Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Mains Cable Alternatives?

Exactly this. It all happens inside.

I’m sure the Vandenhul cables are great. And at least you can buy the cable and make up the lengths you need. But unless you are replacing the wiring all the way through your house the effects they mention are no going to be happening. What is going to be happening is the filtering inside the unit’s power supply once it becomes DC.

Are you sure that’s what you think you heard? Was it only your subjective hearing, rather than providing any objective, written, evidence of your listening experience?

Plenty of HHers there listening to his answer. We weren't double blind though...

After a quick search I found this Demo by Shunyata funny enough at my local hifi dealer who at my last visit looked at me like I was a idiot for using M DSP speakers

A while ago I had a talk with the technician from Viertron which is the dutch distributor of M. He told me that the mains cable can make a difference. Mostly because the normal cables have thin 0,75mm2 conductors which can supress the dynamics when higher currents are asked by the amp. So thicker conductors could help and some shielding could also help. Does it make a big difference? To some its a world of difference to others not even noticeable.

Perhaps comparable to having your 267.8 MPH Bugatti Veyron tuned for 100.000 to go 7 MPH faster. A world of difference for some drivers and not noticable and worth the money for others.

For me a nice supra cable or the cheap LAPP ÖLFLEX CLASSIC 3 x 2,5mm2 makes sense, puts me at ease... I've used the LAPP from the fuse box to the dedicated audio wall socket which is only 4 meters so not too much trouble to do so. Does it sound different, I didn't bother to check but it was only 20 euro for 4mtrs of shielded cable.

In the UK, Naim supply their products as standard with a Power-Line Lite mains cable, with the after-sales option of buying their superior Power-Line variant. Ironically, this would work with Meridian C13 products, too.

I would like Meridian to offer a better specified after-sales mains cable, as they do in offering Cat5 or Cat7 alternative SpeakerLink Cables. The caveat being that Meridian would also have to supply different plugs for different markets, so it’s highly unlikely that an alternative Meridian mains cable is ever likely to become a reality.

EDIT: the Naim Power-Line is similar in price to the Shunyata Gamma: I would rather buy the latter.

I contacted the UK Shunyata distributor for advice on where to locally borrow a pair of Shunyata Gamma cables for home-audition. Guillaume’s response was to approach a dealership located 200 miles away in Newcastle-on-Tyne - and confirmed his response when I questioned it. Not a practical option.

It would have been nice if Meridian had spent a few quid in some decent mains cables to go with a pair of 35k DSP speakers instead of supplying them with the same cords that came with my 70 euro PC monitor.

For me It doesn't add up to the high end experience of such a purshase and feels a little cheap and disappointing,

Russ Andrews (UK), a Meridian dealer, offers a week’s rental of the Audio Prism Noise Sniffer, including one of their mains silencer’s for £35.

That’s considerably cheaper than buying your own device at £135 (inc VAT) that you would probably use once. The caveat is that the Russ Andrews device doesn’t have a digital readout, so you cannot objectively measure mains noise.

Maybe biased, but Peter at Russ Andrews stated that their Evolution-300 PowerKord’s, when tested, improved the performance of their DSP5200SE’s and DSP3200’s.

I have read several threads on this forum across past years on using after-market power cables with Meridian kit, with the same three naysayers criticising their use across all these threads.

So, here’s a summary list of misconceptions on mains cable use with audio equipment just for them.

Wow, a whole field of straw men...

I think there's a difference between encouraging scepticism (in the absence of evidence or even theory) and "naysayers criticising their use". My recent comments relate to comments which are trying to establish some kind of truth. This is wrong and could result in innocent people assuming that this particular tweak is known to be effective. It isn't. Plenty of tweaks are.

DC power- ripple etc all measurable demonstrable and hearable (e.g. 218 DC input tweak). No serious audiophile spends much time on mains cable, other than it being well constructed etc. from my observation. Retailers and manufacturers are particularly good sources of unbiased information.

…and there goes one of them.

What an odd article. Most of those 'misconceptions' I have never heard anyone say before and seemed contrived to create an article. I certainly have never heard anyone describe electricity as water before. The misconceptions about external EMI and manufacturer designed power supplies actually seem like arguments against high end power cables. As to component generated EMI surely all the points the article raises are mitigated by well designed equipment that has a decent power supply and effective shielding/screening.

The article actually makes me even less inclined to believe in the benefits of aftermarket power cable rather than more. Which considering the article originated from a manufacturer of power cables and starts with the premise that aftermarket cables make an obvious improvement to both audio and video is quite an achievement!

Whilst I realise this is not the intent of the article but what it lacks, like pretty much everything else I have read, is a clear definition of the problems that need fixing and an explanation as to how each of those problems are addressed together with a comparison as to why fixing the problem in that particular way is better than fixing it by other means. It would also be nice to see an explanation of why the problem needs fixing in the first place since I am not always convinced that some of the issues being fixed, although they exist, are actually a problem.

My simple uneducated take away from the article is to buy decent equipment and as long as the power cable is properly constructed not to worry about it.

Totally agree.

There is an audiophile fuse that one can buy. It costs £4,200 from Future shop.
And there is a ‘grounding box’. Made of wood. Apparently filled with sand. But of course it must work because it costs £16,500.

It is amazing people will buy this stuff but you can’t stop people wasting money (apparently).