Just laughing outloud at this high-end nonsense

[nivroc]

I've had a well-used copy of The Dave Clark Five's Greatest Hits on LP ever since I was 7, as I used to play it over and over and over again.  In the time that I've owned it, the record was stored in a box in the attic for 20 years.  Miraculously, it hadn't warped and I was glad all over.  Because the album was treated like crap when I was just a lad, it had many scratches and I was lucky it wasn't in bits and pieces.  However, I cleaned it up with some fine sandpaper and gasoline and polished it to a mirror-like sheen.  Soon thereafter, I placed the record on my $500,000 turntable and was just about to drop the needle until I had the best idea yet:

 

Thinking outside the box, I reversed the polarity on my power cord, which I had directly wired to the feed wires on the outside power line, before the transformer, bypassing not only the house power supply, but also the signal-robbing breaker.  I turned on my system and the impossible happened.  Amazingly, the music transported me back to the recording studio where the Dave Clark Five was performing a cover of "Do You Love Me?" when all of the sudden I could hear the faintest sound of a firetruck approaching.  I've never heard this on the record before.  Reversing the polarity was the key to time-travel!  I could almost smell the smoke of a burning building nearby, the sensation was so real.  I could literally feel the heat engulfing me as the fire intensified!  At that point, the band stopped recording and I passed out due to sheer bliss!  Three days later, I woke up in the burn ward of the hospital.  After fifteen surgeries and countless skin grafts, I still haven't been released, but no matter - that was the most magical listening experience I've had yet.

[wvu80]

1 hour ago, nivroc said:

Three days later, I woke up in the burn ward of the hospital.  After fifteen surgeries and countless skin grafts, I still haven't been released, b

 

It sounds like it's not the burn ward you need to be released from...

 

[dtel]

1 hour ago, nivroc said:

Thinking outside the box

Sounds like it's one thing you should NOT be doing ?

[oldtimer]

1 hour ago, wvu80 said:

It sounds like it's not the burn ward you need to be released from...

The satire ward worked wonders!

[Don Richard]

A larger gage power cord can make a difference, especially with components that draw a lot of current like power amplifiers. Installing an isolation transformer to supply balanced AC power to audio equipment will make a difference in noise rejection. AC regenerators or UPS units will deliver clean AC power, but  not any better than a balanced power hookup. Pretty much everything else is bullshit.

[Edgar]

OK; usually I just ignore superstitious discussions about wire. But this has gone on for so long that I just have to comment.

 

First: Connections make orders of magnitude more difference than wires. You can have the most amazing unobtanium wire in the universe, and if it is poorly crimped or soldered to the connectors, or if the connectors are oxidized and don't make a good solid connection to the components, there might be a measurable or perhaps even audible difference. On the other hand, if you have good crimps or solder joints, then even lamp cord will sound pretty good. Once you have good connections and good wire, it's all a matter of resistance, capacitance, and inductance. Resistance is related to the material and its cross-section; capacitance and inductance are related to the cable geometry.

 

Second: Six feet of power cord won't make diddly squat's worth of difference. But a power conditioner that provides stable, pure sinewave power with large current capacity might. It wasn't until I started working in the power industry that I understood that there is non-60 Hz (50 Hz in some places) energy in the power line, used for data transfer. A well-designed power supply shouldn't have any trouble with it, but if you remove it before it gets to your audio equipment, it becomes a non-issue.

http://www.utility.org/smart-meter-questions-and-answers/

[gottajam]

What an incredible evolution in technology! I am thinking about selling my new P38s and getting some of this cable. When connected to my gas powered solar panels, should sound stunning.   

[DrWho]

I've become a lot less skeptical of some of this stuff after dealing with some of the strangest of interactions in circuits during my time here at Shure...

 

Just something to keep in mind....that noise floor hiss you hear? That's the random vibration of the molecules in the circuit components you're using. Some of that noise (especially at low frequency) is actually due to quantum behavior. Now there's a fancy term! Haha, but the point is that audio performance is almost always at the limit of physics. Things can't get better because the world itself is the limiting factor.

 

So here's a fun thought.....there's a ton of electromagnetic radiation in the air. What happens when that energy starts interacting with those sensitive molecules in our circuits? What impacts the ability for that energy to interact with our circuits? Working at a company that uses a lot of wireless technology, I have a lot of exposure to maths and stuff that describe that behavior.

 

Anyways, I've seen crazier stuff matter. Think of that power cord like a big antenna. Or you can also think of it as a non-zero impedance for shared currents. Then there's the fact of reinserting a cable causing contact wipe which affects contact impedance. Fermilab runs a continuous current through all of their connections to prevent that oxidation from building. From a basic circuits understanding the power cord doesn't matter.....but this other stuff does. It's all this other stuff that keeps me employed actually because there's a crap ton of non-basic stuff to deal with.

