Do hi-fi Power cords make a difference?

[Kosta27]

<font color='#000000'>This is my first post on the forum, and I'm surprised not to have found any pervious discussions about the new hi-fi trend of adding expensive power cords of 14 awg and larger to amps/pre-amps and CDs costing well over the $100s price range. &nbsp;Is this the latest snake oil or is there any proof to their claims? &nbsp;

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[Audioholics]

<font color='#008080'>So far neither we, nor the people selling the power cords have been able to provide any proof of their claims.

Power conditioning is a great way to improve your system's performance, but adding a fancy $100+ cable will probably just set you back a C-note.

As always, we'd welcome any scientific data to the contrary. Lots of people will talk about how they have heard a difference. The problem is, test measurement equipment hears better than we do and it says that power cables don't do squat.</font>

 

[brent]

<font color='#000000'>I recently purchased a B&amp;K AVR 507 and yep-as warned here-the store highly recommended that I replace the &quot;flimsy&quot; ,&quot;audibly poor&quot; and &quot;inadequate&quot; detachable power cord with a much larger power cord that-you guessed it -costs $100.00. I declined by replying that I had faith in B&amp;K that they would not sabotage their excellent receiver with an audibly inferior power cord. I may call B&amp;K to get their official opinion. In any event, thanks Hawke for saving me $100-I'll put that savings toward speaker cable-and if you have a recommnedation on those let all of us know.
Brent</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>Using the same flimsy cable which came with my Yamaha DSP-AZ1 and my two Yamaha amps which have twin 700VA transformers on them. In this case I decided to put my faith on the engineers at Yamaha. &nbsp;

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[gene]

<font color='#000000'>How bout going somewhere like parts express and buying a 14-16AWG power cord for about $20 if you worried that the cord isn't good enough. &nbsp;Filtering should be done at the line and in the product, NOT thru a power cord. &nbsp;

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[Eric]

<font color='#000000'>Gene, see what you've done! You have been beating on the snake oil speaker wire people so hard they moved on to power cords! &nbsp;

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[Dragon Warrior]

<font color='#000000'>On the same topic as power cord, but slight deviation...

I have bundled all my power cords together, wrapped the bundle with aluminum foil, and covered with pipe insulation.

I have noticed that the video interference on my TV disappeared. &nbsp;Wonder if my method above caused the interference to disappear, or maybe I shifted the video cable to a place where there is no interference?

Am I reducing my performance of the equipment by bundling the power cords?</font>

 

[Guest]

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Dragon Warrior : <font color='#000000'>On the same topic as power cord, but slight deviation...

I have bundled all my power cords together, wrapped the bundle with aluminum foil, and covered with pipe insulation.

I have noticed that the video interference on my TV disappeared.  Wonder if my method above caused the interference to disappear, or maybe I shifted the video cable to a place where there is no interference?

Am I reducing my performance of the equipment by bundling the power cords?</font>

<font color='#000000'>Wrapping the bundle with aluminum foil will reduce &quot;common mode&quot; radio-frequency noise that might otherwise be propagated along the power cables. If common-mode RF is what caused your video issue, you certainly could fix it that way.

Heh.. After re-reading, the above sounds a bit pompous, but it's accurate.

--jim
(just passin' through)</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>Sorry, forgot to address this one:

&gt;Am I reducing my performance of the equipment by bundling the power cords?

Absolutely not. It isn't the best safety policy, but the electrons care not unless you have a frayed spot or two in a cord that gets bridged by that foil. [smoke rolls]

--jim</font>