This is amusing

[mzpro5]

Over at the Radio Paradise forums someone started a thread "Brag About Your Stereo". Take a look:

http://www.radioparadis.com/content.php?name=Forums&file=showtopic&topic_d=1015&x=3269826

These are people that seem to live for music but it kills me what they use to listen to it and then "brag" about it. For example:

"Upstairs: Bose AM3's (painted to match the wall) streamed through a Soundbridge
Downstairs: Bose 401's in the front"

:laughing-rolling:

 

[Zing]

Why exactly are you cheating on us with another forum? :angry-tappingfoot:

 

[mzpro5]

Why exactly are you cheating on us with another forum? :angry-tappingfoot:

Uhh errr I just took a peek, never been there before. Really.

In truth it is an amazingly active forum with a huge number of people participating and a good sampling of people from all over the world participating with all viewpoints and many many different threads.

It is more like a chat room though.

I know we try and keep things civil in the political threads but the people there are brutal with each other and plenty of lefty's, righty's, in-betweens and some that are just outright kooks.

 

[Rope]

OMG! Sound bridge and Bose 401's? Lucky bastard.

Rope

 

[mzpro5]

OMG! Sound bridge and Bose 401's? Lucky bastard.

Rope

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

 

[mzpro5]

Some guy just posted this over there:

"found this ac cord is nice, cheap tweak (maybe its my own bias, but I'm pretty certain I heard deeper bass when i swapped out my stock cord)...although i noticed the price delivered is now $37 (was $30 just a few months ago). http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/ILJPOWER.html"


:laughing-rolling:

 

[Rope]

This guy must be wealthy in order to afford that quality of gear and pay for the smart electricity, which after it's traveled hundreds of miles through under ground/overhead crappy copper cable, then the 3 miles of Romex in his house, knows when it hits the super duper jelly fish, cross cut, fuck you up, power cable. :mrgreen:

Rope

 

[mzpro5]

This guy must be wealthy in order to afford that quality of gear and pay for the smart electricity, which after it's traveled hundreds of miles through under ground/overhead crappy copper cable, then the 3 miles of Romex in his house, knows when it hits the super duper jelly fish, cross cut, fuck you up, power cable. :mrgreen:

Rope

Now he sighted a discussion on Audiogon about power cords. The thread is hilarious just one post:

There are 2 widely disparate "camps" about whether power cords can make a noticeable change in the sound of your system (assuming adequate gauges/capacity for the accompanying component)
There are those who swear up and down that there is NO WAY in the world there will be any noticeable difference and you can not convince these people otherwise...no matter how much anyone tries to prove to them it IS so...
Then there is the opposite camp who are absolutely convinced, with no doubt in mind because they have purposely proven to themselves over and over by trusting their own ears, that aftermarket powercords obviously make a considerable difference and marked improvement in their systems because THEY TRUST THEIR EARS.
I suggest you listen to NO ONE but YOUR OWN EARS, but please, do yourself a favor and TRY IT.
Then decide.
PS And keep in mind, the entire aftermarket cable industry exists because people CAN hear improvements and if they COULDN'T hear the difference it would go by the way of the Tice Clock (It's a DoDo bird from years ago)
Good luck! Try it!!

Maybe it exists because there are enough stupid people with money to make others rich.

 

[Zing]

It may be time to revisit this thread. I had an absolute ball trying to get a semi-intelligent answer out of the people who sell these cables. I never did get it but boy it sure was fun trying.

 

[Zing]

Excerpts from the thread...


JDMoose: How does an upgraded cable connected to your reciever make your picture on your TV look better? They are two separate components.

Audio Advisor Corey: The video is processed by the receiver before it is passed on to the TV, so if you improve the quality of the power supplied to the receiver you are also improving the quality of the processed video signal.

Zing: The image on my computer monitor is processed by a video card that is powered by the power supply inside my computer. If I upgrade the power cable to my computer, do you think the image on my monitor will improve?

PFarinelli: I will have an answer in the next day or so.(provided you are asking this question seriously) I ordered a Pangea 1/2 meter replacement power cable to replace the very short upgraded power cable on my receiver. I am going to install the replaced cable onto my computer. I will report the results as soon as I can. I am interested to see if there are any positive changes on my computer.

PFarinelli: I installed a short upgraded power cable that I was using with my avr onto my computer. It has been on the computer for @ a day and a half. I have not noticed any difference in the computer or monitor performance.

Zing: It's been two weeks now. Any improvement yet?

Zing: How about now? It's been over three weeks.

PFarinelli: No improvement in computer performance



Hmmmm, no improvement. Imagine that.

