Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems power cord - changed from cynic to beleiver

RobertW has a full digital chain (obviously except for the 8000 D2A outputs to the speaker drive units). Now, our equipment is basically microcomputers so, unless putting one of the super power cords on my PC will improve its performance, the audible differences must be due to the tiny analogue fraction of the chain.

It's interesting that Axle is running analogue out from the G68 while I seem to remember that Nick said that the power cords to his 8Ks made the most difference.

Can power cords of 2m length make any difference to digital electronics?

Hi Malcolm,

correct. The changes to power cable to the 8k's did make a difference. I stayed with the stock M cables as I could not confirm that the change was "better". At least this conclusion was not guilty of the "more ��� is better" mindset.

Cheers

Axle thanks for the info, 0 impedance is clear ,but i do not understand the power factor.

We have the same idea Axel,tomorrow I have planned to rent a PSAudio premier to try that influence and maybe then i can save some money on cables(hopefully). I try to avoid the expensive ones,but "today" in my case i need one-hopefully i will a cheaper one.There are also cable on the market that have not so big names and also are very excellent,but you have be lucky to find it.
During the last 2 months i dit try about 10 different cable and two distributor blocks in all price regions.
The problems is that the same cable sound have more or less "effect" or sounds different when its on a speaker or a transport, so you cant say its bad.
You have to try the combinations,and allways have to lean yourself back not to fall in this "more is better" effect. And very important is to have a collection of very different music that you know very well.
On some peaces on music you doesnt hear a difference at all with one cable,but a big difference on another piece. And i do have no logic for that to make this "game" easier..
Also the "sound footprint" what you claim is the best,its a personal taste-so the same cable on the same equipment doesnt fit do every user.
All this testing is very time consuming and also make a little stress,so i make allways short or long brakes.

One thing to understand maybe a little more on the cable influence is,not thinking the last meter (from the power plant) makes the influence,
the FIRST meter OUT from the Equipment towards the powerplant is important.
But then my technical roots come out,and i say -This "simple" cable couldnt be implemendet in the equipment?....
This was my personal reason NOT trying cables for such a long time, as i thought M handle this..

definitely I use missing link they rock!! problem i just cant stop buying there damn leads audiophile obsession about to buy 2 more ref supplier mains filter that put at about 4 k for cables and filters massive difference though .....

May I stick my neck out and suggest that unless anyone can get loan/sale or return so can test, you spend a couple of ��� on a decent approved electrician (www.niceic.org.uk in the UK - choose an approved contractor rather than a domestic installer) to test the whole house and give tangible results for house interference, quality of earth plus a load of other measurements for safety, quality of installation, earth return speed, impedance etc.

They will then give a list of recommendations and readings which you can act on if required. If any subsequent work is then required, such as fitting a new consumer meter, then the post tests will then be compared with the pre tests and you will see what changes have been made. The tests are fairly comprehensive and you can obviously guide them to your needs (ie sockets of interest) - they take between 1/2 day to 1 day for a 3/4 bed house.

There are huge price differences in the cost of electricians but, thanks to the niceic website I was lucky to find a good honest one in my old area who did a significant amount of work for �600, including undertaking the tests and changing my consumer unit to latest 18th edition dual rcd, miscellaneous fixes (including one that could have caused a fire/caused rcd nuisance tripping) and could advise on what 'defects' were worth putting right and what were 'cosmetic'/acceptable for age of property. This work was done at less than half the ex VAT price of my purchasers sparky so there is plenty of room for shopping around without compromising competence.

I'm not going to say that the test will save money, but its may just pick up something that can be easily fixed and avoid the need for special wiring that is simply covering a more fundamental fault, ie poor earth connection on one of the ring sockets. You will have a set of analytical results that can be reproduced so you will not be stabbing round in the dark and instead will have a set of measurements that will guide you to what aspects may or may not need further attention. You could even get the electrician to perform the tests with and without your new cables/conditioners in place so will have measurable results. And will certainly pay for itself if you are thinking of moving in the next 10 years and would be a pre requisite if you were thinking of having major work done like change of consumer meter or moving to 3 phase.

I had an opportunity recntly to compare the standard power chords with 2 different Isotek models, Premium and Elite. The comparrison was on a G57/G91a combo feeding passive speakers. The effect of changing cables was an immediate and noticable improvement in separation and definition (to my ears). Whether this is also the case for DSP speakers or not I cannot say at the moment (The Elite cables belong to a friend), but I'm looking forward to conducting the same 'test' with my new 5200's.

@All
knowing that i live with voodoo, i'm in the business, the powercord is sort of network like it is within Speakers.
Owning a Sooloos since christmas (yes, i got it), i found out, that even the orientation of the powercord in the walloutlet made a difference.
BTW. have now networkcable from the medicine industrie ( optical conversion) makes a big difference.
My believe is, the powercord is a filter per se.
For a lot of people it is voodoo (Sooloos?), it changes a lot.

Best
Armin

Digital audio signals don't care about power supply noise (for digital video it matters). But there is no such thing as an all digital system. Every digital system eventually convets the digital signal to analog (DAC). Power supply noise matters at this point forward. So if your PC has a DAC output, it is before this point and you shouldn't have to care about its power cord. However you should care about its jitter. But that's a different subject.

Nick,

What source was used with the DSP8ks for the power cord test?

Hi Robert,

Power factor is a measure of efficiency. It is the ratio of real power to apparent power expreassed as a ratio between 0 and 1. It quantifies how well voltage and current work together. If voltage and current are perfectly aligned, that is a power factor of 1. If they are prefectly misaligned, that is a power factor of 0.

An analogy of low power factor is how well a car's motor and transmission work together. If you are trying to go top speed in 1st gear, the motor strains and works really hard, but you can never gain much speed. Similarly, with low power factor, your amp may work very hard but may not perform well.

A cable can increase power factor by impedance matching.

Be careful of plugging amps in power plants. They may limit current. The PP may be optiomal for lighter loads.

Ian,

Excellent suggestion on the electrician. All things considered, its a matter of due diligence.