72V battery. Cern in the year 2000 (this is the future) will be using carrots instead of their classical collider.
And it won’t turn u on either😜just saying…..
I 🧡U (:
As an electrician, I approve of this message. Especially about the lack of the UL listings.
'My 5k power cable made a HUGE difference, it really lighted things up...'
Approved by Robert Steich, Master Electrician. Thank you Robert!
@Mr Do that guy is rediculous. I would love Gene to comment on his silly wire pedalling video.
Robert, I'm so glad that Gene talked about the crap home wiring in most home. I wonder who many system installers pro and/or DIY add up or measure the load placed on the power circuit. Surely damn few. I'm considering running a dedicated 10ga 30amp circuit to my system just to be safe. 15 amps add up quick.
@@shannonwilliams6623 if Danny is such a badass then why doesn't he work at or for any one of the audiophile businesses such as let's say PS Audio?? Or Stereophile? Danny was founded by a UA-cam beggar who literally begged his viewers for money because he had to move. Has his daughter crawling all over him during his videos. Danny is an arrogant man who is nothing but a snake oil salesmen who uses his channel to pedal is products period...
Quick answer: Yes, power cords make a difference. Without them I can’t hear any music whatsoever. This was with a properly done double blind test by the way.
LOL 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Science can't explain everything but It can explain how it work. Sound related topic here is kind of chicken and egg issue ... but different power cord do affecting the sound. But those danm expensive cable are really! too much. Haha
@@ryanling7319 They dont, end of story.
Got ya! True… ya gotta have one plugged in LOL
I changed the power cord on my microwave and now the popcorn tastes better ... I can even tell where the corn kernel came from. 😁
I bought a hospital grade power cable because it's 14 AWG and also the wall end of the cord has a really nicely shaped plug that's easy to grab. I think it was $12.00 US.
I upgraded my system to all Shunyata power management and the audio improvement was very noticeable. Expensive but I found I appreciated the value.
Must be most probably related to your expectations bias. But as Gene says, DBT listening is almost impossible with power chords/conditioners, that lead to psychoacoustics/Placebo effect.
@@vintageflanker7096 False. Not only can it be heard which I have A/B tested if you review the data testing by Shunyata on how it does effect audio and signal improvements you will see why their products are used in the Medical testing fields then migrated to Audio.
@@garykarczewski6678 cope
@@munmunyee ?????????????
If "audiophiles" were actually concerned with real measurements as well as the actual limitations of human audio physiology, there would be 90% less companies out there hawking products designed for and marketed to fools.
I own a few AudioQuest NRG-2 power cables. Magnolia reps got me good when I first got in to home theater. Haha!
I was ready to buy one until I did some research on UA-cam. Plenty of people have tested these junk chords by now and they do nothing.
Same here. Doh!
shameful upvote. we can always sell them on ebay if we are unscrupulous.
An explanation that made sense to me (from Hans Beekhuyzen) is when a high current device like your power amp draws power a electromagnetic field surrounds the cord which is modulated by the power demands and can induce noise on your your low level interconnects even though they are shielded unless great care is taken to separate them and, this can be difficult with many devices in your rack, this is why a well shielded heavy gauge power cable can make a difference. Please comment.
Hans Beekhuyzen uses a lot of technical sounding mumbo jumbo but he's a quack. He refuses to use any measurements to back up his claims.
@@DisconnectedAudio agreed 100%, saw his UA-cam channel (Hans Beekhuyzen) and sensed that he’s more like a newscaster reading from a teleprompter rather than a reviewer or audiophile. Basically, Hans and a couple of others are just clueless but useful idiots to brands that sponsored their channel. Very fortunate that such misinformation are spread even given their limited audience and channel followers
Very rare that can occur if you use shielded interconnects. Virtually nothing will get through to double braided double foil shielded coax like Belden 1694A. Also, use XLR anytime you can and try to route power leads away from speaker cables and interconnects. I've never found a need to use shielded power cables.
@@Audioholics correct, use XLR for long runs, fuss-free and no worries of interferences. Much cheaper and more effective than those exotics cables that cost a kidney yet does nothing. Acoustics principles are known and proven scientifically for so long that it’s sad that unscrupulous sellers use disinformation to mislead the general public.
Your power cord has equal current flowing in both directions which creates magnetic fields that cancel each other out.
my local audio shop is trying to sell me upgraded power cables, i told them hold off and let me look into it. glad i did.
The rage is "hospital grade" power cables. $100+ per meter.
I run stock power cords on my full system but because I wanted to test for myself I put an audioquest NRG 4 on my main speaker amp (emotiva xpa2 gen 2). On a completely unrelated note I have for sale one 3ft Audioquest NRG 4 ;)
I can see how people without any knowledge of electrical systems could believe power cables make a difference but to anyone with even the most basic knowledge (most audiophiles i imagine) its just ridiculous they coukld believe a power cable could make any difference. Its insanity! These people need to be locked up in a padded room especially they audio reviews claiming " oh this cable really added volume to the mids!" wtf!
