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Power Cables. Are they overhyped?

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SteveT

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I still have the standard Naim kettle plug leads to my amplifier and power supplies and enjoy listening to my system. However......in an idle moment I got to thinking about the impact £500 removed from my bank account would have on my enjoyment of my system. I have toyed with the idea of making up some power leads using Furutech plugs. Should I just buy more music instead?
 
fay spook said:
Buy music and ask to borrow a cable from your dealer. Then you can judge for yourself.
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But make sure you do some form of blind testing. Far too easy to convince yourself that you hear improvements that don't really exist. At least it gives you food for thought comparing sighted with blind.
 
SteveT
Yes, they do make a difference but any cables you buy should be in context to the rest of your system.
Chord Sarum are probably the dogs dangly bits but if you're using a 32.5/ hi cap then that money would be better spent on black boxes.
A very good route is the Graham's Hydra, I have 2 of these, probably the best bang for buck.
I do use a power line on the radikal to good effect, and I may continue with them across the board once I'm up to 552 & 3x500 level

Lyndon
 
It is such a stupid idea. Have you seen the state of the shit in your walls, rubbish sockets and crap connections? Why would anyone think a last metre of cable could do anything at all? All it can do is transfer whatever noisy rubbish comes out of your socket perfectly to whatever box it is attached to. Not that the box gives a monkey's anyhow. It is utterly dumb.
 
I'm with J M Barrie on this: “Whenever a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies’, there’s a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead.” You'll find that after the first few it's shockingly easy.
 
MVV
Yes, I have seen the state of my walls, there is no shit in there, everything that is in them is what I put there and I certainly didn't have a dump ��
Ive always been dubious of expensive power cables, even more so in conjunction with a 4 grand supercap, ( surely that should be able to deliver a 24v signal )

I have put a power line onto the Radikal and that did make a positive difference
Not astonishing but, £300 for a s/h power line has go to be worth a pop

Lyndon
 
I design and build my own power amplifiers and if mains cables made a difference i would consider I had failed somewhere, and badly.
 
Likewise. Unless they have filters built in the can do nothing. Good tight connections and clean contacts is all you need.
 
lyndon said:
A very good route is the Graham's Hydra, I have 2 of these, probably the best bang for buck.
I do use a power line on the radikal to good effect, and I may continue with them across the board once I'm up to 552 & 3x500 level
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Interesting. From the Grahams website:

"The effect that mains quality has on the performance of an audio system is startling. In a ideal world, an audio system would have its own spur directly from a consumer unit to isolate it from polluting influences like computers and microwave ovens. Whether or not you choose to have a dedicated spur, Grahams mains distribution devices can radically improve sound quality."

So the peddler's of Hydra power leads don't even know their Spurs from their Radials :) Doesn't exactly inspire one with confidence!

BTW, if your Radikal has the Dynamik PSU, whatever the Naim Powerline claims to do in filtering mains noise, wont make the slightest bit of difference as the 50hz mains power supply is filtered then switches at 132khz before supplying the power rails. The filter prevents any mains noise entering the rails or switching noise getting into the rails, signal ground or back into the mains supply, though important to add that 132khz is inaudible. So Linn have gone to all that trouble designing a proper PSU and Naim flog the customer a £500 quid power lead. Now theres an irony :)

I've still got some fat power leads from my foo days that allegedly went through all manner of cryogenic treatments and Voodoo rituals and they don't make any difference whatsoever. For a short while I thought they did, but its easy to fool yourself when you've just spent a silly amount of cash on a piece of wire.
 
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MVV said:
It is such a stupid idea. Have you seen the state of the shit in your walls, rubbish sockets and crap connections? Why would anyone think a last metre of cable could do anything at all? All it can do is transfer whatever noisy rubbish comes out of your socket perfectly to whatever box it is attached to. Not that the box gives a monkey's anyhow. It is utterly dumb.
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Some people can hear a change some can't. I know guys who can't hear the difference between valves, even Serge can hear that. As for mains cable, well if you can't hear it, then money has been saved.

Errol.
 
Errol, I am certain that some people honestly believe they can hear a change.

One thing about hifi, we are ahead of the curve, we didn't need Trump; we have been living in a 'post-truth' world for decades.
 
Sadly power cables do make a difference in many systems.

So, have a listen in a dealer system and take them home for a play.
 
I have a dedicated mains spur and consumer unit fed directly from the mains cable not through any other units and even the electrician who fitted it and was highly skeptical of its benefits could hear the difference it made when it was finally installed.
 
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