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Never say never....a $10,000/1 meter power cable?!*

All of the Nordost demos I attended were bollocks. IMHO of course

Bollocks eh, I went to two in around a similar time one in London and one in Belfast, I really just saw it as some bloke trying to sell some expensive cables by demonstrating the difference in 'sound' when placed between a source and amp.
 
Bear in mind that for anybody contemplating spending this much, it isn’t either/or. If you can afford £10k on a mains lead (and who has just the one?), you can also afford all the other stuff too.
I don't think this is true. I've had a real eye opener audio sites (PFM and others) where people have spent tens of thousands on HiFi and haven't given a thought to investing, retirement, getting out of debt, etc.
 
I don't think this is true. I've had a real eye opener audio sites (PFM and others) where people have spent tens of thousands on HiFi and haven't given a thought to investing, retirement, getting out of debt, etc.
Yes, but I suspect there is a difference between People spending tens of thousands on hifi, and those spending tens of thousands on mains leads for the hifi. That’s a distinction I intentionally made in my post.
 
Was at a demo were Raidho were used Steve. But also B&W CM7 or 9's. I am sure in the UK Raidho would have had a bigger presence due to the size of the market. Look I have plenty of Nordost stuff and my 'bestest' interconnects are Heimdalls. I succumbed to some new blue heaven power cables and some secondhand ones. I think cables can make a difference especially interconnects. On the turning up the volume ok withdraw that. But Lars demo's on power cables are just a quick sales pitch. Impossible to hear any differences if there are any in a quick demo in a shop or hotel room.


This is at odds with all the Nordost dems I’ve seen, many of which were by Lars. I don’t ever recall B&W speakers being used - Lars always used Raidho IIRC, not least because he had an interest in the company. Maybe it was different in Ireland? But more importantly, they almost always used CJ amps, or Moon, and one key reason was because of the large, highly visible volume level indicator which could be seen by most in the room. This was to counter any spurious allegations of tweaking the volume, which Nordost is often (unfairly IMHO) accused of. It’s a tad defamatory, if you think about it.
 
What is a cable made of to justify £10.000 a meter? I'd be surprized if NASA use cable that costs £10,000 a meter? So, assuming the mark up is enormous, which I think it must be, the question is not 'does it sound better' but is 'am I happy to get totally ripped off'?

Even if it does sound better I object to be taken for a gullible fool.


Not even if it was sheathed in our Saviour's foreskin, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
 
Me too. 100% foodbank vs this shite. I might hold a bit back for a decent night out with Mrs WB when this shitstorm is over.
 
Even if power cables could make a difference I don't see how anyone could think that plugging a metre or so of a massively expensive cable between a shitty, low quality wall socket that probably cost 10p and the hi-fi equipment could make a difference. Especially given that wall socket is used to terminate the power cables running around the house which probably cost 10p a metre themselves.
 
Even if power cables could make a difference I don't see how anyone could think that plugging a metre or so of a massively expensive cable between a shitty, low quality wall socket that probably cost 10p and the hi-fi equipment could make a difference. Especially given that wall socket is used to terminate the power cables running around the house which probably cost 10p a metre themselves.

This has always been my school of thought on these threads (there’s a few of them).
This, coupled with the fact that it’s just a power cable supplying the primary side of a transformer, how it can improve the sound is genuinely beyond me
 
I don't remember seeing a post where someone has replaced the twin & earth back to the consumer unit with 'audiophile' power cable (rather than a separate spur with standard twin & earth which some people do). Presumably because no electrician worth his salt would do it?
 
at $10,000 a meter?
Jesus.
Here that would cost me about 150,000 quid.
And more pertinently, it'd be hidden from envious (sic) eyes, which I assume, was your point?
No see, no bling, no point.
 
I don't remember seeing a post where someone has replaced the twin & earth back to the consumer unit with 'audiophile' power cable (rather than a separate spur with standard twin & earth which some people do). Presumably because no electrician worth his salt would do it?

I did, I was gifted a long length of Kimber mains cable 10 m and a longer length of the earth weave cable 20 m from an installation, I ran three tails from the incoming supply into a seperate small consumer unit and then a ring of the Kimber mains cable to a unswitched double socket with a central binding post for the seperate Earth/ ground cable. The earth cable ran to six 1200 MM copper earth rods in a star earth pattern. This was in an old farmhouse with very minimal wiring with four old wire fuses, all the sockets were on one circuit, one socket per room, lights on another one for the cooker and one for the immersion heater.
Providing the cables up to standard and installed to regs there's no reason why a different cable other standard twin and earth may be used though it may cause a few raised eyebrows
 
Perhaps an electrician can clarify this point, but my understanding is that a ring main has a lower impedance than a spur, probably half if the same gauge cable is used, so the mains wiring will typically be lower impedance than the last metre or so of mains lead. To my mind, this might be a reason why the choice of cable, for that last metre or so, might make a difference.
 
Sound good?

Yeah, my system sounded very good in that particular room, I got the impression the dedicated ring main & earth offered an overall improvement and it got rid of any pops or clicks, but I didn't A/B against the old wiring or try to analyse it, I would say the biggest improvement was the difference in how quiet the system was, the existing wiring and fuse box in the house wouldn't have been up to modern standards even back then but worked without any faults.
I would do it again without question though I wouldn't use Kimber as its way too expensive and an absolute barsteward to terminate, not only do you need to unravel the weave it's a really hard slippy Teflon coating, I'd use something easy to terminate and fairly inexpensive.
 
I did, I was gifted a long length of Kimber mains cable 10 m and a longer length of the earth weave cable 20 m from an installation, I ran three tails from the incoming supply into a seperate small consumer unit and then a ring of the Kimber mains cable to a unswitched double socket with a central binding post for the seperate Earth/ ground cable. The earth cable ran to six 1200 MM copper earth rods in a star earth pattern. This was in an old farmhouse with very minimal wiring with four old wire fuses, all the sockets were on one circuit, one socket per room, lights on another one for the cooker and one for the immersion heater.
Providing the cables up to standard and installed to regs there's no reason why a different cable other standard twin and earth may be used though it may cause a few raised eyebrows
Wouldn't Kimber 'mains cable' (I'm assuming for power cords) be something different from what is run within the walls of your house? I'm pretty sure in most places I've lived you would not be allowed to replace certified/approved household wiring (e.g. Romex type solid core in the US) with mains cable from a spool. I'm skeptical but maybe I'm misunderstanding what Kimber 'mains cable' is.
 
Yes Kimber mains cable is of a very different construction to the usual twin and earth used in the UK. The U.K. Mains regulation is for a minimum of 2.5 MM2 Twin and earth for domestic sockets. The Kimber cable is a heavier cable with a higher rating and when an insulation sheath is used conforms to current UK wiring regs. Though there's lots of different types of cables available that are suitable.
  • Number of conductors - 16 (eight Live & eight Neutral, colour coded brown & blue)
    Total live or neutral conductor diameter – 2.906mm (6.63mm²)
  • Conductor material - OFC Copper
  • Cable rating - 30A (7.65A per mm² @ 20ºC
  • Central Earth wire - 2.5mm
 


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