The only reason folks push obnoxiously priced power cords is simple - money. If you call them out and ask them to do a blind test, they won't. They say it can't be measured with equipment, you have to hear it to believe it. 🙄
They're pushing this junk because they're getting a kickback or a commission.
Thank you for the video!
Man, this industry so needs your voice of reason. I've watched a few vids now and you are by far the most believable commentator on the toob. Thanks brah.
Please talk about ground loops. I have one that I isolated to my cable box cable. I put a noise filter on the cable to suppress it but is there a better way to eliminate it , instead of just covering it up? I would love to learn more....Thanks for teaching us so much, Gene!
Im running a Krell KAV400xi integrated and the manual says to NOT use a 3rd party cord. It came with a 6 foot 14 awg power cord. I needed a shorter one so I purchased a 14 awg UL certified cord for 13 bucks. Spent the other $287 on actual vinyl so I had something to listen to on my system.
Thank you for discussing this topic! I am a metallurgist and quality assurance engineer, also a lifelong audiophile seeking equipment with high value/quality per the investment. The only time I have replaced a power cord is when the installation required a longer or shorter cable, or one time I noticed a power cord was getting warmer than expected, (damaged). I have had great success with replacement power cords in every configuration and length from Monoprice and Amazon, they are quite inexpensive. I usually opt for 12 gauge if available, considering the wiring in my home is mostly 14 gauge between the breaker box and wall outlets. Best wishes to all-
Thank You. Instantaneous comparison is a huge deal. Even with speakers to just get an idea of "character" before extended listening (ie: warm, forgiving vs analytical & brutally revealing etc). I used to fool the factory reps and techs for some major brands with blind tests. Even moving a speaker a little can fool your senses in a blind test. My buddy had a cool Monster Cable display where you could move pre amp cables in and out of a "hum field" and listen to the difference in noise picked up, which was fun, but didn't translate into a practical application with the exception of some car/marine/aviation installs.
I don't agree with this at all. I had some terrible background hissing on my system. I swaped out the standard in-box power cord for a shielded Supra LoRad cable (think I paid 50 Euro for it) and the hissing disappeared.
Would the same principles apply to power strips with surge protection?
Surge protection is a good way to save expensive audio equipment during thunderstorms with lightnings nearby. Better to switch off any equipment from powerline. But if you did not do it those surge protectors can protect from overvoltage surges.
Little story:
The house I'm in years ago had ground loop audio problems, electric guitars with bad ground hum got worse in this house, some guitars that behaved elsewhere had hum, the relays in a professional video editing deck keep failing.
Finally I discovered only 110 volts was coming from the power outlets.
Finally a storm dropped a tree on the power service line.
The original service line was about 250 yards long, the wire was 1946 stock aluminum and corroded.
The service line was replaced and reconnected to a nearer pole (50yds),
All electric problems solved, 120 volts achieved.
Having good shielding around the RCA interconnect cables between your source and your preamplifier matters the most, because that signal is soon going to be AMPLIFIED. Any noise in that signal will be amplified too.
Just saw a Audioquest cable manufacturing demo her on YT... Hillarious... they invented cold welding they say... ( crimping) 😂😂😂 sadly comment are disabled on their channel... wonder why...
Great video. I like your reference to UL. I want to further point out another scam here. Some power cord vendors will buy OEM UL listed plugs and even IEC connectors. Then they claim "see our power cord is UL listed". WRONG! As you probably know Gene, replacement or OEM connectors are only UL listed by them selves. That listing does not extend to the entire cord assembly. In order to have a legally listed power cord, the entire assembled product must be submitted for testing. Just using UL listed plugs doesn't cut it. And what is scary is the unknown raw wire they use? Is it rated and listed for AC line voltage application?
And another issue are these UL listed OEM plugs and wall outlets that are then re-plated with some exotic metal or cryo treated by the cable charlatans. Any listed electrical product that is modified beyond the OEM's instructions is no longer listed. That UL stamp on a modified plug or wall outlet now means nothing once it's re-plated or cryo treated. Harmless? You tell me? How was it plated? Is the plating metal compatible with the OEM surface plating or will it flake off over time and cause a metalized conductive track? Did the cryo treatment weaken the plastic to where the outlet or plug can split apart when connected exposing live terminals?
Well this hobby is all about experience and experiences.
I really wanted and new pair of speakers. The dealer brought them to my home. We listened and - nah. They didn’t bring the improvements I thought they might.
He looked behind my kit and suggested removing all the SMPS from the same distribution block. We listened, ooh, that sounded better! Free upgrade.
He said do you want to try something else?
Why not?, I said
He produced two mains cables. He plugged the first one into my amp.