 

[mzpro5]

Well just got told how wrong I am about power cables not making a difference and here is why:

No, there is a scientific basis behind this, provided that the original cable isn't capable of meeting the full current demands of the amp 100% of the time. Under heavy loads, the input impedance of the amp's power supply drops. So, according to Ohm's Law, the impedance of the cable leads to more voltage drop. The higher the impedance, the greater the effect. Relatively small voltage drops in the power supply can and does affect the amp's ability to reproduce transients and bass linearity. This holds especially true with amps using switching (class D and down the alphabet) power supplies, because these store very little energy in reserve.

 

[mzpro5]

And I've been lectured on ground loop issues:

The only two ways to fix ground loops in split single phase facilities is to split current equally between the two legs (impossible), or to used balanced line wiring. If you're serious about stuff like that, you run a 240V source to your listening room, and either buy European-spec 240V equipment or use a hefty step-down transformer (or even better one of these) to eliminate the neutral wire from the equation.

 

[Rope]

Audio Advisor is famed for their whoring of snake oil products, since the markup is astronomical.

I hesitate getting involved in a discussion on another board, since the last time I involved myself an administrator chased me off, claiming I was baiting him. The real reason he wanted me gone was he was promoting a product at 15 times to cost of other competive products, and I asked if he had a financial interest in the product. To which I received no answer.

If people who claim there's an audible difference in cables, whether that be interconnects, speaker, or power cables. Tell them ABX will prove if they really hear a difference. Then remind them that an easy million dollars awaits them if they contact James Randi and enter the million dollar cable challenge.

Rope

 

[Rope]

Well just got told how wrong I am about power cables not making a difference and here is why:

No, there is a scientific basis behind this, provided that the original cable isn't capable of meeting the full current demands of the amp 100% of the time. Under heavy loads, the input impedance of the amp's power supply drops. So, according to Ohm's Law, the impedance of the cable leads to more voltage drop. The higher the impedance, the greater the effect. Relatively small voltage drops in the power supply can and does affect the amp's ability to reproduce transients and bass linearity. This holds especially true with amps using switching (class D and down the alphabet) power supplies, because these store very little energy in reserve.

If he's serious about amplfication, tell him to stop dick'n around with alphabet soup amplifiers and settle for class A, or A/B. And as always, amplifier manufacturers will include a cable with their product that cannot supply the correct amount of current, thereby making their product sound as shitty as possible. bscene-buttred:

Rope

 

[Rope]

And I've been lectured on ground loop issues:

The only two ways to fix ground loops in split single phase facilities is to split current equally between the two legs (impossible), or to used balanced line wiring. If you're serious about stuff like that, you run a 240V source to your listening room, and either buy European-spec 240V equipment or use a hefty step-down transformer (or even better one of these) to eliminate the neutral wire from the equation.

Rope

 

[mzpro5]

And here is why your speaker cables should be the same length:

It's not a matter of time delay. It's to maintain stereo balance by keeping the impedance for each channel as close as possible.

I'm learning so much today. :roll:

 

[Rope]

And here is why your speaker cables should be the same length:

It's not a matter of time delay. It's to maintain stereo balance by keeping the impedance for each channel as close as possible.

I'm learning so much today. :roll:

Time delay.... :laughing-rolling:

With electrons flowing at a rate of 122,760 miles per second, you best have those cables cut to the same length. :text-lol:

Rope

 

[mzpro5]

And here is why your speaker cables should be the same length:

It's not a matter of time delay. It's to maintain stereo balance by keeping the impedance for each channel as close as possible.

I'm learning so much today. :roll:

Time delay.... :laughing-rolling:

With electrons flowing at a rate of 122,760 miles per second, you best have those cables cut to the same length. :text-lol:

Rope

No he is saying time delay is not the issue but you need to keep the impedance as close as possible so therefore you better have the same length cables.

 

[Rope]

And here is why your speaker cables should be the same length:

It's not a matter of time delay. It's to maintain stereo balance by keeping the impedance for each channel as close as possible.

I'm learning so much today. :roll:

Time delay.... :laughing-rolling:

With electrons flowing at a rate of 122,760 miles per second, you best have those cables cut to the same length. :text-lol:

Rope

No he is saying time delay is not the issue but you need to keep the impedance as close as possible so therefore you better have the same length cables.

Impedance is never a constant, and continues to shift based on frequency, which would depend on the recording and what's being sent to the front left/right speakers. As stated before, unless you have a real anomally with speaker cable gauge and length, cables are a mute point.

If there's an audible difference with any cable, the cable is either faulty, or terminated incorrectly. Cables are listed as assessories, not gear, and their job is to transfer electrons from point A to point B with no effect on sound.

Rope

 

[Huey]

I am gonna play devil's advocate here a little bit, and say there is probably a smidgeon of truth to some of it. When I added the monster power center a few years ago, I noticed an improvement immediately with the video to my crt tv. On the other hand, after purchasing my dlp, I could tell no difference if it was hooked to the wall or the power center. So there can at least be a little truth, but I would not go out of my way to buy power cables or other snake oils.