Jumpers/Power cord Upgrade:Fact or Fiction?

[Jason Lopez]

I have a NAD C352 integrated amp. A reviewer of this amp said he "super-charged" his by replacing the factory jumpers that link the pre and power sections of the amp with high quality interconnects. He also upgraded the factory power cord. He said doing these two things made a noticable difference in sound quality. Any opinions on this? If so, any recommendations for interconnects and power cords? Do they make very short interconnects to be used as jumpers?

Jason.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have a NAD C352 integrated amp. A reviewer of this amp said he "super-charged" his by replacing the factory jumpers that link the pre and power sections of the amp with high quality interconnects. He also upgraded the factory power cord. He said doing these two things made a noticable difference in sound quality. Any opinions on this? If so, any recommendations for interconnects and power cords? Do they make very short interconnects to be used as jumpers?

Jason.

The reviewer is a lunatic.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I have a NAD C352 integrated amp. A reviewer of this amp said he "super-charged" his by replacing the factory jumpers that link the pre and power sections of the amp with high quality interconnects. He also upgraded the factory power cord. He said doing these two things made a noticable difference in sound quality. Any opinions on this? If so, any recommendations for interconnects and power cords? Do they make very short interconnects to be used as jumpers?

Jason.

Let me help TLS guy
The reviewer is spreading urban legends, voodoo, and bs. He may also be a lunatic, not sure though

 

[Lordoftherings]

The reviewer is a lunatic.

That, or Jason is an easy volatile gobbling target. ... Just kidding Jason.

 

[jamie2112]

The reviewer is a TOOL......lies hype bull**** not true no way no how full of it never gonna happen fogetaboutit..............this is one of the truly deceptive things "reviewers" do after they are paid by said amazing company....Know your enemy.

 

[chris357]

honestly and i know this is like witchcraft on this site but I noticed an improvement when i upgraded my power cables on all of my amps. I didnt spend a fortune but in my opinion it was the most noticable improvement I ever made without upgrading equipment.

ok everyone you can build the fire and get ready to burn me at the stake

 

[Adam]

ok everyone you can build the fire and get ready to burn me at the stake

I don't think anyone is going to do that. People will probably bring up the concept of double blind tests, but that's about trying to scientifically study if you can actually tell a difference or if you just think that you can. I look at it this way - if you enjoy your system more now than you did, then that's all that matters in my book. Heck, I got new carpet and I enjoy my system more. I don't think that it sounds any different, but I enjoy the total package more.

 

[TLS Guy]

ly and

ok everyone you can build the fire and get ready to burn me at the stake

And you deserve to be.

Just think about it. What is behind your outlet? Wire you did not improve, right? All the way back to your panel, and then back to the substations, and the transmission lines all the way back to the power station.

Here is the wave at a receptacle in my studio.

Now that is a nice simple 60 Hz harmonic wave. What is there to improve? Even if there was a defect, how would a piece of wire change it?

For anyone who can't understand this, there is such a thing as being too stupid to own equipment!

 

[chris357]

well maybe your new carpet has better sound absorbsion than your old stuff. maybe its the padding

 

[chris357]

And you deserve to be.

Just think about it. What is behind your outlet? Wire you did not improve, right? All the way back to to your panel, and then back to the substations, and the transmission lines all the way back to the power station.

Here is the wave at a receptacle in my studio.

Now that is a nice simple 60 Hz harmonic wave. What is there to improve? Even if there was a defect, how would a piece of wire change it.

For anyone who can't understand this, there is such a thing as being too stupid to own equipment!

see, this is why many people wont speak out on forums that have a strong bias one way or another.

I'm not an engineer but I do have ears and i can listen to something and determine what sounds better to me.

I mean if none of this stuff makes a difference then why do we get into it so much? why do we listen to all of our favorite music every time we make an upgrade even if its small.

wouldnt all amps at equal power ratings and similar build qualities sound the same ? why do some speakers sound a little different tehn others.. why do we care?

 

[TLS Guy]

see, this is why many people wont speak out on forums that have a strong bias one way or another.

I'm not an engineer but I do have ears and i can listen to something and determine what sounds better to me.

I mean if none of this stuff makes a difference then why do we get into it so much? why do we listen to all of our favorite music every time we make an upgrade even if its small.

wouldnt all amps at equal power ratings and similar build qualities sound the same ? why do some speakers sound a little different tehn others.. why do we care?

Without science and reason, people will believe anything no matter how far fetched.

You don't need to be an engineer to understand your argument is has no merit, just that rare commodity common sense.

Amplifiers and speakers are complex with a myriad of easily understandable reasons why they should and do sound different. Wire transmitting a low frequency simple harmonic wave of sufficient caliber not to heat significantly will not change a thing.

And incidentally that harmonic wave I showed you is divided into multiple voltages, by the power transformer, rectified by diodes from AC to DC, smoothed to a flat line by capacitors and the voltage tightly controlled by voltage regulators to the various boards in your amp. Nothing remotely resembling the sine wave I showed you gets anywhere near the signal path.

So I can be 100% certain, than any change in sound you heard was entirely in your imagination. There is no other rational conclusion possible.

 

[GO-NAD!]

see, this is why many people wont speak out on forums that have a strong bias one way or another.

I'm not an engineer but I do have ears and i can listen to something and determine what sounds better to me.

I mean if none of this stuff makes a difference then why do we get into it so much? why do we listen to all of our favorite music every time we make an upgrade even if its small.

wouldnt all amps at equal power ratings and similar build qualities sound the same ? why do some speakers sound a little different tehn others.. why do we care?

Yes, you can determine what sounds better - but you have to compare equipment properly. Human beings' acoustic memory is incredibly short. That's why double-blind comparison tests are conducted.