We listened. It was incredible. The sound was a night and day improvement. Sound stage, texture and shape of bass notes.
He put the second into my dac. Again an improvement. Not as large but noticeable.
We removed both cables and my old system was back. We added the cables back and it was a vastly improved system. Not different sounding like a component change but a better sounding system. An improvement in all areas and repeatable. The cables were pre owned (customer had upgraded) and £350 each - an absolute bargain for the difference they made.
Before he left he smiled and went to his car. He came back with another different cable. Into the amp it went. My jaw hit the floor. I’ve listened to HiFi for 40 years and had heard nothing like this.
That cable was £2500. Way out of my league. However, I heard it. I heard it.
They are not sexy like a new shiny box but if I had £2500 to spend that would be my next purchase.
My experience.
Jim Ettridge no wonder the dealer was smiling 😁 after talking (conning) you into buying 2 pre owned (could even be faulty) power cables for £700 🤦🏾♂️
Can we also cover expensive audio grade fuses...both for home and car audio(Anl and mini Anl)...
Gene, for the first time I disagree with you, I haven't bought expensive cables, but US$20 bulk cables from Alliexpress and the sound totally changed, more transparent, better positioning, more control in the low zone and more musicality. This time I affirm it with certainty because I have lived it.
Back in the day when I was experimenting with power cables I found that some makes of stock cable were more musical than others. You may have got lucky with the ones you bought. Snake oil doesn't exist at this level......
Well, Gene is correct with one exception, he literally mentions the exceptions and says to disregard it, I work with multiple rack components both at work and home and behind the these the interference between cables is massive, and most high-speed network and server cables have some shielding so, I do use similar cables at home, nothing too fancy, many reputable cables manufacturers make SJT UL-certified cables for 2 to 10 bucks per feet that can be used to reduce noise, and obviously this only applies if the system has multiple devices on the same rack with cable management, as having 2 or 3 cables away from each other will not cause any problems. So in summary buying spending hundreds of dollars of magical cable topologies is a form of snake oil, having reputable cable brand cables on a component rack will reduce "noise"/ interference from component to component.
Any noise induced or otherwise in the AC mains voltage going into your gear will be filtered by the rectification and filtration of the unit's DC power supply.
PERIOD.
Amir over at Audio Science Review shows this in some recent videos.
@@aussie8114 is that the point? Because that's not what most audiophiles say at all.
@@aussie8114 Sure, use shielded AC cables. You won't hear it but if ti makes you feel better, fine
But these people ("audiophiles") believe magic faeries are sprinkling dust on expensive audio cables and it makes them sound better, even though they measure exactly the same as a $1 cable.
@@aussie8114 thats audiophile nonsense. That the whole idea that the really expensive systems are more "highly resolving" than my medium priced system that I build is just nonsense. What exactly is it that my preamp or amplifier is failing to amplify that a $50,000 amplifier is amplifying, and that humans with tin ears can actually hear or perceive? Is my amplifier forgetting to amplify a cymbal crash? Is it failing to amplify a few bass guitar notes every once in awhile? Is it doing it on purpose? Like out of spite?
This is hands down the most honest and accurate info on power cables I've seen. Thank you! Not much else I could add that you didn't cover already. Cheers!
Even if your new (expensive) power cord worked as described , this approach often results in no benefits to the system unless all other ground paths in the connected equipment can be totally isolated. An isolation transformer is not a substitute for the proper shielding or grounding of individual equipment. As G said...
I had to make a power cord for an amp I am building. I bought ends that cost $50 just because they looked very high end and cool. I bought fancy nylon braiding for the outside. However, the base for the cord is just high quality 14/3 power cord. So, I have a power cord that looks very high dollar but only cost about $70, and works just as well as any expensive cord.
Your thoughts on those power conditioners? When not needing a UPS type support.
Your channel is fantastic!
The OEM cable for my receiver has a SA stamp and 16awg, sub is UL rated and 18awg. I'm thinking of upgrading to Pangea AC-14 cables [14awg]. Reasonably priced, $40 for 1.5 meters and are a heavier gauge than the OEM cables.
Hello.
Do you have a video on power conditioners/line filters, lately I've been a bit obsessed with the idea, even though part of me doesn't really think it will make an audible difference.
I just bought a good surge protector to protect my equipment, and it's supposed to have basic voltage regulation and EMI/RFI filtering, along with surge suppression, but is a good power conditioner beneficial in terms of sound quality?
That's the issue my friend, because if you plug your Audio Precision with a $800 AC shielded cord, you could then measure below -150db and then you would be able to tell the difference!!
(I am just kidding... I love your videos, keep on rocking! Thank you so much for bringing those infos to our attention! :) )
I am not an audiophile to open this up. I use a 200 watt Sunfire amplifier that to this day I enjoy. I'm 55 so my hearing is not what it used to be. On my amplifier is a joule VU style meter which measures incoming power. It sits dead steady at 390 joules. I switch cords and it's 390. So zero power flow increase. And I cannot hear a difference. I hear more by removing my speaker grills. Thanks for the video.
