Expensive Instrument Cable Snake Oil

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bxlxaxkxe
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braintheory said:
This is exactly what I experienced. It's like the other chords were attenuating or sucking out parts of my sound and finally I was hearing something more complete. I will say the cheeper chords had this high end sizzle to it that none of the high end chords had. I guess it could be good or bad depending on scenario, but it did at least lower I think the noise floor slightly too
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Are you using a power conditioner of some sort as well? Because that will magnify the power cable's improvement. And a big +1 to the lower noise floor too.
 
thegame said:
Well, that's a fancy way of saying, "No, I've never tried that and won't ever just on textbook principle alone". But seriously, you're looking at it the wrong way. High end cables don't really give you more because they can't. It's that lesser ones definitely give you less and that absolutely applies to power cables too.
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Science. Does the "high end" power cable have less resistance? Less capacitance? Less inductance? Better surface or skin effects? If it did, the literature of the "high end" power cable company would SHOW that, with graphs and data, and there woudl be no dispute. Are such claims present in the sales literature?

As to perception, people percieved that laetrile would cure cancer, that tomatoes were deadly poison, that vampires preyed on young ladies. Perception doesn't come close to instrumented, documented difference. Can you direct me to any such data for the high end power cables?
 
BlackOut8910 said:
Can you direct me to any such data for the high end power cables?
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Gladly:

istockphoto-1394801910-612x612.jpg


It's a more credible source than yours:

360_F_66874115_6UIsNjioq6iW87F9xuaO2tFDDSjo7di4.jpg
 
thegame said:
Are you using a power conditioner of some sort as well? Because that will magnify the power cable's improvement. And a big +1 to the lower noise floor too.
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I actually was not, but I do have one. Will try it later. The lower noise floor was a very nice bonus
 
BlackOut8910 said:
Science. Does the "high end" power cable have less resistance? Less capacitance? Less inductance? Better surface or skin effects? If it did, the literature of the "high end" power cable company would SHOW that, with graphs and data, and there woudl be no dispute. Are such claims present in the sales literature?

As to perception, people percieved that laetrile would cure cancer, that tomatoes were deadly poison, that vampires preyed on young ladies. Perception doesn't come close to instrumented, documented difference. Can you direct me to any such data for the high end power cables?
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Those are ideas or theories rather than perceptions with one of our 5 senses like we meant. Perhaps others could provide scientific data or the brands themselves do, but not of interest to me. I mean do we also need to provide scientific data or graphs to explain why certain amps, guitars, or speakers sound better to us vs others? No, we just listen, compare and decide what we like best. Simple. Try it and decide. Do we also need to scientifically show why one person is better looking than another or why some foods taste better than others?
 
braintheory said:
Those are ideas or theories rather than perceptions with one of our 5 senses like we meant. Perhaps others could provide scientific data or the brands themselves do, but not of interest to me. I mean do we also need to provide scientific data or graphs to explain why certain amps, guitars, or speakers sound better to us vs others? No, we just listen, compare and decide what we like best. Simple. Try it and decide. Do we also need to scientifically show why one person is better looking than another or why some foods taste better than others?
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You do know that science can actually explain why one person looks better than another (symetry) and why some foods taste better (chemistry), right?

If you are tasting or hearing electricity - you are doing it wrong. What you hear is the excursion of an electromechanical or electrostatic driver - a speaker, tweeter, or headphone. Unless you want to assert "magic", there needs to be a testable hypothesis of WHY a particular power cord, speaker cable, or instrument cable sounds "better", adn what "better" means.

You wouldn't take medication based on "perception" - hence why double-blind studies are a thing. Why buy cables based on perception? You know your guitar amp is going to sound different from day to day based on changes in your position, supplied voltage, component drift in the amplifier, different pressure and humidity - ESPECIALLY if an older speaker cone is absorbing moisture, and changes in human hearing due to the blood sugar, blood pressure, overall health.
 
