Audio Mains cables

pdw8

pdw8

pdw8

Associate
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
1,603
Location
Kent/London
Does anyone use a specialist mains cable? I am looking around and seeing mixed reviews as to what they do and if they are worth it. I can't see how a mains cable can affect the quality of the audio as reported.
I've just ordered a Denon 2807 so would it be a worthwhile upgrade for an extra £85?
 
how would 1m of v.expensive copper change the characteristics of the other 500m of cheap copper connecting you to your substation ?

better spent on interconnects. imho


.
 
Absolute nonesense. They are being plugged into a standard ring main wired with completely normal mains cable. It'd be a bit like adding a 30cm section of very high quality speaker cable onto the end of a 15m run of standard richer sounds 50p/meter stuff.
 
I would spend the money on some sort of alternative power supply unit that smooths out the surges and noise in the mains. These units can be quite effective according to some audiophiles.

I myself can here a buzz sound from my system when someone rings the doorbell at the apartment block main entry door. So I assume some sort of regulator unit would iron out some of the inherent noise in the power supply.

Jules
 
Depends seems to be the answer.
I've used a few aftermarket cables.
With some kit, they make little difference, with others (e.g. Naim) can make it sound worse than the standard ones and with other cables, can improve things.

I now use dedicated mains cables on all of my components as I'm convinced it helps with those.

For an AV amp, your biggest improvement would be to replace it with a decent stereo amp. So I'd suggest you save the money for the power cable towards that.
 
Yeah only bother with some sort of pure ac filtered powerstrip or psu like the type that generate their own pure ac sine wave, also placement of cables can help, make sure they're as separate as possible from any other cable and not near electric devices, make sure you use good quality shielded cables as well, of course it all may not be worth it. ;)
 
Jez said:
Absolute nonesense. They are being plugged into a standard ring main wired with completely normal mains cable. It'd be a bit like adding a 30cm section of very high quality speaker cable onto the end of a 15m run of standard richer sounds 50p/meter stuff.
Click to expand...

The man speaketh the truth.
Considering the erst of the wiring in your house is the cheapest the electriction could get, and is connected to the overhead cables improving the last 30 cm is going to make bugger all difference. You cannot polish a turd.

If the quality of the electicity coming out of a socket the manufacturers would reccomend using different supplies. Its only the snake oil merchants that are rife in the hifi/av world that peddle this stuff. Any device has a transformer circuit in it to conver the feed into whatever the components need to function, it doesnt care what it gets as long as its 240 as it takes care of the clean up.

What might be a good idea is some sort of surge protection to protect your kit but even that should be handled at the main fuse board.

I do have some magic beans though that you put ontop of the amplifier that improves sound though if you want some ;)
 
to be honest I have heard audio equipment plugged into an APC UPS unit using special cables ( only for the phyisical connection to the apc rather than the quality of the cable itself) and the audio does sound cleaner - not enough to spend £100 or so just for the APC, but if you are using one already for your pc and you have spare sockets on it , certainly worthwhile
 
Ugley_Matt said:
If the quality of the electicity coming out of a socket the manufacturers would reccomend using different supplies. Its only the snake oil merchants that are rife in the hifi/av world that peddle this stuff. Any device has a transformer circuit in it to conver the feed into whatever the components need to function, it doesnt care what it gets as long as its 240 as it takes care of the clean up.
Click to expand...

Just remember the number of manufacturers that do make and sell power supplies, e.g. Cyrus with their PSX-R, Naim with their *Caps, Musicial Fidelity etc.
If the mains were fine, quite obviously there would be no requirement for these units.

Having said that, as I've already stated, it does appear to be equipment dependant. Both my Meridian transport and Bel Canto amps responded well to higher quality mains cables, and I can assure you that if I didn't think it made any difference, that I would have rather spent the money on holidays, CDs or porn.
 
So maybe I need to get a mains conditioner first. You can get one from ******s for about £40.
I still can't see how this can improve the picture and sound quality though? But there seems to be a serious market for mains cables, I saw some costing over £5500 :eek:
 
pdw8 said:
So maybe I need to get a mains conditioner first. You can get one from ******s for about £40.
I still can't see how this can improve the picture and sound quality though? But there seems to be a serious market for mains cables, I saw some costing over £5500 :eek:
Click to expand...

My view is that mains cables are only really worth it with higher end kit.
As already mentioned, frankly I wouldn't bother for use with an AV amp, I just don't see it being a particularly good use of money.
You'd be better off spending the £80 on a new bunch of DVDs/CDs.
 