That Sunfire was a beautiful component series, when I first saw the preamp and power amp combo I liked it just as much as the beautiful sounding and looking Classe audio systems. 💎👍
My Cool Music DM100 didn't come with a power chord. Where can I buy one.
Love your image inserts!
🤣😂🤣😂☺️😂
I made some Lapp cables with good quality plugs for all my gear that required an earth. No change in sound quality, except now I can listen to AM radio without all the interference. Strange but true.
Gene - Would you be able to debunk some myths about power conditioners? Things to look for and avoid? Why some people think power conditioners degrade the sound quality and who is the right candidate for one? I use a commercial grade Middle Atlantic PDU that includes surge and spike protection, as well as EMI filtering. While it doesn't "condition" the power, it provides me the protection from my power line.
I will do a video on power conditioners. Long story short, I use them for power protection and to have a common connection point for ALL equipment in a rack. No magic.
@@Audioholics thats a great topic, i have 2 power conditioners 1 is a Panamax M5400-PM for all my media stuff in the LivingRoom and a Furman PL-PRO DMC for my Mini Home Recording studio. I have had a couple power outages and the only thing ive noticed is the devices turning back on immediately upon the power coming back up. Another small issue is that my Panamax does make some Grounding hum but it doesn't affect what i have connected to it. I do like that it tells me on 1 gauge that i have 123 volts and the otherside tells me the amp hours all my devices are using.
@ Better yet: invest in prayer beads.
I have a big Belkin that theoretically does something but mostly is a nice big surge protector they lets me know the line voltage.
I have an old APC S Type power conditioner S15 with 1,500VA of uninterruptible power supply. The thing is a beast and I cannot believe it’s still going for over a grand for one... while I paid $250 with shipping 10 years ago. Don’t remember why it was so cheap though, I tend to buy “broken” things and repair them, but I don’t remember in this case.
You can buy *shielded* power cords for only slightly more than unshielded.
Is there any way you could perform an A/B test and measure them under power? Is there any difference then? Not just measurements taken with no signal? Or has this been done? And can I see those results? Im still on the fence like many of us.
Gene: I recently had a new hi quality 200 amp service to my house. The installer set it up in a way grounded to make it "cleaner." I noticed an improvement in the sound of my tube power amp and preamp. The prior service was c 1950 very dated.
Thank you for this review
I upgraded my power cable from a bog standard one to a £40 one from China with a Gold Plated C-079 IEC Connector. Did it improve the audio hmmmm not sure but the crackle and momentary sound drop out that sometimes occurred when adjusting the volume on my tube amp... stopped permanently !!?
Noise and dropout when adjusting the volume is due to age issues or contamination in the volume control itself. It can come and go, and tends to clear somewhat if you wind the control up and down many times. Since it's not consistent, there could seem to be a cause-effect relationship with the new power cable if you only change it once.
But you can prove to yourself that it doesn't correlate to the power cable, by going back to the old cable, then to the new cable, multiple times in succession.
The bad news is that noisy volume control pots tend to get worse long-term.
Audiophile mains cables have transformed my system. I have a little armoury of them now and when I upgrade some of the hardware, I can now try several configurations. Neotech, Furutech, Audioquest....
Audioquest is a fraud, I feel sorry for suckers that fall for their schemes. Well, maybe I don't lol
Agree completely. I only have a 'special' $40 OFC cable on my custom toroidal transformer going to a class A headphone amp I use for IEM's. Can't say I heard an improvement, but for an extra $30, why not get a really nice looking cable with OFC for shits and giggles
I do like the idea of a shielded power cable that's not radiating EMI/RFI into nearby audio-carrying cables.
Basic cable hygiene costs nothing.
Yes, but with shielding you will lose the Chocolatey midrange and buttery highs lol
Everything behind the wall all the way to power plant is unshielded. Most audio cables are shielded though.
Exactly!
@@jefflabute2946he's talking about interference with audio cables
Gene great insight .You hear some of these audiophile utubers say how ac power chords make big improvements.bass is richer and there is space between the instruments and vocals blah ,blah, blah and meanwhile non of them have the credentials you have maybe a high school equivalency in their back pocket.
Thanks. I appreciate these brief videos that authoritatively address a single issue.
Gene, the issue with double-blind testing is simple: it is nearly impossible to get sufficient N to have adequate statistical power to detect small differences. One first needs to quantify the difference one wants to detect. What is this meaningful difference?
The methods involved here have nothing to do with engineering math. Underpowered true experiments are all around us. That's the reason techniques like meta-analysis were developed.
