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Post by stanlee on Jul 17, 2015 2:40:12 GMT -5
Wazzzup my audio bros
Hey I'm looking to upgrade the power cable to my XPR 5. Any recommendations? Thanks
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Post by Porscheguy on Jul 17, 2015 5:41:01 GMT -5
What do you mean by upgrade? There is no real way to improve the sound by changing the power cord. Are you just looking to make it pretty? So you change the power cord. What magical thing happens during the last 6' of the ride down the cable from your outlet the the amp? I'd love to know  Lots of choices for those who like to blow money on that stuff. Nordost makes quite a few, some around $7500.00. |
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Post by Jim on Jul 17, 2015 5:51:14 GMT -5
Make sure to get one that's 100% gold. Copper sounds terrible.
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Post by trinhsman on Jul 17, 2015 6:23:51 GMT -5
What do you mean by upgrade? There is no real way to improve the sound by changing the power cord. Are you just looking to make it pretty? So you change the power cord. What magical thing happens during the last 6' of the ride down the cable from your outlet the the amp? I'd love to know Lots of choices for those who like to blow money on that stuff. Nordost makes quite a few, some around $7500.00. I know people argue about this, but I did go to an upgrade power cord on my XPA2. I paid about 200 dollars for the cord. And Yes, it did improve the sound for me. To each his own on this one. All I can say is that it worked for me. |
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Post by vneal on Jul 17, 2015 7:36:52 GMT -5
Save your money. I have tried high dollar power cables in a double blind test and SAVE YOUR MONEY
Buy a good bottle of wine. It WILL make your amp sound better
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Post by brutiarti on Jul 17, 2015 7:40:01 GMT -5
Just keep the stock cord it will sound the same. If you want to make it look pretty i will not spend more than $30. IMHO
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Post by vcautokid on Jul 17, 2015 8:08:52 GMT -5
I think it's a great idea to upgrade your power cable. It can never be too good, but while you are at it, replace that 2 cents a foot Romex behind your wall, and 5 dollar circuit breaker to make it whole.
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Post by monkumonku on Jul 17, 2015 9:07:11 GMT -5
Wazzzup my audio bros Hey I'm looking to upgrade the power cable to my XPR 5. Any recommendations? Thanks Yes, don't waste your money on something foolish like a power cable "upgrade." If the cable Emo supplies with their amps was not appropriate then they wouldn't supply it. Simple as that. |
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Post by pop on Jul 17, 2015 9:13:18 GMT -5
Funny that this should pop up. I just had a training with a high dollar cable manufacturer. I was a little surprised to hear the differences between the cables. They weren't night and day, but there were subtle differences.
The comparison was not blind, but as a skeptic I was VERY hard on the differences heard.
I missed the power cable testing, but all of my peers attested that it sounded "louder" not better or more clear, but it was louder.
It seems to get brushed off as "stupid" to purchase better cabling. I don't believe it is, but I do believe you reach a point of diminishing returns.
In the next month i will be replacing all of my interconnects and power cables with high dollar pieces. I will report back on what differences if any are noticed.
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Post by pop on Jul 17, 2015 9:16:02 GMT -5
Wazzzup my audio bros Hey I'm looking to upgrade the power cable to my XPR 5. Any recommendations? Thanks Yes, don't waste your money on something foolish like a power cable "upgrade." If the cable Emo supplies with their amps was not appropriate then they wouldn't supply it. Simple as that. Agreed and this is a big argument of mine regarding power cables. However, it would make sense to cut cost of a better power cable as margins are important. I believe there are small improvements, but that there are more substantial upgrades. For instance, upgrade your amp, preamp, sources, speakers, or add room treatments. |
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Post by monkumonku on Jul 17, 2015 9:20:25 GMT -5
Yes, don't waste your money on something foolish like a power cable "upgrade." If the cable Emo supplies with their amps was not appropriate then they wouldn't supply it. Simple as that. Agreed and this is a big argument of mine regarding power cables. However, it would make sense to cut cost of a better power cable as margins are important. I believe there are small improvements, but that there are more substantial upgrades. For instance, upgrade your amp, preamp, sources, speakers, or add room treatments. Indeed.. even as someone suggested earlier, get a nice bottle of wine and the system will sound increasingly better in inverse proportion to the amount of wine remaining in the bottle. Room treatments and people treatments... all will do much more than replacing a silly cable (unless the cable is actually defective and doesn't do what it was intended to do.. then you may need to call the fire department). |
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Post by stanlee on Jul 17, 2015 10:30:21 GMT -5
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Post by geebo on Jul 17, 2015 10:36:06 GMT -5
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Post by monkumonku on Jul 17, 2015 10:41:58 GMT -5
While you're at it don't forget to also install the hospital-grade outlets and redo the wiring inside your house, upgrade to 20 amp dedicated circuits, the wiring to the utility company and also ask them if they can upgrade the transformers along the way while they're at it. Might as well do it right. |
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Post by stanlee on Jul 17, 2015 10:45:40 GMT -5
[/quote]I know people argue about this, but I did go to an upgrade power cord on my XPA2. I paid about 200 dollars for the cord. And Yes, it did improve the sound for me. To each his own on this one. All I can say is that it worked for me.[/quote]
I agree. Not everyone may hear a difference but to those who do, the impact of that bottle of wine would be even sweeter than without ;-)
Can you tell me which upgraded cord you have on your XPA2?
