hifi Delusion at it's greatest?

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Was looking on whathifi the other day and foudn something that blows most money wasters out the water. This is beyond £100 RCA cables, and even beyond gold plated hdmi cables. : http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Ecosse-Big-Orange-MK2/

thats right, a £60 power cord.:confused:

I've had a look at the specs and unless im missing something drastic, this is simply a 1.5m cable, same type that plugs in your kettle.... except ofcourse it is orange (so maybe worth the price tag :p ) .. but just reading through the (5 star) review.. "General clarity and midrange bite are improved" and "deepens black shades and offers great punch to high-contrast scenes"... please, no one can argue to me that that would make the slightest bit of difference, i simply won't believe it..

Makes you question heavily the reviews from whathifi ( though from what i've heard many do already) ....

and if im not mistaken this http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Russ-Andrews-Reference-PowerKord-W350i-Ag/ is even worse "£232" and from what i can see that's just a power cable aswell...
 
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ahh i missed that.. ahh stuff what i said, that's a fricking bargain!!


whats next rewiring your house with oxygen free copper to give " a better supply" ?...

i'm very tempted to start making my own cables and selling them on ... the profit that can be made is mind blowing..
 
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i wonder if i used that cable on my kettle whether it would make my water taste better or boil faster.. I'm currently looking on electrical retail sites to see if i can make some "audiophile cables" to sell on myself...


atm i'm waiting for an audiophile to pop up and tell us all that it makes a big difference... but maybe they're a bit too scared on this one..
 
I feel like signing up just to post an opinion and scream at them.............for the few short minutes that my post resides there until there nazi's take it down.

they won't be able to hear you over the sound of their "1 million pound listening room" and expensive power cabling...
 
I wonder why there is rarely any scientific data which can prove any tangeable difference regarding all cabling in hifi. Even making cables out of proper decent quality materials (silver plated cabling, and oxygen free copper) it's still dirt cheap and most of the cost is in the connectors. You can get Oxygen free copper for around 50p a metre, so for some RCA cables you're looking at less than £5 including connectors, and probably the same for a power cable.
 
Didn't we have this thread a couple of months ago, which degenerated into the "go listen for yourself" and the "can't possibly be true because of..."?

Don't get me wrong, I know nothing at all about the power cables in question and have never used them. For all I know, maybe they have zero effect.

Having said that, I have tried aftermarket power cables (some of which IMO made an amp of mine actually sound worse). I now use a pair of non-cheap power cables for my amp and processor.
I'll make the offer now. If any of the "that's gotta be rubbish because of..." crowd fancy coming to down to south London, I'll happily hold a quick blind test between some boggo power cables and ones I use with my amp.

Anyone up for it?




Yeh there was a thread concerning analogue audio cables, something which is highly disputed. However a power cable with a decent degree of quality and integrity against the £60 or £230 cable WILL NOT sound different. If you think that becuase its sheilded its different, you're terribly mislead.


Lets look at a power cable: Fuse, cable. Fuse will have no affect on low currents ( assuming the fuse is rated properly) and a cable is a cable...


The only way you can clean up a mains signal is capacitors.. I don't see any capacitors in those cables
 
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Well you've quoted my post, but don't seem to have read or understood it all.

How about putting your prejudices for one side just for a little while and come and actually have a listen and make up your own mind.

You said how about a blind test.. I was explaining it is so highly improbable that the power cord can make such a signifiant difference as to recognise...


If you notice i breifly mentioned analogue cables but only wrote "highly disputed", as i think there is too much conflicting information, and having not made a comparison could not make a appropriate or justified opinion. £230 a metre power cable on the other hand, i can make a comment. Notice how whathifi makes claims which are to all intents and purposes impossible..
 
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regardless of the scientific propositions i think we can all agree that they are all overpriced. You could reproduce the £230 cable to a very similar spec for under £12. that you can't dispute because i will show you prices of similar parts..
 
Lastly, some of the real "hifi" systems are probably worst. They're terrible for giving music an almost etched and overhyped and over detailed view. With really well recorded music, can sound amazing. But I don't want to just listen to well recorded Jazz. What about the day you fancy a spot of Definitely Maybe (which is truly awfully produced, but has some wonderful songs on it). These upfront systems simply rip your ears off with the wrong music. Still, that's progress, at least according to the hifi rags.

Couldn't agree more with this. Unless you're a bass freak i don't understand why people don't simply opt for studio monitors. - Ok they're not the prettyest speakers, but they'l have the flatest "dynamics(?)" , and should sound as close to how the songs were meant to sound as possible, rather than all this nonsense about speakers with "character" , and "warmth" etc. I mean for music that is, if you want to truely appreciate any song. Since i got my teufel concept b's (hifi manufacturer, but more of a studio monitor design) theres so many new bits of songs i hear, and even hear the lyrics clearer. When i started out looking at hifi stuff my opinion was - go with the audiophiles- now i think its - go with the proffessionals --- if it's someones day to day job to make music sound it's best, they're going to take the time to make sure they're not ****ing money up the wall.... anyways, just my opinion..
 
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Usually because they have none, which is why threads of this nature on this forum are a complete and utter waste of time.

The point of the thread was because, scientifically the cable should make such little difference as to assume it makes none, and funnily enough people did come round to justify them... just shows something...


also - why would a sceptic have gone and bought a expensive power cable if he thinks it will make no difference?... One of the only people to defend the power cables admitted they hadnt blind tested them- negating their opinion



Regardless - Hats off to Mr S and the others for defending despite our critism, and offering a listening test, can't argue with that...
 
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Nicely put, the mount of electrical, metallurgists and Hi-Fi experts here amazes me......

People see a cable as just piece of wire, but is it ???? Well truth is all of the experts here don't know what is in side, neither do I..... Unless we buy one and take it apart.... Which of coarse know one has done.
BUT, just suppose said piece of wire was some "special" screening, is woven to suppress RFI, has capacitor or something in side the plug to suppress spikes.... and and and..... Now is just a piece of wire or is it another electronic component ?

People bang on about Placebo effect, but similarly a closed mind as demonstrated here would never be able to hear any effect, as they have decided before such a test...... Oh sorry we have to double blind test everything........ :rolleyes:
OK off to double blind test the g/f with the weekly shopping, to see if we should choose Heinz bake beans of Tesco's own !!! :p

wtf are you on about?.... :p
 
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