Does changing speaker's power cord make a difference

[danvu]

For my mono amps I swichted the stock power cords with better lower gauge cables and I notice a little improvement in the sound. I also did that for my sub and also hear noticeable difference, less boomy. So my question is would changing the stock power cord of my Vistas improve the sound, and not void ML wanranty? Has anyone done that?

 

[Legis]

Hard to tell, you have to try that out yourself for ex. with the cords that you have with the monos. HV-bias draws very, very little current when the panel is functioning properly, usually one can play stats for over a day without the cord even plugged.


I highly doubt that changing the cords affects warranty, it would be nonsense. The cord cannot break the HV-supply electronics, even if the cord would get faulty (short circuited) it would not damage them.

 

[MOON]

I changed my power cords to Foundation Research LC 1's. These powercords have built in conditioners.It's a box at the center of the cord. Blue Circle makes a similar cord called a BC68. The Foundation Research cords made a vast difference.It was the ML dealer where I bought my Martin Logans that recommended the Foundation Research cords even though he wasn't a dealer for them.The Blue Circle cord is made specifically for electrostatic speakers.http://www.bluecircle.com/page88.html

I have only seen one other member on here who runs Foundation Research cords as well, so the vast majority here haven't had experience with this cord or one similar such as the BC68.

 

[amey01]

The bias circuit is not in the signal path. I think there are plenty of other things that you can change in your system that will affect the sound a whole lot more before you waste precious money and time thinking about power cords.

 

[Legis]

The bias circuit is not in the signal path. I think there are plenty of other things that you can change in your system that will affect the sound a whole lot more before you waste precious money and time thinking about power cords.

This is not completely true as any modulation, for example the ripple in the DC bias voltage, will most directly affect the output of the speaker.

Power cords act differently filtering RFI. Every cord actually filters RFI at some extent because of cord's limited bandwidth. Line filter could also improve things. I would suspect that Logans' have some filtering (X and Y caps for ex.) inside them, I'm not sure though, but some extra filtering cannot hurt. Every high quality system deserves good power cables (which are not necessarily expensive).

 

[tsv_1]

I use Lessloss DFPCs... love'em.

 

[beek]

I my case with the Monster power cables ( don't remember the model) there was a difference in the body of the mids on the Vistas..

 

[Len44]

I use Lessloss DFPCs... love'em.

Well, yeah...but, holy cow! Their stuff does look nice. Sorta wish you hadn't mentioned it...

 

[Dougster]

Easy and quick to try at home (sale or return basis essential) One of the quickest changes to insert and hence evaluate... Trust your ears - some make no difference, others definitely do. Effects are also system dependent as cables do differ audibly in presentation and hence need to match your system and preferences, rather than A is better than B in all systems.

 

[JordanD]

I upgrade all my power cords! I personally think it makes probably the biggest difference, BUT it is also highly perception bases. I often plug AudioQuest but they make a variety of different cables at different levels and price points. I bought NRG-2's from them.

 

[Rehan Azim Hashmi]

For my ML CLS 1 ESL i upgraded the power cable to the one meant to be used with the CLX ESL. There was an overall improvement in sound. Specifically big improvement in the bass sound. Bass is now not localised to the speaker panel but rather seems to be not emanating from the esl but is comming from the general direction of the speaker.

 

[MPS]

I would consider chancing speaker power cords only after all other power cords have been upgraded. In my experience biggest affect can be had with upstream components and to lesser degree down to speakers but it really depends on each component, some power amps can be pretty immune etc. one factor is that power line electricity quality can vary a lot by location/region.