Thanks
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KeithL
Administrator 
Posts: 10,274
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Post by KeithL on Jul 17, 2015 10:49:43 GMT -5
Personally, I'll believe it.... when I hear it myself, in a double blind test, run by someone I trust (not to cheat on the running of the test itself). The obvious question is: If their product was really better, and knowing that non-blind tests are notoriously unreliable, then why DIDN'T they use a legitimate double blind test to prove it? Certain cable vendors (whom I won't name) are well known for actually "fudging the results" of demonstrations and tests, as well as for using "psychological trickery" to produce the responses they want in an audience. (Statistically, the majority of people prefer the wine in the bottle with the higher price tag - even if you put the same wine in both bottles - which is why you can't trust "sighted tests".) (It's like the old joke goes..... If you don't want people to wonder if you have a few aces stuffed up your sleeves, then why aren't you wearing short sleeves? ) I find the claim that they found the result to be "louder" with a "better" power cable to be especially interesting. There are only two ways in which you can change sound so that it sounds louder... as relates to a cable. 1) You can actually make it louder - which means to increase the signal level. This would be very easy to measure and so to confirm or deny. 2) You can add some sort of distortion which makes it seem "perceptually louder". (This would be a bad thing. It would also be something I wouldn't expect from anything except a very poor quality power cable.) 3) Of course, the third non-possibility is to simply convince people that they THINK it sounds louder. It's not unreasonable to hear tiny differences in interconnects. Each type of cable has a characteristic amount of inductance, resistance, and capacitance, and will react a tiny bit differently with the circuitry in your source component. Likewise, if you were to go to five different Brand X paint stores, and order the same custom color from each, you would also find that they were slightly different - because their mixing machines are almost certainly not calibrated identically (you probably wouldn't notice it unless you put the samples next to each other - and the difference may be less than the amount the paint will fade in a week - but the difference will probably exist). Of course, we're only talking about tiny differences, and no one or the other is actually better. It is also not especially difficult to specifically design or modify an audio component so that it is excessively sensitive to differences in cables. (For example, many vintage - and some new - tube preamps are very sensitive to capacitance on their output interconnects. It doesn't suggest that the component in question is "especially revealing" - merely that it is badly designed.) (To put that last sentence even more bluntly. If you buy a $5000 power amplifier, and find out that it sounds better with a $500 power cable than with a reasonable commercial quality $20 power cable, you SHOULDN'T be asking what's so good about the expensive power cable. You SHOULD be asking why your $5000 amplifier has such a poorly designed power supply that it is actually sensitive to power cables. Likewise, if you hear a huge difference when you try a different interconnect between your preamp and power amp, then there are some serious design FLAWS in your preamp, or your power amp, or possibly both.) So, here are my questions: 1) If they're claiming that some expensive power cable actually made the signal louder, did they provide measurements to demonstrate this. (Again, if it's true, it should be easy enough to measure and prove.) 2) What were they comparing it to? Were they comparing it to a "normal commercial cable" of adequate thickness and reasonable construction? (It's certainly possible to reduce the performance of an amplifier by deliberately using a cable that is too thin to carry the required current, or that is put together so badly that is has excessively high resistance.) 3) If "upgrading" to a more expensive power cable actually could give you the same "improvement" as turning your preamp up by a fraction of a dB, why would you consider spending the money? (Wouldn't it be easier just to turn the preamp up a fraction of a dB?) Funny that this should pop up. I just had a training with a high dollar cable manufacturer. I was a little surprised to hear the differences between the cables. They weren't night and day, but there were subtle differences. The comparison was not blind, but as a skeptic I was VERY hard on the differences heard. I missed the power cable testing, but all of my peers attested that it sounded "louder" not better or more clear, but it was louder. It seems to get brushed off as "stupid" to purchase better cabling. I don't believe it is, but I do believe you reach a point of diminishing returns. In the next month i will be replacing all of my interconnects and power cables with high dollar pieces. I will report back on what differences if any are noticed. |
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Post by monkumonku on Jul 17, 2015 10:54:38 GMT -5
I know people argue about this, but I did go to an upgrade power cord on my XPA2. I paid about 200 dollars for the cord. And Yes, it did improve the sound for me. To each his own on this one. All I can say is that it worked for me. I agree. Not everyone may hear a difference but to those who do, the impact of that bottle of wine would be even sweeter than without ;-) Can you tell me which upgraded cord you have on your XPA2? Thanks If you are asking me, I shelled out $1.84 and upgraded to a 2' Monoprice 14 awg cord - mainly because I wanted a shorter cord since the amp is right by the wall socket. I should add I did have to pay tax and shipping on top of it so it was more like $5 or $6 but it is worth it for the higher highs, lower lows and midder mids I am now believing I hear.  |
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Post by vcautokid on Jul 17, 2015 10:55:11 GMT -5
Or you could just take power directly off the pole directly, and bypass all that stuff your house is doing as it would be current limiting and.....
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Post by vcautokid on Jul 17, 2015 10:56:11 GMT -5
Nah, I was just kidding, that is a very dangerous act. But there is a high end company in Mexico that has been grabbing power off the pole directly. Beats me how they do it though.
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Post by monkumonku on Jul 17, 2015 10:56:08 GMT -5
Or you could just take power directly off the pole directly, and bypass all that stuff your house is doing as it would be current limiting and..... Does the kind of wood they use for the pole affect the sound? What about termites? |
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