 

But ya, I agree the language is quite eccentric....but most artsy fart types tend to be on the eccentric side. This kind of flowerful language certainly makes life more interesting!

[DrWho]

On 8/6/2016 at 8:10 AM, Edgar said:

A well-designed power supply shouldn't have any trouble with it

Leakage current in the X-Y caps......it's always there regardless of power supply quality.

 

Batteries are totally the way to go.....

[Confab]

On 8/4/2016 at 5:36 PM, BLSamuel said:

 

I'd have to agree with that.... but the PS Audio power regenerators make sense to me.  Protection for the system and a clean 60 HZ sine wave, or an exaggerated sine wave to better handle transient peak requirements of the music if my limited reading in STEREOPHILE (OK, they did promote green magic markers to make CDs sound better.... amongst other nonsense).  lol

Do you remember when they suggested using Armor All on CD's?

[rgdawsonco]

Well, I guess I should have expected this.  This guy went and got his own utility pole with his own audio grade transformer.  Only cost him more than $50K, but I bet he can save on power cords now.

 

http://gizmodo.com/obsessed-audiophiles-in-japan-are-installing-their-own-1785291714

[Edgar]

5 minutes ago, rgdawsonco said:

This guy went and got his own utility pole with his own audio grade transformer.

 

If you're going to spend that much money, why bother with the power grid at all? Install your own battery supply and modify your equipment to run directly from DC. Eliminate the need for rectification of AC entirely.

[mustang guy]

Or run through APC SmartUPS's with a pure sine wave.

[DrWho]

17 hours ago, Edgar said:

 

If you're going to spend that much money, why bother with the power grid at all? Install your own battery supply and modify your equipment to run directly from DC. Eliminate the need for rectification of AC entirely.

Soooooo true.

 

I use batteries all the time for testing because they're soooooo crazy quiet and really the best source of something that looks like DC.

[Edgar]

57 minutes ago, DrWho said:

I use batteries all the time for testing because they're soooooo crazy quiet and really the best source of something that looks like DC.

 

With the possible exception of some turntables that use synchronous AC motors, all of the electronics run on DC anyway. Might as well power them directly. Power supply capacitors in amplifiers could be left in place to provide short-term high-current capacity.

[billybobg]

On ‎8‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 9:33 PM, nivroc said:

 

 

Thinking outside the box, I reversed the polarity on my power cord, which I had directly wired to the feed wires on the outside power line, before the transformer, bypassing not only the house power supply, but also the signal-robbing breaker.  I turned on my system and the impossible happened.  Amazingly, the music transported me back to the recording studio where the Dave Clark Five was performing a cover of "Do You Love Me?" when all of the sudden I could hear the faintest sound of a firetruck approaching.

This reminded me of the time I helped a friend down the street with a sprinkler valve.  It was buried six feet underground and he was hand digging down to get the plumber access to replace the valve.  I thought, why do 90% of the work and pay a guy a couple of hundred to replace a $15 part?  So he let me help him with the valve.  When I loosened and pulled the connection apart I got a pretty good tingle standing in a foot of water and realized I had current running through my body.  I calmly asked him to please go and throw the main breaker.  The power company came out and fixed the issue.  Seems the previous owner, an electrician, had reversed a ground and the power lead at the circuit breaker.  Why?  Who knows. Maybe it circumvents the meter some how.  Kinda shows that even people with a little knowledge can really screw things up.  As I only got a tingle and didn't end up in the morgue it's sorta humorous now. 

[Islander]

On ‎8‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 0:31 PM, DrWho said:

Soooooo true.

 

I use batteries all the time for testing because they're soooooo crazy quiet and really the best source of something that looks like DC.

 

My first thought when I hear about using batteries is that the voltage begins to drop as soon as you turn on whatever they're powering, so you have power that's inconsistent in that basic factor.  After a few hours listening, wouldn't the voltage drop enough to change the sound measurably, if not noticeably?  Is there a sweet spot, like at 90% charge, the system sounds the best?

 

For best results, should you recharge before the batteries get too low, say at 70% charge or so?  Would it sound less good if you let the charge drop to 30% or so?

[Don Richard]

Put a regulator after the batteries to stabilize the voltage.

[Islander]

14 hours ago, Don Richard said:

Put a regulator after the batteries to stabilize the voltage.

 

Okay, that makes sense.  Even so, the batteries can't maintain full voltage, so do you pick a value they can maintain and stick with that for the sake of consistency?  As you can probably tell, I have no experience with battery power in components other than portable players or speakers.

[Edgar]

17 minutes ago, Islander said:

 

Okay, that makes sense.  Even so, the batteries can't maintain full voltage, so do you pick a value they can maintain and stick with that for the sake of consistency?  As you can probably tell, I have no experience with battery power in components other than portable players or speakers.

 

As with all things audiophile, you put into place far more capacity than you actually need.