And, as I mentioned in your analysis of speaker cables, a test of a wire may be definitive in an isolated artificial setup but less so in real life setups. The distinction is between internal and external validity. In my setup I have a bunch of components including source components all connected in a small area. Using an unshielded power cable is unthinkable. (Unless you want to prove that unshielded silver interconnects would be unaffected by a much of overlapping power cables. This would be a very relevant test.)
In addition, rated or not, crappy cords and plugs often have mechanical trouble.
What you might have suggested is a lower than lampcord gauge, shielded, UL listed, power cord with hospital plugs. These will not be very expensive but will do nicely. As before, you overstate your case and thus weaken it.
I have the Denon H8500 isolated to a 10awg romex 20amp breaker . My equipment is on a rack ,so like you said I need it a longer cord and didn’t want to put an extension cord , so I bought a 12awg 10ft cord in amazon for about $28 bucks, the cable looks nice and well built but my only concern now is the I don’t remember if its Ul listed , I removed all the stickers already and don’t know if that was a UL certification or not , but the cord looks heavy and well built though. And it didn’t break the bank, the OEM cord is 16awg.
Thanks Gene for sharing!
This guy Gene is Golden. Best channel ever!
I really really want to buy the top of the line audioquest cable just to take the outer case of it and put it in to a regular cable and give it to someone who already own a lower end audioquest cable to see if they will notice a big difference .....
Hi great tower speakers on the back 11:19 ... what are they ? they must sound phenomenal indeed
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and knowledge. You should make a video about isolation feet for Hi-Fi components. That would be interesting
Gene, we appreciate you. You have saved us thousands of dollars.
Diminishing returns definitely applies here, upgrading from 20 ga. lamp cord to something heavier and maybe shielded probably makes a difference, going from that to $5000 cables, well, I'd like to see some double blind test results on that.
its been done , no difference was heard
@@patthewoodboy Shielded cable definitely helped in my specific case of noise coming from my computer. I had ground loop hum and fixed that, but there was still noise when I moved my mouse or played more intense games. Switching to a shielded cable helped. It is still unbalanced cable though. Balanced cable probably would have eliminated the noise too.
are iso tek great power cables im planing to replace my audioquest with them
This is what I’ve always thought intuitively. I recently heard another science-based testing site. The only thing he said that gave me pause is that the low voltage signal interconnects can possibly pick up electromagnetic interference if put in close proximity to a power cord passing high current power. So my interconnects from preamp to power amp would not go through a transformer. This is assuming that the cables are not properly shielded. Is there any validity to that?
If you run your high impedance interconnect cable alongside the AC power cord carrying a high current, there will be some interaction. But the interconnect cable is shielded, and that will block the interaction. I don't think you can buy unshielded RCA to RCA cables. You would have to make them up yourself from pieces of wire.
is it possible to shield a power cord to make it okay to be operating next to signal cables?
Ground loops are very much a hum problem to be solved if present. I've heard humming can also be from DC simultaneously being on the AC line, as it biases transformers into saturation resulting in hum and strain. Unrelated to that tidbit, I feel that people who use turn tables with RCA interconnects, and magnetic coil cartridges have the potential of picking up electromagnetic fields created by current moving through power cables and home wiring. If the neutral of the RCA signal picks up stray energy through induction, this energy on the neutral is going to cancel with the signal on the hot, the hot signal needs to balance with the neutral, every bit of pollution on the neutral will be chipping away at the potential between the hot and neutral, at low signal strength levels to later be amplified during amplification. Allot of efforts are made inside amplifiers to braid wiring and use toroidal transformers to contain stray electromagnetic fields to reduce the noise floor and the Total Harmonic Distortion. So I can see the reasoning in trying to protect interconnects from stray power cord fields through the use of shielding, or braiding. I use an A-1-1 certified Surgex power conditioner, which boasts a 6000v tolerant air core inductor to rebuke incoming noise and surges on the line, plus capacitors to absorb elevated voltage transients and automatic voltage disconnect under 90v and over 140v (Us 120v) it's got 20 amps on tap at every socket, and comes with the power cable soldered in, so cable upgrading is not even on the table for my main power distribution unit, but for the rest of the rats nest, I feel inspired to get shielded Power Cables, but where are those shielded energies going to go? to polluting my ground which will mess with my DAC clock referencing? no thank you! It's the same consideration between RCA interconnects, and Balanced XLR inputs. RCA is just neutral hot, so any shielding is basically just going into the neutral, which is why grounding the chassis can be super helpful. While Balanced has a dedicated ground for shielding allowing hot and neutral to hot pick up any stray field energy which would deplete the potential between the two. But you gotta remember your signal is coming from the DAC and the DAC needs the purest ground possible as reference for it's clock, so if the system is super shielded it's also turning the ground into a noisy antennae. So I even feel like it's worth running a second ground wire, either for the DAC, or some kind of faraday cage running around all your hifi gear's electrical spaghetti. The other cool thing about the surgeX is that it doesn't shunt or send any noise to the ground, it just handles it lol, so it keeps the ground clean. Typical Power strip surge protectors rely on MOV technology to redirect surge energy into the ground, so any flicker of the lights is possibly polluting your ground. When MOV Metal Oxide Varistor surge protectors get old, the MOV's get leaky and actually pollute the ground with trickles of energy, your typical Monster Brand power conditioner has a bunch of movs but also filter capacitors that by design fresh out of the box send high frequencies to ground. Great for creating a clean a hot-neutral RCA type stereo analog situation, but problematic for your DAC's clock if you're going digital. So whether you have a analog turn table with a coil inside of it susceptible to electromagnetic fields, or a DAC that needs a clean clock, will probably determine whether you would want a shielded power cable, or an unshielded power cable. At least, that's what I feel at this point. If you run a second ground cable for your DAC clock, make sure the interconnects don't create a ground loop by bridging the ground with the ground of the other devices through the cable shielding. The interconnect will need the shielding disconnected on one side, many come that way, and have arrows showing the side that's disconnected. It's likely that an XLR interconnected Digitally sourced hifi system will not hear any difference in power cables, but an analog record playing RCA interconnected hifi system might.
