I know none of what I say will make a whit of difference, but I need some typing pracitce, so here goes

I hear differences in my system every day. Sometimes I play something and it sounds like garbage, sometimes magnificent. No changes, just different day. The human ear is extremely fallable. How else do you think things like Dolby Digigal can work - processes that throw out as much as 90% of the original data?

At times I have done something, changed something somewhere and heard a difference in the sound. Then I have stopped and done back to back comparasons in real time before change and after - guess what? The 'diferences' disappear. I know you are convinced that your friend heard big differences with the change of power cords in his tube amps. Have you stopped to ask what actually caused the change, and try to track it down and maximize the benefits of the change? In other words, if the mere changing of an AC power cord made such a big change, there _must_ be something in the system that is being very suseptible to external change. Is that RF interferrence? EMI interferrence? Harmonic distortion on the AC line? Low AC voltage? High AC voltage?

"Tweaks" by themselves may or may not actually make a difference, but if they are blindly done as a fix-all band aid cure to some imagined problem, the results cannot be predicted. I know I am sounding like the Professor on Gilligan's Island, married to scientific procedure, but sometimes a good scientific perspective can accomplish a lot more than just 'tweaking' without any thought to the problem to be solved. Personally, If I suspected that my AC power was causing some problem, I would put monitoring devices on it to determine exactly the state of the power. If it was contaminated with interferrence, then a filter appropriate to combating the interferrence would be indicated. If not, I would look elsewhere.

My question is this: What exactly are you trying to accomplish with the power cord change, aside from it 'sounding better'? What 'problem' are you hoping to solve? If _I_ change the power cords on all of my equipment, will it all sound beter? If so, WHY? Does this question matter to you?

I am not trying to be a smart ass asking these things. I tweak my system all the time: as a matter of fact I did some work on my electronic crossover today, changing the slopes of the crossover of my subwoofer. From a perspective of making real improvements, just 'changing things' on blind faith makes no sense. I bet you would be surprised and horrified if you knew the tortured path your electricity follows from the generators, through the high voltage power grid, through multiple step-down transformers, phase compensation, fuses and whatnot before it reaches your house. And you intend to undo all the potential "problems" endountered along the way with the simple change of 6 feet of power cord? Have you given any thought to what those 'problems' might be?

So go ahead, swap out that power cord. I'm sure your receiver will sound much better than before. I'm sure it wouldn't dare sound worse for the change.

Now that I've gotten my typing practice, I think I can go to bed. Good night all.....

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited January 18, 2003).]

One thing to think over - consider how many miles of wire and devices are between the transformer inside the 1050 and the generator at the power plant and ask what replacing one well designed very short conductor with a second well designed short conductor could possibly do, from a rational standpoint. There are as many ways to argue this as there are sunsets, but if this thought experiment doesn't cause you a bit of hesitation in your convictions I'm not going to try to talk you out of it anymore.

Do be careful if you go forward with this, energy can be stored inside the unit even when powered off. And have a good one.

Well I do see one advantage to changing power cords. For me it has to do with having the perfect length cord. I make my own power cords, to specific lengths. This helps keep the rats nest of wires more manageble. More importantly it makes it much easier to keep the power cords seperated from the IC's. I much prefer units with IEC sockets since I prefer to not change internal power cords until after the warranty is up. Also you may reduce the resale value by changing the cord.

About a year ago I switched my system from stereo only to HT. At first I had a huge problem with hiss and hum. Some of that had to do with my antenna ground. The rest had to do with haphazard placement of cords and IC's and power cords that were too long. After a few weeks of IC purchases and rewiring new power cords my hiss problems "magically" disapperaed.

All this without changing the miles of cable between my house and the power company.

Cable routing is definitely important. I found that I was able to get rid of some system hum by bundling my power cords together and routing them away from all other interconnects. They now run bundled up along the left edge of my entertainment center and over the top of everything else, leaving the rear of the rack clear for interconnects and speaker cables. They drop on the right side, where they all plug into my Panamax MAX5100. All of my power cords are what came with the equipment, though.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

If Larry was talking about cable rerouting I misunderstood. I think he's talking about somehow adding magic cables to deliver improved power to the unit. At least that's what I thought was going on. My bad?

He was talking about replacing the power cord to make the sound better. He had a friend that did it and his tube amps sounded better.

If the length of the cord is an issue, you can always simply cut it off to length, and put a new plug on the end

True, good point. I personally go with the old tried and true cable tie and sticky back system, but maybe I'm just too lazy to redo all the cables every time I add or remove equipment. I suppose if the rack was pretty static it might mitigate that a bit.

Sorry about that -- Larry was talking about power cable replacement, but morphsci brought up cable routing and I sort of followed along that train of thought...

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Yes I did bring up cable routing and its interaction with cable (IC and power) length. In my case routing the bundled power cables away from the IC's reduced my noise problems, but did not eliminate them. After I modified the power cords to length, the problem was eliminated. I attribute that to a combination of not having the power cords in tight looped bundles as well as better shielding and grounding in my home made power cables.

When I replaced my power cables I was amazed at the cheap construction and small wire gauge in the power cords of some of my components. Others looked much better and probably only needed trimming as Soundhound recommended. I am also a fan of using hospital grade connectors because they seem a lot more solid when you plug them in.

BTW I am not suggesting megabuck power cords here. I now use some quail hospital grade 14 gauge cords. They are terminated on the wall outlet side but unterminated at the component/iec side. I then trim them to length and fit them with a nice Wattgate IEC from parts express. Cable cost about $10, IEC connector about $20.

I am also a firm believer in using good connectors for both power and IC cables. I am very fond of Canare true 75 Ohm connectors for both audio and video cables.


[This message has been edited by morphsci (edited January 18, 2003).]

It is common practice to use hospital grade wall sockets in professional installations, and I use them as well. They are better built, and give a more positive connection. As a bonus, they are 'gas tight' so there is no possibility of explosions when your room filled with gas fumes