Upgraded Power Cables

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phuture

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Howell New Jersey
I would like to find out if replacing the power cords on my vistas will make a difference. I am looking at power cords from "pangea". Any input would be appriciated.:music:
 
I would like to find out if replacing the power cords on my vistas will make a difference. I am looking at power cords from "pangea". Any input would be appriciated.:music:

Dont know about the Panegas but I replaced mine with a Monster p/c very heavy multi strand sheilded cable & alot changed on the stat....
 
My take on it, with my Summits, is that upgraded power cords did make an audible improvement. I went with Signal Cable.
 
i think you should contact martin logan first and ask there opinion when i asked them they had a good answer. you might to try one first and see. you might be suprised on what you hear or don't hear. good luck
 
i think you should contact martin logan first and ask there opinion when i asked them they had a good answer. you might to try one first and see. you might be suprised on what you hear or don't hear. good luck

I think if you get one with the same spec as the stock unit you wont hear any changes, espicially some 14 Ga. generic cable.
 
I think if you get one with the same spec as the stock unit you wont hear any changes, espicially some 14 Ga. generic cable.

It would be great if we can post the construction.configuration, ga. the the cables (if known) we use so the picture is clearer for comparsion.

I know I'm crazy...............:D.
 
If you believe that power cables improve the sound, chances are you will hear improvements.

Conversely, if you don't, you won't.

That's me. I believe I still understand enough of the physics involved, and cannot come up with anything that would explain how a power cord could make a difference at all.

I do use aftermarket power cords, though (Signal, Zebra and a non-US brand). They look nicer, and their extra stiffness prevents cable spaghetti.

That's good enough for me.
 
If you believe that power cables improve the sound, chances are you will hear improvements.

Conversely, if you don't, you won't.

That's me. I believe I still understand enough of the physics involved, and cannot come up with anything that would explain how a power cord could make a difference at all.

I do use aftermarket power cords, though (Signal, Zebra and a non-US brand). They look nicer, and their extra stiffness prevents cable spaghetti.

That's good enough for me.

Hi,That's great that you don't believe power cords don't make a difference.:D

I did not think so either after 35 years until my friend brought over some really good quality PC's and that changed my mind.
I did not go in thinking there would be any difference but was quite surprised.:eek:

Best,
Bob
 
Ahhhhhhhhhh..... the never ending 'wire debate', it's always worth a laugh now and then.

Beyond well engineered, both in materials and condtruction, wire / cable tweaking should be a consideration later in the game. I laugh when I see and read descriptions of systems that are lacking in so many more important areas only to hear the owner talk of spending 'stupid money' on wires. Odds are that individual will never 'get it' !
 
Thanks to everyone who responded. I know this is always a debate to go either way. I will keep everyone posted as to which way i went. Thanks always
 
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but can someone explain to me, how in the world its possible to improve the sound with a great power cable when the wires in the wall are usually the cheapest cable the electrician found when he was building your house? They look always awful thin and are probably not 99.9999% pure copper if you ask me.


Greg
 
Like many, I do not understand the power cord issue and benefits as some tout. The power company is useing very low quality aluminum cable for transmission and in many cases connection to your structure. I believe the biggest power cord benefits are to be sure they are large guage - #12 for me - and I like to buy cables that are shielded to help reduce noise induced on other cables. Also the end connectors quality is important to have good wire connection and connection without corrosion issues to the equipment and receptacle. It is so difficult to get my power cables isolated from all the analog cables so the shielding is my biggest requirement.
 
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but can someone explain to me, how in the world its possible to improve the sound with a great power cable when the wires in the wall are usually the cheapest cable the electrician found when he was building your house? They look always awful thin and are probably not 99.9999% pure copper if you ask me.


Greg

An entirely reasonable question.

The way I see it, a "good" power cord (as it immediately follows a high quality power conditioner) is important to help filter and/or shield any last vestages of supply noise that may eventually propagate through a component's power supply and into the audio signal. So I agree, shielding is important, quality terminations (plugs), and even some sort of HF filtering inherent in the design of the cord are all desirable attributes.

There is a lot of room for snake oil here... and the effectiveness of a power cord should be quite testable in the lab be simply applying a range of noise profiles onto the 60Hz 115VAC supply and measuring the performance of various cords under load.

My 2
 
An entirely reasonable question.

The way I see it, a "good" power cord (as it immediately follows a high quality power conditioner) is important to help filter and/or shield any last vestages of supply noise that may eventually propagate through a component's power supply and into the audio signal. So I agree, shielding is important, quality terminations (plugs), and even some sort of HF filtering inherent in the design of the cord are all desirable attributes.

There is a lot of room for snake oil here... and the effectiveness of a power cord should be quite testable in the lab be simply applying a range of noise profiles onto the 60Hz 115VAC supply and measuring the performance of various cords under load.

My 2

Agree at least an iso x/former not as priecie as a conditioner
Your walls are usually wired with 10 Ga. anything smaller than this will resist. For the nay sayers just try it & see, forget about the Talk.............

tsv will we ever disagree...............:D
 
It simply boggles my mind that otherwise reasonable adults believe the power cord can make any difference in sound - if adequately sized for the current being drawn. And on any non-amplified Martin-Logan, the current requirement is in the level of a watt or so.. (W=VxA)...

Usual house wiring is 14 gauge for 15A branch circuits. Adding 12 gauge power cords for the final 3 feet doesn't change the total power available to the loudspeaker. If you believe spurious signals are somehow gaining access to the speakers due to an unshielded power cord - you have probably at least a mile (or hundreds or thousands) of miles of unshielded wires getting the voltage/current (Watts) to your Martin-Logan.

The only situation where I could see there being any improvement would be if Martin-Logan cheaped out on power cords for their amplified speaker models. Since the standard power cord IS 14 gauge wire - which is adequate for 15A continuous - chances are they are more then adequate (remember, W=A*V, ie W=15x120) or a max supply of 1,800 Watts. Even the most inefficient solid-state amplifier is better then 20% efficient.. so getting 200W from 1,800W supply available is a trivial exercise. The electrostatics require milli-amps (1/1000th of an Amp) to provide the charge potential for the grids. Note on the newer systems with wall lumps - the size of the wire and size and power supplied by the wall lump.

For a real eye opener on magic wiring - I'd suggest Roger Russell's web pages. Roger was chief speaker engineer for McIntosh for decades, and I believe besides having the engineering experience needed to spot snake oil, McIntosh also had a roving demo setup of magic cables (speaker cables by Monster) vs garden-lighting wiring. The results are interesting.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

wirejoke.jpg
 
What confuses me is that why would ML not give you the best power wire on a pair of $10K speakers like the Summit.

I mean, using this logic, one should upgrade internal speaker power wiring, re-do the circuit board, etc etc etc. I can understand there being potential improvements on budget priced item, but not top of the line.
 
Your walls are usually wired with 10 Ga. anything smaller than this will resist. For the nay sayers just try it & see, forget about the Talk.............

tsv will we ever disagree...............:D

No your walls are wired with 14G wire.. good for 15A branch circuits. 12G wire is good for 20A. As someone said - if you expect to hear it, you will.

Now about green magic markers on your CDs...
 
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