So how do i fix a ground loop????
But they sure do look cool.
Your videos are straight forward with no b.s. thanks for the info 👍
I DIYed my power cords. Hifituning and nanotec. Each 100bcks. 5.5mm² coppers. I used IeGO glod plated copper plugs on each end. Not overly fancy, but good quality. You talked about certification for power safety, some brands like supra have them, but they are pricey. Most people like the look to thick powercords. I which i could say people bought audio gear only for sound but that isnt true for cables or anything audio or anything else for that matter. Looks, brand, price, build quality, touch quality all factors into purchase decision. Many people with 50k or 100k setups dont like even the look of $10 powercords let alone atking the time to listen test them. Your video will help budget conscious or budding audiophiles, but not deep pocketed seasoned audiophiles that wont care.
Gene, I would like to say how much I appreciate your solid "logical" work in the Audio/Video world. I am an EE also "from long, long ago" and get so tired of the claims by some companies. Thank you for exposing them and showing the truth based on solid engineering principles. As an aside, I first came across one of your videos on UA-cam several years ago and you had a cutout of Spock and Kirk beside you in the background. I instantly thought "I should listen to this guy" as I am a original Trekkie. I was just entering the 7th grad in the first season. When they were going to cancel the series after the second season, I was one of those Nerds who wrote a letter to NBC to not cancel, which we won and did get a 3rd season. I hope it was okay that I posted your videos when you had COVID-19 to show people what it was really like . Those videos were very helpful and I was very happy when you recovered. Again, keep up the good work.
Billy
Offcourse that sellout pretend he have covid, cause he is sellout and a lier.He is lieing about audio for years.
@@billyshows5675 You know Gene deserves it.Better have low manures than be a lier and sellout.
If he was a human, i would treat him like a human.But he is a ****.
at 10:11 Did you misstate the effect of smaller gauge for longer cable length? I would expect resistance losses to increase with lighter gauge, not increase. Please clarify!
ok, GEne and the energy conditioners? I noticed an improvement in the audio when I removed my steup from the conditioner and plugged it straight into the socket
Looking forward to your “ground loop” video. I have an amplifier hum\buzz issue in my newly constructed house.
poserwannabe Do you mean plug in the amp and the other components into the pre-amp power sockets?
Go to Emotiva's site and look up their device for killing ground loops and noise.
poserwannabe What’s the best way to “ground the AVR/pre-amp”? You mean running a separate chassis ground wire to something conductive?
LOLZ - I was going to comment on you 5k audio cable video about 1k silver power cord to a 2 dollar wall outlet with 20 bucks in romex copper cable and a 20 dollar breaker.
"There is a sucker born every minute"
Just been discussing this over on avs for a few days - timely post.
Answering a question from somewhere below.
Pull a 20 amp home run from the panel. Remember the breaker is there to protect the wire from overloading, it's not there to protect whatever equipment is on the circuit. One 20 amp circuit generally has 10 outlets on it so if you run a dedicated line with a double box your good and make sure to use 20 amp outlets. If you have ground issues and your line in is flown look outside by your meeter and make sure the green ground wire is connected to the copper rod they drove in the ground.
I use good surge suppressors to keep peaks from killing my components, but if I have no issue powering my 800 watt rms bass amp or my 100 watt guitar half-stack, I have a hard time believing that if it's thick enough to handle the load, I seriously doubt it will make a difference in my stereo. My issues come from shielding and properly placing the input cables to get rid of EMI. Moving my input cables away from EMI transmitters makes a big difference, especially when I'm pushing the front end of my amp.
This is off topic how are you feeling? Do you feel back to normal from the disease. Do you feel like symptoms linger or not thanks.
