Mains cable (aka power cord) with smooth, warm sound less than £100 ?

[Andrew Everard]

So if you reply to a contentious post which is removed, your reply is also removed? Is this an automatic thing?

Yes. The safest way to avoid it is to reply to the thread-starter. That way your reply only gets canned if the whole thread goes.

 

[John Duncan]

I'm not sure which rule I broke by saying that the cable that Cno suggested costs between £90-£130. Thanks for setting the record straight anyway JD.

You didn't, but somebody you may have replied to did. And I still see the £90-£130 post.

Now that's enough discussion of moderation...;-)

 

[AlmaataKZ]

To the OP: cables (once adequate electically) cannot and do not make any difference in sound.

If you are looking for improvements in sound quality, look into your speakers and their interaction with the room and the amps.

 

[tiggs]

It may be worth looking into the Zu Bok power cable, which Zu Audio auction on ebay and Audiogon regularly and they would be able to supply the correct mains plug for the country you are in, and also reterminate it with a UK plug when you are in the UK. If you do a search for Zu on ebay or audiogon, you should be able to find the Zu Audio listings. I have bought a power cord from Zu Audio and they are a good company to deal with.

You should be able to get a Bok power cable from ebay or audiogon for around £100.00 maybe slightly more, although you will have to pay customs and postage charges.

 

[MajorFubar]

What I can't figure out...

And I'm not pointing a figure at any one person...

Whenever a 'contentious' thread is started like this, why can’t the non-believers resist hitting the reply button? Replies which basically consist of “don’t waste your money it’s all a load of codswallop” don’t help the o/p do they? The o/p’s bound to know such questions polarise opinion, but surely he must hope that he’ll only get responses from people who share his views? Instead he has to scroll through irrelevant posts to find replies from people who are genuinely trying to answer his question.

Is it too hard to look at a thread and say to yourself, “well I’ve nothing constructive to add because personally I think it’s a load of lobbox, so I won’t”?

The same thing seems to happen on here with monotonous regularity, sad to say

 

[Craig M.]

What I can't figure out... And I'm not pointing a figure at any one person... Whenever a 'contentious' thread is started like this, why can’t the non-believers resist hitting the reply button? Replies which basically consist of “don’t waste your money it’s all a load of codswallop” don’t help the o/p do they? The o/p’s bound to know such questions polarise opinion, but surely he must hope that he’ll only get responses from people who share his views? Instead he has to scroll through irrelevant posts to find replies from people who are genuinely trying to answer his question. Is it too hard to look at a thread and say to yourself, “well I’ve nothing constructive to add because personally I think it’s a load of lobbox, so I won’t”? The same thing seems to happen on here with monotonous regularity, sad to say

because it isn't only the op reading this? because if people didn't present an alternative view, then everyone who read a thread full of comments about what a wonderful improvement their mains cable made, might feel tempted to go and spend money on something many feel would be a waste of money? why is the op 'bound to know' such a topic could be contentious?

 

[Andrew Everard]

why is the op 'bound to know' such a topic could be contentious?

And I do believe cables make difference (hence I didn't want to re-open the endless controversy)

 

[the record spot]

What I can't figure out... And I'm not pointing a figure at any one person... Whenever a 'contentious' thread is started like this, why can’t the non-believers resist hitting the reply button? Replies which basically consist of “don’t waste your money it’s all a load of codswallop” don’t help the o/p do they? The o/p’s bound to know such questions polarise opinion, but surely he must hope that he’ll only get responses from people who share his views? Instead he has to scroll through irrelevant posts to find replies from people who are genuinely trying to answer his question. Is it too hard to look at a thread and say to yourself, “well I’ve nothing constructive to add because personally I think it’s a load of lobbox, so I won’t”? The same thing seems to happen on here with monotonous regularity, sad to say

It's funny you mention irrelevance Major as that's the thing I've found with cables myself, beyond their fundamental requirements of connecting up two separate bits of audio gear. And, given as I've been through a stack over the years, I think it's fair enough to point out that no discernable difference was heard.

And monotonous regularity could be just as easily applied to the number of times I've heard the golden-eared brigade point out that "you can't hear what I hear" or the old "perhaps your system isn't revealing enough"...whichever, the subject divides opinion, but I'd rather have two sides of the coin than the just the one.