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braintheory said:
Those are ideas or theories rather than perceptions with one of our 5 senses like we meant. Perhaps others could provide scientific data or the brands themselves do, but not of interest to me. I mean do we also need to provide scientific data or graphs to explain why certain amps, guitars, or speakers sound better to us vs others? No, we just listen, compare and decide what we like best. Simple. Try it and decide. Do we also need to scientifically show why one person is better looking than another or why some foods taste better than others?
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"I mean do we also need to provide scientific data or graphs to explain why certain amps, guitars, or speakers sound better to us vs others?"

You've never seen speaker response graphs?

Vintage 30
https://midi-audio-expert.com/wp-co...ion_vintage_30_speaker_frequency_response.jpg

Greenback
https://celestion.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/T1221-G12M-Greenback-copy.jpg

If an amp claims to put out 120 watts - you can test and prove that. If an amp claims to put out 0.5 total harmonic distortion, you can test and prove that.
 
BlackOut8910 said:
In a delorean, you see nicer stuff. In a Hundai, you better be pointing at the nearest dealership, as you are about to see less pleasant stuff, like a connecting rod.
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Apparently you don't know much about deloreans. 🤣🤣🤣 Hyundai is far better.
 
Blind test - two identical amps. $10 generic power cable verses $350 Audio Quest power cable. Generic wins.

 
Ethan Winer, audio engineer and musician for more than 45 years: "Finally, the belief that AC power cables affect audio quality is the easiest myth to dispel. Like speaker wire, as long as the gauge is adequate for the length and required amount of current, a power cord simply can’t affect sound quality." SOUND ON SOUND, Stop worrying about wire, October 2017.
 
BlackOut8910 said:
You do know that science can actually explain why one person looks better than another (symetry) and why some foods taste better (chemistry), right?

If you are tasting or hearing electricity - you are doing it wrong. What you hear is the excursion of an electromechanical or electrostatic driver - a speaker, tweeter, or headphone. Unless you want to assert "magic", there needs to be a testable hypothesis of WHY a particular power cord, speaker cable, or instrument cable sounds "better", adn what "better" means.

You wouldn't take medication based on "perception" - hence why double-blind studies are a thing. Why buy cables based on perception? You know your guitar amp is going to sound different from day to day based on changes in your position, supplied voltage, component drift in the amplifier, different pressure and humidity - ESPECIALLY if an older speaker cone is absorbing moisture, and changes in human hearing due to the blood sugar, blood pressure, overall health.
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You can’t compare something like medicine to something subjective like sound quality. You have all these on paper ideas about why it shouldn’t matter. If this is something you really want to figure out for yourself I’d say give Tim Schroeder a call. He’s a very nice guy that’ll be happy to discuss this with you in much more depth than I would. I bought my powerchords from him. None of which are the brands you showed later on. If you don’t hear the difference or don’t like them he’ll let you return them. Simple as that. Personally I think just hearing it for yourself and deciding is a much more productive and enjoyable way to go about this than trying to find theoretical/on paper ways to try to explain otherwise without in person experience trying it yourself. There’s no other valid substitute for that. End of story. If you still disagree based on that experience I can fully respect that, but would be very surprised. I won’t go any further and make this more pointless
 
BlackOut8910 said:
"I mean do we also need to provide scientific data or graphs to explain why certain amps, guitars, or speakers sound better to us vs others?"

You've never seen speaker response graphs?

Vintage 30
https://midi-audio-expert.com/wp-co...ion_vintage_30_speaker_frequency_response.jpg

Greenback
https://celestion.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/T1221-G12M-Greenback-copy.jpg

If an amp claims to put out 120 watts - you can test and prove that. If an amp claims to put out 0.5 total harmonic distortion, you can test and prove that.
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Again while this doesn’t interest me, with my own extensive experience AB’ing lots of different speaker models, that info gives their eq curves, wattage like you said, efficiency, etc, but literally nothing on the nuances you hear in person that make some speakers come off exceptional (I won’t say magical lol) and others bland/less inspiring. Again there’s no valid substitute for just trying these items yourself in person. This engineer-y way of thinking about it is great in other fields, but I think more counterproductive in something artistic and more subjective in nature like music. It requires a more open mind of what may not always initially make logical sense. Much of the best moments in music itself and the sounds are the hardest parts to explain logically and that for me is some of the magic
 
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