Love this channel! 👍🏻
what about if you have a power conditioner and then from there to component ?
Rather than spend stupid money on factory made power cords, I built some of my own using high quality connectors and various types of 12 gauge wire. I was not able to do any immediate A-B testing, in other words, I had to listen for a while, stop the playback and swap out the cable, then listen again, but I've used this process for all my A-B testing. I believe I could hear a difference between the OEM cables and my home made cables, although that difference was VERY small, only very slightly audible. I was able to pick up on these small differences by going back and forth with the various alternatives I created. I have a triamp active system so I tried the various cables on the different amplifiers and found that one slightly improved the highs and another slightly improved the bass, and a third made no audible difference. Two other things I was able to accomplish with this task, one was that I twisted the three wires on each cable so that the grounding wire now wraps around the live and neutral wires, providing better shielding of the cable, something I do not believe the high end cables do, and the other was that I discovered many of my components did not utilize the grounding pin, or had a two wire AC cord permanently attached to the component. So in order to utilize my new cables, I installed IEC connectors in all my components. This change made the greatest difference in the reduction of noise from my system because prior to these changes, some of my components utilized a grounding wire and some did not, which resulted in some components finding this grounding through the shielding of the interconnects, which I believe was the source of the noise (slight hum) I had been getting prior to the changes I made.
I like the hospital power cables. They’re designed to not fail. Very solid quality and only around $15.
Agreed! Especially about using the right thickness of wire for the job. But I think what people sometimes hear is difference in materials used, gold vs silver vs copper. So more bright or more mellow etc. What about EF produced by power cords though? Is that not something that can affect other stuff in the sound system? Not saying that is is so, just curious! There's a video about that on youtube:
(511) Audio Hygiene 1: power cables - UA-cam
Please, please make a video about grounding loops.
Look up Bill Whitlock (Quad-Eight, Jensen Transformers, former AES President). If you have an AES membership you can watch a two hour presentation he does on the subject but if not the powerpoints are out there freely available in PDF format. There are two of them, just search "bill whitlock ground loop" on google and you'll find them.
Planning to install a separate line for the hifi and upgrade it to 14 awg though :)
I build my own power cord if I need one. It is not expensive and I can make it a bit more nice looking than stock cables. I have never experienced sound improvement when switching power cables but I like make things on my own.
Very good , thank you very much for the clear and understandable explantations .
Subscribing to premium electricity from your utility company makes a bigger difference.
i spent £ 1500 on power cables.i listened to both arguments for months you and paul at ps audio and others, then made my own mind up to go ahead and build some. i liked how my set up looked when finished. but ive got to say that one time my interest got the better of me one time. i went out and purchased a length of Furutech DPS-4.1 Limited Edition High End Audio Grade Power Cable that cost £ 400 per meter. i dressed the ends up with top line furutech plug and socket then tried it out. i was sure the music did sound more clearer. but it could just be the placebo effect.i didn't un plug it and try a normal cable as the cable was that thick it was difficult to get it in and out of the socket / appliance. lol. so it sits there till now. if anything ,i like to think sound different. i look at it this way, if your intp your hifi and building rigs ,then why not build / buy good cables ,if only for the looks.
Must be a strangely wired system that the power cables are on display to see. I like to put my money in what I can hear, being it is an audio system. Maybe that's just me, being I have ears.
"Limited edition power cables" right...
An audiophile once suggested that I tear out the inbuilt power cord in one of my vintage amplifiers (rated at up to 15A) and "upgrade it" by installing an AC inlet so i could use a high-end power cord. The garden-hose variety, of course.
Thanks for sharing your knowlege!
Agreed. Go to Digikey and get the 14AWG Tripp Lite P007-0xx series power cable that is avalable in lengths from 2 feet to 12 feet and the price is reasonable. And I think you will agree that the larger cable is only really needed on larger power amplifiers that pull current.
I have to wonder why those that are obsesing over power cables don't wire up there critical components to 240VAC here in the states, assuming there equipment can be configured for it. Current draw would be half.
Now what about those Power ReGenerator? More sillyness only on a much larger scale.
Gene the timing of videos just right, i got a couple of power cables to compare with the stock ones.if power cords don’t make a difference then do the power filters or conditioners do anything?
I recently got a filter, that can filter from a bit to a lot. When it filters a lot (on the amp) it makes the sound worse. When it filters a bit, it changes the sound - making some records sound better and others worse...
Can they? Possibly, depends on the power in your house. If you have power issues in, or coming to your house then yes they can make a difference. If not then it probably won't do anything but give you piece of mind. I use UPS's in my system because my power cuts out randomly sometimes. Will they make a difference in sound quality? I highly doubt it. Like he said this is what the power supply in the component is for. The component is already regulating, converting and filtering the ac signal. Filters and conditioners should be a safety concern, not a quality of sound issue. If I had a really exepensive system I would probably have some nice line conditioners just to help protect all that gear. And most likely an insurance plan that covered it too. I wouldn't expect it to make it sound better though. For lower end stuff like I own UPS's made for computers work just fine. That is what I use. They help with voltage spikes, cut outs and if the power goes out it gives me some time to shut everything off properly. If you hook a fancy line conditioner up to your system and it makes a difference in your audio quality I would highly suggest you call an electrician because you have issues in your house.