 

[hammill]

I wish I had read threads like this before I wasted money on an expensive HDMI cable that made no difference.

 

[MajorFubar]

why is the op 'bound to know' such a topic could be contentious?

Well call me presumptive, but I'd say most people asking about the benefits of specialist cables knows that it's a contentious subject. If on this occasion the o/p didn't, then he soon found out within a couple of replies to his question.

It's not just the presenting of an 'alternative view', the thread gets absolutely bogged down and veers off in all directions, to such an extent that our overworked mods who have proper full-time jobs producing a magazine have to start spending valuable time pruning it. It's really not fair to them or the o/p.

Well that's just my opinion of course. Other opinions are of course available.

 

[The_Lhc]

to such an extent that our overworked mods who have proper full-time jobs producing a magazine have to start spending valuable time pruning it.

Not because of the direction of the discussion, rather the people who were discussing it.

There's two possibilities, either the believers are right or the non-believers are. If the believers persuade him, he buys a cable and may get a benefit from it. If the non-believers persuade him he saves himself some money and is no worse off. Either way the OP wins.

I have more of a problem with this kind of behaviour when it's in a sport or music thread, people coming into an F1 discussion just to say how boring it is are far more irritating than anyone in this thread. Same goes for music discussions.

 

[the record spot]

Hmmm, I've heard of plenty of cases where someone's bought a cable that's meant to be brilliant and finds they're getting less than they bargained for, or nothing at all (me for one, back in 2007 or so coughing up £60 for van den hul's The Name and finding it made zero difference from my then ten year old Audioquest Turquoise).

And as for putting up comments on forums and threads varying off track, find me a forum where that doesn't happen. And if the mods are overexerted as-is, I'm sure there's a willing moderator out there in freelance land who could chip in for a few hundred a day. Problem solved.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I'm sure there's a willing moderator out there in freelance land who could chip in for a few hundred a day.

Absolutely, without question, funniest post of the day.

 

[the record spot]

Minimum wage then...

 

[Anonymous]

What I can't figure out... And I'm not pointing a figure at any one person... Whenever a 'contentious' thread is started like this, why can’t the non-believers resist hitting the reply button? Replies which basically consist of “don’t waste your money it’s all a load of codswallop” don’t help the o/p do they? The o/p’s bound to know such questions polarise opinion, but surely he must hope that he’ll only get responses from people who share his views? Instead he has to scroll through irrelevant posts to find replies from people who are genuinely trying to answer his question. Is it too hard to look at a thread and say to yourself, “well I’ve nothing constructive to add because personally I think it’s a load of lobbox, so I won’t”? The same thing seems to happen on here with monotonous regularity, sad to say

Major,

Everyone is clearly free to believe what they will, however I do think it is appropriate to question the beliefs of posters in a public forum like this, particularly when the beliefs fly in the face of generally accepted engineering principles. Unchallenged, and repeated often enough, hearsay becomes accepted as fact.

While pretty much anything is possible, it is very unlikley that a short length of mains cable will make any audible difference to the sound of a hifi setup. It certainly won't change the tonal balance, at the very most, and in the case of a poorly designed amplifier (with inadequate input mains filtering and in the presence of significant RFI) it just may reduce the noise floor.

There are no independent studies on the web that I can find that give credence to the claims that mains cables can make an audible difference. Many manufacturers do however make heroic claims for their product, some of which get challenged. Most notable was Russ Andrews:

http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2011/1/Russ-Andrews-Accessories-Ltd/TF_ADJ_49597.aspx

If any forum member can post a link to an independent study that shows that mains cables do indeed make a difference, I think that would help move the discussion forward.

 

[bretty]

To the OP: cables (once adequate electically) cannot and do not make any difference in sound.

If you are looking for improvements in sound quality, look into your speakers and their interaction with the room and the amps.

It's hard to believe that these rows are still taking place. Nobody is going to change anybodies mind, one way or the other. Let the believers believe, the non-believers not, and c'est la vie! Everyone that takes part in these arguments really comes off as a childish geek. Not gonna be a popular comment, that one, but it's the truth.

 

[AlmaataKZ]

That is sad.

For me it is not about believing or not believing. It is about understanding and knowing (how things work) vs not understanding and not knowing. And sometimes - not trying.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Thread pruned again, and – since it seems some are determined to keep on discussing moderation – locked.