Cynic is convinced

SteveR750

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OK I really didnt deep donw believe that a mains lead can make THAT much difference, that it can make *some*difference is understandable, but I have just connected the cheapo clearadio alpha one to my Cyrus to see what the fuss is about, and I swear ista new CD player! The whole soundtage is bigger, more space and separation, more detail, especially in upper mid and treble. I can really hear what the hi hat is which means that songs have better rhythm etc. For £35 what a stunnig upgrade. I'm so convinced I'm off to purchase the company...ok well get a classic powerchord for the CDP and shift the clearaudio to the amp.

On a serious note, what difference can I expect by using a better mains cable on the CDP? I cant demo them so they will be a blind (deaf??) purchase....
 

kena

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Law of diminishing returns as usual does kick in when moving up to the higher cost leads but more of the same really and Clearer does give you the 60 day trial so its up to you to just whether improvement is worth the cost.
 

jaxwired

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Before I upgraded my mains lead, my system already sounded amazing. Norah Jones was in the room with me. Now, she's not only in the room, but she's giving me a foot massage. "A little to the left Norah, ...ah purrrfect."

Just kidding, still using factory wire...
 

SteveR750

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jaxwired:
Before I upgraded my mains lead, my system already sounded amazing. Norah Jones was in the room with me. Now, she's not only in the room, but she's giving me a foot massage. "A little to the left Norah, ...ah purrrfect."

Just kidding, still using factory wire...

Only a foot massage?? Your cables must be really pants....
emotion-3.gif
 

idc

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My experience is that an upgraded mains cable (Russ Andrews) made a difference to CDP but not amp and less than £50 but more than a tenner is the optimum spend on any cable.
 
A

Anonymous

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You're getting more than a foot massage? Best not put any Motorhead on, wouldn't want Lemmy bearing down on my bits!
 

aliEnRIK

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jaxwired:
Before I upgraded my mains lead, my system already sounded amazing. Norah Jones was in the room with me. Now, she's not only in the room, but she's giving me a foot massage. "A little to the left Norah, ...ah purrrfect."

Just kidding, still using factory wire...

But you cant knock what you havnt tried
 

The_Lhc

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aliEnRIK: But you cant knock what you havnt tried

Come come Erik, surely you've been here long enough to know that that's exactly what you CAN do, indeed it's almost compulsory...
 

jase fox

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idc:My experience is that an upgraded mains cable (Russ Andrews) made a difference to CDP but not amp and less than £50 but more than a tenner is the optimum spend on any cable.Interesting find idc, At the moment i'm using a RA classic powercord for my amp & a RA yello powercord for my CDP, would you suggest if i use the yello powercord for my amp instead of the classic it wouldnt degrade the sound in any way?

And if i use the classic on my CDP it should be better than the yello ?

Any suggestions?
 

jaxwired

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aliEnRIK:

But you cant knock what you havnt tried



Here's my thinking. I'm open, tell me where I'm going wrong. There is nothing I can do to improve the electrical current prior to my wall socket. Meaning the wire in may walls is, what it is. The current my wall socket provides isn't changing. Now, since a mains lead is a passive device and has no circuitry, it has no practical way to actually improve the electrical current as it passes from wall to amp. It's just wire with no active circuitry so common sense dictates that it cannot make something out of nothing. Therefore the mains cable can do one of two thing:

1. The mains cable can deteriorate or restrict the electrical current in some way. In other words, have a negative effect.

2. The mains cable can have a neutral or benign effect on the electrical current. In other words, no impact, the current at the amp is identical to the wall current.

If you agree with me so far (doubtful LOL), then the only advantage a new mains lead can have is if the factory supplied cable is degrading the electical current between wall and amp and the new expensive replacement cable would not degrade the current. This is where I'm skeptical. The wire used in residential home construction is almost always of inferior gauge to the factory mains lead supplied by amp manufacturers. So if my factory installed mains cable is at least as good if not much better than the wire in my walls, why would it degrade the electrical current?
 

The_Lhc

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jase fox:idc:My experience is that an upgraded mains cable (Russ Andrews) made a difference to CDP but not amp and less than £50 but more than a tenner is the optimum spend on any cable.Interesting find idc, At the moment i'm using a RA classic powercord for my amp & a RA yello powercord for my CDP, would you suggest if i use the yello powercord for my amp instead of the classic it wouldnt degrade the sound in any way?

And if i use the classic on my CDP it should be better than the yello ?

Any suggestions?

Errr, suck it and see?
 
A

Anonymous

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Yep I'm with jax on this one, I think some people hear what they want to hear..............
 

jase fox

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the_lhc:
jase fox:idc:My experience is that an upgraded mains cable (Russ Andrews) made a difference to CDP but not amp and less than £50 but more than a tenner is the optimum spend on any cable.Interesting find idc, At the moment i'm using a RA classic powercord for my amp & a RA yello powercord for my CDP, would you suggest if i use the yello powercord for my amp instead of the classic it wouldnt degrade the sound in any way?

And if i use the classic on my CDP it should be better than the yello ?

Any suggestions?

Errr, suck it and see?

I intend to, but i was just asking idc what he thought?
 

jase fox

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jaxwired:aliEnRIK:

But you cant knock what you havnt tried



Here's my thinking. I'm open, tell me where I'm going wrong. There is nothing I can do to improve the electrical current prior to my wall socket. Meaning the wire in may walls is, what it is. The current my wall socket provides isn't changing. Now, since a mains lead is a passive device and has no circuitry, it has no practical way to actually improve the electrical current as it passes from wall to amp. It's just wire with no active circuitry so common sense dictates that it cannot make something out of nothing. Therefore the mains cable can do one of two thing:

1. The mains cable can deteriorate or restrict the electrical current in some way. In other words, have a negative effect.