I switched to extra crunchy peanut butter and it raised my sound stage. I’ll have to do a side by side comparison it seems to be make a hissing noise now.
Did you do this with dacs?
Your biceps 💪 looks better
Please make a video about ground looping and how to fix it
My receiver has a hum or a buzz when I turn the volume up without playing content
Do you think dedicated lines like 20amp make a difference? Or gold metal plate manufacturers use as a jumper vs wire jumpers make a difference?
20amp circuits will absolutely help....if you have high current devices. It will help power everything.
Great video Gene. Is there a benefit to using shielded power cables? Not to shield the power line but to reduce emissions from the power cord to nearby equipment (provided the shield is grounded at the plug end).
It's not a bad idea if that's a problem but just realize many shielded power cords don't meet UL due to fire safety issues. Personally keep power cord away from line level stuff and you will be ok.
@@Audioholics thanks for the reply, makes sense to me.
I use the power cords that came with the receiver and amplifier I have.Those who fall for snake oil in the audio industry prove true to the saying: “ There’s a sucker born every minute”. Thank you Gene!!! I’ve watched several videos on your channel but rarely have I commented. By following your advice not only have I saved a ton of money, but have built up a home theatre that I’m proud of. Bravo!!!!!
What about cables that have inbuilt parts - e.g. Kimber Palladian (I think that is a ferrite block or something)?
Is everything really measurable? Take 10 violins, play open "A" (assume they are tuned) all will measure A440. I guarantee without a shadow of a doubt all 10 will sound differently.
Everything is not measurable, but you know what is? Power cable, speaker wire, and cables. Astounding that in 2020, we are still having this discussion and snake oil still putting other people's kids through college. As the man said "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people"
@@oldb3139 my point was all the violins will measure the same but sound different. I believe there are too many people saying different cables sound differently. Unfortunately, I am not able to buy enough of them to do side by side comparisons and stay married... That said they may sound different but measure different as well. For example, the two Kimber speaker cables the Audioholic likes both sound and measure differently.
@@richardpeters2193 I'm confident you could measure the differences.
You could measure the difference with the right equipment. An instrument does not play a constant single tone like a tone generator does. They all color the sound to a degree. This is why a string intrument sounds different than a saxaphone or a piano or whatever. And each instrument will have a sound that is unique to itself. This is why when you go to buy one you play several different ones to see how they sound. And it can be measured if you can see the spectrum of sound it is putting out. The dominant tone will be 440 but there will be many tones around it. Pretty much everything you can hear (and can't hear) can be measured. Many of just might not know the technical term for it. If you think something sounds warm, bright, muddy or whatever it can be measured and compared to something else. And someone can tell you exactly what you were hearing that gave you that impression if you did indeed hear it. If it can't be measured it was probably your brain tricking you. Not everyone hears the same way and even something as simple as your mood can effect how you percieve sound. Humans are very poor measuring devices lol.
Yes it is measurable. It's called harmonics and every violin has variation there even if the fundamental tone is the same. Proper measurement devices are way more sensitive than human hearing. Do not trust manufacturers that don't show measurements (or at least extensive specs).
I would have been the last person to believe in power cords as well. That said, I run a pretty nice headphone system around my gaming pc. I have a discreet DAC and separate solid state and tube amps. I purchased a reasonably priced Furman power conditioner, mostly for better protection and sure enough, it didn't really make any difference to the sound. Later, I bought a handful of $30 'audiophile' power cords just to try out. I put one on each audio component and the pc and then left them all alone.
It wasn't day and night, but I absolutely noticed that the solid state amp was closing the gap with the tube amp. The sound stage debth was more coherent and over all sounded more real. The tube amp didn't seem to benefit much. I brought out my older DAC/amp all in one that I felt didn't have the resolution of my newer gear. With the new power stuff, it also seemed more on par with the other electronics.
I am a person who didn't think power cables could make a difference and always laughed at people who did. Also, FWIW, I think AB testing is good for finding frequency response or tonality differences, but not spacial cues. I take more time to explore the 'space' of the sound and then have to be familiar with both pieces of equipment in that way to make a comparison. To my ear anyway, these kinds of spacial cues are where higher end gear duke it out, over lower end gear, since it's not that hard to achieve frequency response and resolution these days.
All that said, I still wouldn't advocate expensive cables, or expect to hear a difference right out of the wall. I also can't hear any difference between my $30 and $200 interconnect cables, either.