1) It's just like testing new medications. They do it under controlled conditions. Some patients are given the real drug and some are given a placebo - it removes the psychological factor in the test.

2) Well, none of the stuff you did makes a difference. If you explore this website, including these forums, you'll find plenty of suggestions for improving the SQ of your system.

3) Amps of equal power ratings and similar build qualities pretty much do sound the same.

4) There are vast differences in the way different speakers are constructed. That's why they sound different. There ain't a whole lot you can do to a wire - other than make it worse!

 

[Lordoftherings]

^ Great comments from the two posters just above.

^ Thanks to these two posters just above. Pretty dead on on their remarks.

Bob

* My systems: too many components to enumerate, but the main thing is that all my systems (5) sound great. It does include products from Onkyo, Denon, Rotel, Panasonic, Paradigm, Image, Yamaha, Pioneer, Samsung, Marantz, Toshiba, Akai, Nikko, ICC, Kenwood, High Caliber, Teac, NEC, Pure Acoustics, Pro Linear, Definitive Technology, Kimber Kable, Esoteric, WireWorld, Audioquest, UltraLink, Phoenix Gold, Acoustic Research, Audio Stream, IBM, Bullet, X-Calibur, Cartouche, and more.

 

[chris357]

so everybody here with half a brain or better uses the cheap cables that came with their systems

i tell you this is kind of like a bunch of athiests trying to convince a christian God doesnt exist.

I tell you what... if I'm going to spend 2k or more on an amp and that much or more on speakers.. I'll just play things safe and get a better set of cables.. just in case I mean why not

and just in case there is a god I'll try to be a decent person and not call them idiots for believing something different from me

heres another question...

if a mistubishi evo does 0-60 in 4 seconds the same and a porsche 911 turbo then they must be equal and there is no reason to buy the 911 turbo right? i mean the 0-60 time is the same ....

I guess everyone here would drive an evo?

 

[PeterWhite]

Nonsense. If the zero to sixty time is all that matters, everyone would be driving dragsters.

Your analogy with religion is actually spot on. All of the magic wire business is based on faith, not on science. The claims made by companies like Kimber, Audioquest, Nordost, Pear and so many others are untestable, just like the claims to the existence of souls, gods, devils, angels, fairies, elves and the like. People believe fanciful claims about wiring and heaven because they want to, not because there's the slightest shred of evidence to back them up.

 

[bandphan]

You should see how small the power cord looks on my amp

 

[Lordoftherings]

so everybody here with half a brain or better uses the cheap cables that came with their systems

i tell you this is kind of like a bunch of athiests trying to convince a christian God doesnt exist.

I tell you what... if I'm going to spend 2k or more on an amp and that much or more on speakers.. I'll just play things safe and get a better set of cables.. just in case I mean why not

and just in case there is a god I'll try to be a decent person and not call them idiots for believing something different from me

heres another question...

if a mistubishi evo does 0-60 in 4 seconds the same and a porsche 911 turbo then they must be equal and there is no reason to buy the 911 turbo right? i mean the 0-60 time is the same ....

I guess everyone here would drive an evo?

Not bad.

Nonsense. If the zero to sixty time is all that matters, everyone would be driving dragsters.

Your analogy with religion is actually spot on. All of the magic wire business is based on faith, not on science. The claims made by companies like Kimber, Audioquest, Nordost, Pear and so many others are untestable, just like the claims to the existence of souls, gods, devils, angels, fairies, elves and the like. People believe fanciful claims about wiring and heaven because they want to, not because there's the slightest shred of evidence to back them up.

Not bad at all.

 

[Lordoftherings]

You should see how small the power cord looks on my amp

Your amp or your lamp?

 

[nibhaz]

so everybody here with half a brain or better uses the cheap cables that came with their systems

It’s unlikely, that people are using cables that came with their components. Because these cables generally have a poor build quality and/or inferior shielding, so to be on the safe many people do buy different cables. There are other reasons such as aesthetics or extreme operating environments for buying different cables, but in most situations the supplied cables would most likely work just fine.

Even though most people here at Audioholics purchase different cables, in most cases you will find that the money spent on cables is a very, very small proportion of their system’s total cost because there is little to no ROI for going with expensive cables.

i tell you this is kind of like a bunch of athiests trying to convince a christian God doesnt exist.

Science is a b^#$h to get around

I tell you what... if I'm going to spend 2k or more on an amp and that much or more on speakers.. I'll just play things safe and get a better set of cables.. just in case I mean why not

Why not? Well the number one reason, is that you are going to get a lot more ROI if you spend that money on the speakers. And if you’re spending 2K on your amplification I should hope that your speakers cost considerably more than that.

and just in case there is a god I'll try to be a decent person and not call them idiots for believing something different from me

That is nice of you, but if you know someone is acting out of ignorance is it better to let them be or to educate them and show them the errors of their way? Should we tolerate bigotry and racisms born of ignorance?

heres another question...

if a mistubishi evo does 0-60 in 4 seconds the same and a porsche 911 turbo then they must be equal and there is no reason to buy the 911 turbo right? i mean the 0-60 time is the same ....

I guess everyone here would drive an evo?

As already mentioned, this is a bad analogy, because there are many factors to be considered other than 0-60 when purchasing a car. Personally, I am much more interested in lateral handling, which is a personal preference.

Cables on the other hand are not that complex, as long as they are the appropriate AWG for their work load and shielded appropriately for their application then that’s all one really needs to know.

 

[bandphan]

Your amp or your lamp?

the mac, and yes compared to newer gear the cord looks flimsy . And I can't use banana clips or spades on the speaker terminals, only bare wire and 16 gauge lamp cord will work just fine