2. The mains cable can have a neutral or benign effect on the electrical current. In other words, no impact, the current at the amp is identical to the wall current.

If you agree with me so far (doubtful LOL), then the only advantage a new mains lead can have is if the factory supplied cable is degrading the electical current between wall and amp and the new expensive replacement cable would not degrade the current. This is where I'm skeptical. The wire used in residential home construction is almost always of inferior gauge to the factory mains lead supplied by amp manufacturers. So if my factory installed mains cable is at least as good if not much better than the wire in my walls, why would it degrade the electrical current?

Youve obviously got your opinion jaxwired & your entitled to it like we all are.
 

jaxwired

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jase fox:

Youve obviously got your opinion jaxwired & your entitled to it like we all are.

Totally agree. No offense intended for mains cable believers. Just fishing for good discussion...

I will say I would buy a mains cable replacement in one circumstance. If the factory cable was sufficiently cheap to be obviously inferior to the wire in my walls.
 

hammill

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jase fox:jaxwired:aliEnRIK:

But you cant knock what you havnt tried



Here's my thinking. I'm open, tell me where I'm going wrong. There is nothing I can do to improve the electrical current prior to my wall socket. Meaning the wire in may walls is, what it is. The current my wall socket provides isn't changing. Now, since a mains lead is a passive device and has no circuitry, it has no practical way to actually improve the electrical current as it passes from wall to amp. It's just wire with no active circuitry so common sense dictates that it cannot make something out of nothing. Therefore the mains cable can do one of two thing:

1. The mains cable can deteriorate or restrict the electrical current in some way. In other words, have a negative effect.

2. The mains cable can have a neutral or benign effect on the electrical current. In other words, no impact, the current at the amp is identical to the wall current.

If you agree with me so far (doubtful LOL), then the only advantage a new mains lead can have is if the factory supplied cable is degrading the electical current between wall and amp and the new expensive replacement cable would not degrade the current. This is where I'm skeptical. The wire used in residential home construction is almost always of inferior gauge to the factory mains lead supplied by amp manufacturers. So if my factory installed mains cable is at least as good if not much better than the wire in my walls, why would it degrade the electrical current?

Youve obviously got your opinion jaxwired & your entitled to it like we all are.

It is not a question of whether on not one agrees with jaxwired's opinion. jaxwired has offered a gedanken that would suggest a mains cable could not improve the sound. It is surely reasonable that if you believe a mains cable can improve sound quality you would like to suggest flaws in his(?) argument. Otherwise we are left with homeopathy.
 

aliEnRIK

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jaxwired:aliEnRIK:

But you cant knock what you havnt tried



Here's my thinking. I'm open, tell me where I'm going wrong. There is nothing I can do to improve the electrical current prior to my wall socket. Meaning the wire in may walls is, what it is. The current my wall socket provides isn't changing. Now, since a mains lead is a passive device and has no circuitry, it has no practical way to actually improve the electrical current as it passes from wall to amp. It's just wire with no active circuitry so common sense dictates that it cannot make something out of nothing. Therefore the mains cable can do one of two thing:

1. The mains cable can deteriorate or restrict the electrical current in some way. In other words, have a negative effect.

2. The mains cable can have a neutral or benign effect on the electrical current. In other words, no impact, the current at the amp is identical to the wall current.

If you agree with me so far (doubtful LOL), then the only advantage a new mains lead can have is if the factory supplied cable is degrading the electical current between wall and amp and the new expensive replacement cable would not degrade the current. This is where I'm skeptical. The wire used in residential home construction is almost always of inferior gauge to the factory mains lead supplied by amp manufacturers. So if my factory installed mains cable is at least as good if not much better than the wire in my walls, why would it degrade the electrical current?

I couldnt even be bothered to read that as I see you tried to just bypass what I said so ill reiterate. You cannot possibly comment on SOMETHING YOU HAVNT TRIED.

Its like me saying a saab is great to drive. it might do (And probably does). But id never comment as such as ive never actually driven one. And anyone that questions me if I DID so has a right to as id be talking out of my a**
 

aliEnRIK

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Clare Newsome:OK, how about the shielding on upgrade mains cables, designed to reduce interference?

....and braided cables designed to reduce both mains bourne RFI AND EMI (And have MEASUREABLY done so)
 

RobinKidderminster

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Two things. The lead into my amp is hard wired so I'have to get into the box I guess and I use a wireless mains cutoff since the plug is not very accessibel. Guess I'm stumped !
 
A

Anonymous

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I think the crux is that behind most racks of most people's systems are a large number of wires mixed up. By replacing these with shielded ones there's less opportunity for interactions between them. Thus, a good bit of cable management ought to help too.
 

Clare Newsome

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igglebert:a good bit of cable management ought to help too.

That's where your dedicated equipment rack, complete with cable management, comes in
emotion-5.gif
 

hammill

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Some people go in for self trepanation and claim it makes them feel good. I don't fell obliged to try that out before suggesting that they are somewhat misguided and to request some scientific evidence to justify their behaviour.

Before double blind testing showed that homeopathy is a placebo effect, it sounded extremely unlikely to me and I was not going to risk my health without some evidence of its efficacy. Until I see some scientific evidence on mains cables improving sound quality, I will treat them as snake oil and keep my money in my wallet.
 

The_Lhc

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aliEnRIK: Its like me saying a saab is great to drive. it might do (And probably does).

Meh, it's not bad, I preferred my old merc though to be honest, rear-wheel drive, much more fun!
 

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