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The mains cable poll

Have you experimented or heard a demonstration of different mains cables?

  • Yes and they made no difference and I therefore believe that they make no difference as expected.

    Votes: 30 13.4%
  • Yes and they made no difference but I remain open-minded on this.

    Votes: 36 16.1%
  • No but I know for certain that changing a mains cable could not possibly make a difference.

    Votes: 17 7.6%
  • Yes and I have heard differences.

    Votes: 141 62.9%

  • Total voters
    224
  • Poll closed .
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Steven Toy

Accuphase newbie
Just to get an idea where PFM readers and contributors stand on this issue. The good thing about a poll is that it enables people to express a point of view without fear of ridicule from either side.

Hopefully an insightful discussion and exchange of individual experiences may accompany the poll.
 
I admire your optimism for an insightful discussion!

I can clearly hear differences from our tests yesterday.

A fair question may well be whether these differences are worth the money. In some circumstances I feel the answer is yes, even for the high priced Powerline. If you are spending £30,000 on a system then a further £500 or so that brings an extra bit of sparkle may be worth it.

Another point may be whether some kit responds more to cable changes than others. my Naim kit does change with changes to interconnects, but my Avi kit doesn't seem to. Haven't tried the Avi with the various Mains cables on the floor, though.

That's my bit on the subject, all the best.
 
I have one 'fancy' mains cable, in amongst four or five bog standard ones. It doesn't make any difference to sound quality to my ears, whatever it powers, but my hearing is probably not that good, given my age. (Being a non-scientist, I have no understanding of how or why mains cables could or could not make a difference).
 
In my own system I use 3 Mark Grant mains cables that cost £55 each for 1.7m in a system that would cost approximately £10,000 excluding all ancilliaries.

Previously I used MusicWorks ReCoil leads at £200 each.

I heard the Naim demonstration of the Powerline at the '08 Bristol Show and was suitably impressed.
 
I admire your optimism for an insightful discussion!

I can clearly hear differences from our tests yesterday.

A fair question may well be whether these differences are worth the money. In some circumstances I feel the answer is yes, even for the high priced Powerline. If you are spending £30,000 on a system then a further £500 or so that brings an extra bit of sparkle may be worth it.

Another point may be whether some kit responds more to cable changes than others. QUOTE]



That's pretty much my take on it too.

Well done for the poll Steven. :)

There are clear differences which is the essence of the question.

Whether they are better is another, whether they are worth additional cost is another still.
 
If you are spending £30,000 on a system then a further £500 or so that brings an extra bit of sparkle may be worth it.

If you are spending £30,000 then you should expect the power supplies to be immune to the quality of the mains and not need fixing by aftermarket cables.
 
Why would you expect that womble? Hi Fi manufacturers can't second guess who wired up your house and there's some pretty poor wiring in houses out there.

Actually Naim supply the powerline as standard with their high end stuff.
 
I once tried an extremely expensive mains cable on 2 pieces of equipment (CD and power amp) that were supposed to be sensitive to this sort of thing. This was at home, own system, plenty of time to swap around, no stress, both sighted and unsighted tests (my daughter humoured her strange dad and agreed to do a bit of random lead swapping). No difference was noticed, I mean really nothing, so the expensive cable was returned with thanks to the kind dealer who had offered it.

I am open minded on the subject and do notice differences in speaker cable. My system is fairly revealing. Either I'm listening for the wrong things, or maybe there is no difference - I'm not too bothered which it is. I've never really noticed differences between interconnects either, but haven't experimented too much as it's a hassle and life's too short for some of this stuff.
 
A friend brought a powerline for me to try and on every piece of kit it make a significant improvement ... I was astounded.

Nic P
 
So what is your exact stance on this Ultrawomble?

Is it

a) No but I know for certain that changing a mains cable could not possibly make a difference

or

b) Changing a mains cable can make a difference but only if the equipment powered via it is not designed properly

?

Your position is either one or the other as the two are mutually exclusive and yet oddly, both are frequently expressed by the same individuals. Perhaps I should have included b) above in one of the poll choices.
 
Ash, thanks.
Sanity is alive & well.
I will remain happily amused for the rest of the day.
 
Ash, thanks.
Sanity is alive & well.
I will remain happily amused for the rest of the day.

I'm all for a proper scientific approach and a bit worried about Steve ever since I read that news report in the Daily Mail about some bloke killing his girlfriend and eating her head. Mains cables are only one step away as far as I'm concerned.

Ash ;)
 
I have an assortment of leads, from computer type, supplied freebies, and a couple of screened leads. The only time I have heard a difference was with a Naim Powerline. It made a difference on everything, especialy on the CD player. But there is no way I am spening £4k on power leads for a £8k system
 
A friend brought a powerline for me to try and on every piece of kit it make a significant improvement ... I was astounded.

Nic P

Yes I agree Nic. I have used Powerline on power amps, phono stage PSUs and Linn Karik, each time it was noticable and as you say a significant improvement.
 
I'm all for a proper scientific approach and a bit worried about Steve ever since I read that news report in the Daily Mail about some bloke killing his girlfriend and eating her head. Mains cables are only one step away as far as I'm concerned.

Ash ;)

You might want to look at the poll results so far - over 60% of all respondents at the time of writing this voted for the fourth option, i.e. they have heard differences between mains cables. Surrounded by so many mad people, perhaps it is you who....
 
Ash - you've ruined it for me now. I love my Avi kit, but now I know you read the Daily Nazi, I might have to turn it off and sit in silence.

And what's wrong with eating your girlfriend's head? If you are going to raise livestock, you should be prepared to eat every bit.

I'm off to shove a Powerline up your Avi.


:eek::eek::eek:
 
Ash - you've ruined it for me now. I love my Avi kit, but now I know you read the Daily Nazi, I might have to turn it off and sit in silence.

And what's wrong with eating your girlfriend's head? If you are going to raise livestock, you should be prepared to eat every bit.

I'm off to shove a Powerline up your Avi.


:eek::eek::eek:

It's all very well to criticise the Daily Mail, but without them I might have missed that important story and not even know that the world's oldest water skiing elephant had died!

Ash :(

PS. The bloke has proposed to another in the asylum!
 
I haven't found any difference yet but the leads i'm using are fairly meaty.
i did have a lot of mains interference with my NAD power amps but that's more down to the internals, the Brystons
cured it.
 
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