I'm not a big believe in a lot of the cable issues, BUT those damming would be better using their ears than speculation !!!
It CAN make a difference but not always. The last few CM/Inches of cable in such leads perform a screening and filtering/cleaning effect.
I've only tried a Russ Andrews yello myself, and on Linn Kit it either made no difference or was worse... But the they use Switch Mode Powers Supplier which are more immune to problems.
BUT when I tried it on a Pioneer 565 Universal player, it actual made the picture better when shown on a Panny PW6.... A little cleaner and richer in appearance with less noise.

Personal I would avoid "conditioners" as they reportedly have a restrictive effectively and kill off the music..... the ones that don't cost a mint !

Find a seller who does trial period, and pay no more than say 30-50 quid. If it doesn't help send it back !!
 
Try it in a blind listening test somewhere, if you can't tell the difference then don't buy it. Simple enough ;) Don't believe someone that claims to be an 'audiophile' unless they've done proper testing of what they're talking about.
 
always been interested to try one of these cables myslef, just cant see how it would make the slightest bit of differance though. Yet I still still get sucked into the whole 'what Hi-Fi' reviews saying how the £80 power cable will transform your system blah blah blah

think I will just save a bit extra and add a PSXR to my cyrus, I know that makes a differance as I have listened to it
 
LOL HiFi snake-oil it reminds me of about 10 years ago when another Hi-Fi guru was selling little bottles of de-ionized water for (worth at least 5p) for 10 quid to paint onto speaker plugs to 'improve the conductivity' and little triangles of gold foil to place on the backs of plugs to 'reflect rf' again £10 a pop (and worth about 20p) and people bought this crap. Oh yes - 'special' housebricks to put your amp on to acoustically isolate them (£20 for a set of 4 bricks !!!!)

I think it was B & W about 3 years ago, drew a lot of attention at a trade-show with their bright orange speaker cable. When questioned as to what there new esoteric cable was, the engineer replied its flymo mains flex !!!
When asked why, he said that they felt it was as good a any other cable for demoing their speakers.

Dont believe the hype, most people who claim to be audiophiles talk *****. Very few people have perfect hearing (if you dont believe me ask an audiometrist) so their values are purely subjective. Ask yourself this.. why do so few hi-fi reviews not use a calibrated type 0 or 1 spectrum analyser to measure the alleged differences in the snake-oil products that they sell or review? Probably because if measured scientifically there wouldnt be any.

There are many ways that our hearing becomes impaired. I did a study for my Post Grad in Acoustics of young car drivers, with amplified car stereos. If 1 in 3 of them were in a work place, exposed to noise at the same SPL's that they listened to their music, they would legally be required to wear hearing protection, to prevent damage to their hearing !!
 
Musashi: nail + head

Its physics that a little mains cable is going to make no difference. Utter utter utter nonesense as a lot of hifi gimmicks are.

I can see in theory how running something off of a UPS could possibly have benefit, but directly to a standard outlet? :p
 
Have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with a high degree of skepticism, however, completely writing off "hi-fi snake oil" as BS is a little extreme.
Just remember that some people state that interconnects make no differences and that all CDPs sound the same.

The simple fact is that if you think it sounds better, it IS better. Anything else is BS.

As for some of the weird stuff I've come across that seems to work:
- The mains cables I now use. IMO a mains cable change made a bigger improvement that moving from a cheapo DVD player (used as a transport) to a dedicated CD transport costing 14x more.
- Stands. I've heard a variety of technologies used in stands. Rigid glass tend to add leading edges, air suspended tend to increase textures, but at the expense of dynamics. Head a Quadraspire "wobbly" acrlyic recently. If you pushed it, it wobbled around like a Japanese hi-rise block that has been made earthquake proof. Did seem to help the sound of the CDP sat on it.
- Some weird spray stuff that I heard in Heathrow last weekend. Spray it on your CD, wipe it on to create a kind of thin film on it. It claims to clean the CD, reduce unexpected laser reflections and standardise static charge across the CD. Frankly, I don't care what it's meant to do, all I know is that it certainly seemed to make a difference, and I was desperately hoping it wouldn't.
- Stillpoints. Imagine a cone with a set of ballbearings at the tip. Stick three of these under a CDP and they allow horizontal dissipation of your kit when it vibrates (according to the blurb). All I know is that they certainly seem to work.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
As for some of the weird stuff I've come across that seems to work:
- The mains cables I now use. IMO a mains cable change made a bigger improvement that moving from a cheapo DVD player (used as a transport) to a dedicated CD transport costing 14x more.
Click to expand...

What cables are you using?

Thanks,
Paul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom