Power cord recommendations: RM150 - RM300

who mentioned about any frequency specific plug ?

mugenfoo wrote:train wreck ? hahahahahahahahahaha

Train langgar ah? Anyway, not clear whether it is the levitation train or our KTM train chua55 talking about.

[quote="tycham"]

tin wrote:

Power cables are affected not only by speaker vibrations, but also by ]the electric power flowing through the cable itself, which leads to loss in voltage and distortion]

that is from Acoustic Revive website

Why is it that, with tin, information transmission are always unclear or incomplete?

Because tin is the worst conductor of electricity at only 9% conductivity.

Sorry Tin, couldn't resist a silly joke. Absolutely no offence intended.

mugenfoo,

at this means is
that most US-designed powercords would not be fully optimised for our
power supply, coz USA is 60Hz, Bolehland is 50Hz. But still its not
that bad, coz 50Hz to 60Hz is not too big a difference in terms of
absolute value.

almost good discussion :p

Something is brewing in this forum. For a layman like myself, sure seems to me like a classic mulder vs scully episode. One believes in the hidden powers that shape the sound and the other believes in the pure science of the sound. Both are passionate about the outcome.

50hz, 60hz, 110volts, 120volts, 220volts, 240volts..... I don't know corn chips!

Up until a few months ago, I didn't even believe that power cords made any difference. Why should they? They only carry juice to your gear right? Today, i've bought and sold many a Transparent, XLO, Cardas and arrived at my own choice of what sounded right to me. (If you must know I chose Furutech FP-314ag-II and Wireworld Stratus 5 squared) Be warned though! It may not work for your gear or your ears.

But one thing i've heard for myself, although I still don't believe it can make a difference is the UK plug vs the US plug. To my ears, it's the US plug hands down. Maybe it's the lack of fuse, maybe it's the thickness of the prongs, i don't know eggs. One thing I do know is that the US plug sounds better than the UK plug. (disclaimer: To my ears)

I want to believe...

Would it be risky if there are no fuse in the plug?
Or the fuse in the equipments will be more than enough to do the job?

one thing i've
heard for myself, although I still don't believe it can make a
difference is the UK plug vs the US plug. To my ears, it's the US plug
hands down. Maybe it's the lack of fuse, maybe it's the thickness of
the prongs, i don't know eggs. One thing I do know is that the US plug
sounds better than the UK plug. (disclaimer: To my ears)

Well obviosly you have got very good ears,Only Schuko plugs bettered the 'US" style .But UK plugs????No,not good enought for HiFi IMO;too compromised.............Here are the reasons why Schuko plugs are better;
.1.More contact are-it is rounded.

2.Generally fit better..

3.You can lift-float the eart easily.The 'noise' from other parts of the cuircuit travels to your system mainly through 'earth' pin.Once you have heard a 'floated' system you will never go back to 'normal'


However,until more manufacturers start making 'Schuko'versions of my fav cables ,I'll stick with the 'US' plugs for now...


But,reLly,before you spend any cents on cables;do get a dedicated cuircuit first and install the very best receptacles you could afford........

The fuse on the British type plugs are just redundant..Serve Absolutely no purpose but to destroy the sound of your system.

Before anyone starts spending the 200-300MYR for a new power cord, why not DIY a simple one instead? A 200-300MYR cord may not guarantee you better performance.

A power cord is simple to construct and it is definitely better than those supplied FOC with the equipment. It doesn't take much skill and $$$ to DIY one.

I DIYed mine from normal electrical wires purchased from local electrical shops. Of course purchase wires/cord which are thicker and better quality. There are some shops that specializes in electrical wires as well. Spend a bit more if you want better wires, but it won't be mega bucks.

Search the internet on how to DIY one. I am happy with my DIY power cord. I use it on my CD player and my amplifier. I made a few and gave it to a friend and he seemed happy about (it's free afterall!).

Give it a try before you spend the 200-300MYR. If you like, you give me the $$$ and I'll DIY you one instead.

tin wrote:mugenfoo,

at this means is
that most US-designed powercords would not be fully optimised for our
power supply, coz USA is 60Hz, Bolehland is 50Hz. But still its not
that bad, coz 50Hz to 60Hz is not too big a difference in terms of
absolute value.

Its referring to powercords (means cables, wires, the long stringy stuff that can bend) , not plugs.

You know what a powercord is right ?

tin wrote:The fuse on the British type plugs are just redundant..Serve Absolutely no purpose but to destroy the sound of your system.

ohhkayyy ... so go ahead and solder a jumper wire on it instead. God bless. Amen.

No need jumper wire bro. Solder the live wire to the fuse holder would do. Or better still, change your wall socket to US or Euro Schuko and use the US or Schuko plug. No soldering required as both US and Schuko are fuseless.

Oops! Dsclaimer again: Please, please do not do it unless you know what you're doing!!!

tin wrote:The fuse on the British type plugs are just redundant..Serve Absolutely no purpose but to destroy the sound of your system.

Why dont the manufacturers eliminate the fuse and save up some production cost to up their margins?
I still think there is a reason that the fuse is included, at least, in my opinion.

It's not about manufacturers eliminating fuses to savs cost. It's about regulations pertaining to specific countries. UK plugs are fused because it's the British standard requirement. US and Schuko plugs have no fuses because it's their standard.

undefined

Its referring to powercords (means cables, wires, the long stringy undefined) , not plugs.

Code:

You mean power cords only has.....the long stringy thing......and Nothing else???And that long stringy thing is Frequency specific.......and Nordost Odin will sound bad here because it is designed for 50 Hz use???Kindly enlighten,oooo mr Mugenfoo....

And Have you ever wonder why the UK plugs are the only ones with built in fuse?Why a lot of Engineers are clamouring for its demise?I could provide all the links ,but then it would be spoon feeding.....no fun......

Thanks for your enlightenment...
Very interesting to read what you wrote here as you seem to have a very wide knowledge in these HiFi stuffs..
And I am pretty sure that you have very good HiFi equipments and accessories as your collection.

Care to share with us some of your wonderful collections like your power cords? (since this thread is about power cords) Thanks..

tin wrote:undefined

Its referring to powercords (means cables, wires, the long stringy undefined) , not plugs.

Code:

You mean power cords only has.....the long stringy thing......and Nothing else???And that long stringy thing is Frequency specific.......and Nordost Odin will sound bad here because it is designed for 50 Hz use???Kindly enlighten,oooo mr Mugenfoo....

And Have you ever wonder why the UK plugs are the only ones with built in fuse?Why a lot of Engineers are clamouring for its demise?I could provide all the links ,but then it would be spoon feeding.....no fun......

So .. are you one of those "engineers" also clamouring for its demise ?
damn ... you must have a real kick-ass system so much so that the sound quality is affected by one menial fuse in the 3 pin plug?

Congrats to you !!

Why can't we all just GET ALONG???

car o scope wrote:

tin wrote:The fuse on the British type plugs are just redundant..Serve Absolutely no purpose but to destroy the sound of your system.

Why dont the manufacturers eliminate the fuse and save up some production cost to up their margins?
I still think there is a reason that the fuse is included, at least, in my opinion.

British wiring standards allow very high-current through the ring main circuits to the socket, which therefore had to be fused to protect the smaller diameter wire used in these circuits.

The design of this type of circuit is the result of copper shortage just after WWII.

Tycham, excellent information!!! So the British design is indeed built for compromise then. Hmmm...

bimmerman wrote:Why can't we all just GET ALONG???

this is too much fun ....

Tin, What is earth floating or "float the earth"? Could you kindly elaborate on the topology or method involved in this?

tycham wrote:

car o scope wrote:

tin wrote:The fuse on the British type plugs are just redundant..Serve Absolutely no purpose but to destroy the sound of your system.

Why dont the manufacturers eliminate the fuse and save up some production cost to up their margins?
I still think there is a reason that the fuse is included, at least, in my opinion.

British wiring standards allow very high-current through the ring main circuits to the socket, which therefore had to be fused to protect the smaller diameter wire used in these circuits.

The design of this type of circuit is the result of copper shortage just after WWII.

thanks @tycham for the useful info ... there is still hope in this world yet.

What other viable alternatives are available back then? There were really an acute shortage of all type of metals then. The most sane measure to adopt then were to cut down on the usage of copper and introduced fuses which is cheaper.

We should be mindful that, when engineers designed a power supply system to a building, the primary purpose is for an adequate
and safe supply( not the quality of the power supply, more so for a residential building) for the intended use of that particular building at a reasonable cost to the owner.

I am dead certain that any Engineer who specify internal wiring size in excess of 2.5mm in diameter, would face a career demise faster than you could say ring circuit!

Everybody blamming the fuse, poor fellow truly an unsung hero saving lifes and fires.

Come on why blame on the fuse on the plugs, there are many fuses inside your amplifiers or cd players. Why not solder all with thick silver wires? Connect directly to TNB cables outside your home bypassing the mcb, elcb, meter and big 45A fuse outside the house.

For RM100 to RM300 get a mains cleaner device for a start. Our mains line is dirty! After got extra budget try differnt cable. See whether any differnce, if no never mind. Those cables "looks" canggih to your hifi setup. Impressed your friend. Like those cars done up with spoilers here and there, make tons of noise roaring but tak laju pun.

hoyhoysum wrote:Everybody blamming the fuse, poor fellow truly an unsung hero saving lifes and fires.

Come on why blame on the fuse on the plugs, there are many fuses inside your amplifiers or cd players. Why not solder all with thick silver wires? Connect directly to TNB cables outside your home bypassing the mcb, elcb, meter and big 45A fuse outside the house.

Doing the above would have voided the Fire Insurance.

There are two brands of audio grade fuses tested by an independent party and found to condition the power supply as well.

hoyhoysum wrote:For RM100 to RM300 get a mains cleaner device for a start. Our mains line is dirty! After got extra budget try differnt cable. See whether any differnce, if no never mind. Those cables "looks" canggih to your hifi setup. Impressed your friend. Like those cars done up with spoilers here and there, make tons of noise roaring but tak laju pun.

For RM300 at most is enough for 2 numbers of Audio Prism Quietline Noise Reduction System.

The main root course is Power Quality, even service provider like TNB also can't assure that you will get a clean power for example, harmonics can be contributed from neighbourhood. TNB has set a regulation in their guides that not more than 5% harmonics is allowed, else TNB will penalize consumer, especially large power consumer (LPC -industrial), hence, LPC needs to carry out harmonic study contributed by their equipments, i.e pumps, switch-mode motors, etc. and install harmonic filters, to eliminate 'electrical noise' back to TNB power lines.

The only way to obtain good, clean power quality for household is to have electrical technician who expert in harmonic study (most common is 3rd harmonics contributed by electronics, i.e semiconductors, switch mode transistors, etc. in single phase power supply), install a harmonic filter adjacent to your consumer distribution board, this will ensure a clean, good power quality, then you can just use a normal, adequate cable size of power cord for your audio equipment.

Auronthas

from power chord to TNB

bimmerman wrote:Tin, What is earth floating or "float the earth"? Could you kindly elaborate on the topology or method involved in this?

My yatch circuit got floating earth-that is, you can't ground it as it is always on the sea, and floating. Maybe can when I am anchored.

Floating earth...... That's what Adrian from Audio Image told me when i bought the Balanced Powertrans from him last 2 months. I do not understand what does it mean at all???

I asked him why does the live & neutral are giving signal to the test pen (lights up) and he says it's Floating earth.

Can any Sifu explain to us what does it means?

Thanks.

auronthas wrote:The main root course is Power Quality, even service provider like TNB also can't assure that you will get a clean power for example, harmonics can be contributed from neighbourhood. TNB has set a regulation in their guides that not more than 5% harmonics is allowed, else TNB will penalize consumer, especially large power consumer (LPC -industrial), hence, LPC needs to carry out harmonic study contributed by their equipments, i.e pumps, switch-mode motors, etc. and install harmonic filters, to eliminate 'electrical noise' back to TNB power lines.

The only way to obtain good, clean power quality for household is to have electrical technician who expert in harmonic study (most common is 3rd harmonics contributed by electronics, i.e semiconductors, switch mode transistors, etc. in single phase power supply), install a harmonic filter adjacent to your consumer distribution board, this will ensure a clean, good power quality, then you can just use a normal, adequate cable size of power cord for your audio equipment.

Auronthas

... and dont forget power factor correction as well. LPC also need to have PF correctors so they don't screw up the neighbourhood grid.

For home users, best if there's some circuitry that can tune, like some detector/compensator (similar to a phased-lock-loop operation) device that will dynamically alter the home's overall incoming power supply to be more inductive or capacitative so that all home appliances will see PF=1. OK, so many this is a tall order. Better just to have a miniaturised version of the above for the power feeding into the hifi gear. (Who cares if the home fridge or aircond sees PF=0.6 right ?)

Two main things for ideal AC power.
1. As pure as possible 50Hz sine waves,
2. As best as possible voltage & current in phase aka PF=1 (to the hifi gear).

and the third would be a good powercord (and plugs for a good joint, fuses for safety) with the least parasitic losses. This means lowest posible Resistive/Ohmic losses, and as minimal (ideally zero) impedance to the AC power so that the hi-fi gear's transformer sees a nice 240VAC sine wave, and Voltage & Current as closely in phase as possible.


Everything else would be deemed "minyak-ular".

BrAvO wrote:Floating earth...... That's what Adrian from Audio Image told me when i bought the Balanced Powertrans from him last 2 months. I do not understand what does it mean at all???

I asked him why does the live & neutral are giving signal to the test pen (lights up) and he says it's Floating earth.

Can any Sifu explain to us what does it means?

Thanks.

Try and google/look up "floating ground " & "Electrical ground" or try wikipedia. Assuming u have a some background or understanding in Electricity & Electronics, you should be able to comprehend it nicely.

i'd sketch it out on graph paper for you but i'm too lazy to do so coz i'd have to scan it, make a jpeg out of it, upload it to some photo share site and post a link to it.

I would neither credit nor discredit power cords. There are believers and an equal amount of disbelievers when it comes to tweeking your system.

Daniel, What i would suggest is for you to get your system upto a mark that you are happy with, and then try to improve it with cords. Dont bother trying to tweek it if you are already unhappy.

Yes, best is always to "try for yourself". if you hear the difference... then decide whether the difference seems better or worse for the system.

If you don't hear a difference, there is no shame in that and the money is better off spent elsewhere like more CDs or LPs.

Don't bother too much about what other people claim on how much powercords improved their system or saved world hunger or cured cancer. Worse are those who take some website's reviews or opinions and then hold it to be the gospel truth. There is an old chinese proverb for this: "Using other people's bum/ass skin as their own face skin". Don't fall into this trap.


Its all about your own unique system. No one else can claim that what worked for them is guaranteed to work for you as well.

Thks for all the interesting recommendations.

I manage to borrow some Onix powercords and yes they improve the overall sound. I was just wondering on the plugs , are there any differences in using silver or gold pins. My dealer says silver is better than gold.... and obviously more expensive.

Will leave the upgrade of powercords to the last step in the shopping list.
I need to take a much longer time and more rounds of tests to find out the difference between two cables/ powercords.
Maybe my ears not sensitive gua...

Ya.. correct also.. reviews are not really representing the actual stuffs that will suit our tastes.
I will buy the one that I like and no need to be the one which boasts the newestest and bestest technologies.
My 2 cents.........

a lot of people buy stuff based on suggestion/recommendation from dealer, reviews, etc without really understand the need and reason for doing so. This include me and that's why I stopped being impulsive from buying until I understand what is it about. Now, I ends up having additional cables and accessories which I can't differentiate the differences. Wasted some money, sad but true.

I think the powercord does make some differences, just matter of how much. I did tried switching between a stock powercord and a DIY powercord with us plug. Even though I am not an expert, i did notice some improvement.

Another experience i have is recently I change my marantz cd63 to IEC connector and a better powercord, I notice the improvement over the bass in particular.

I read from the thread that there is fake Furutech cable. How do you differentiate the genuine and the fake?

danieltan wrote:Thks for all the interesting recommendations.

I manage to borrow some Onix powercords and yes they improve the overall sound. I was just wondering on the plugs , are there any differences in using silver or gold pins. My dealer says silver is better than gold.... and obviously more expensive.

Dude, I'll say it again... if u get to try for yourself, thats the best scenario.
Dealers also will tell you anything coz they wanna SELL stuff.
Gold, Silver, Copper, Brass, Rhodium, Aluminium, SnakeOilium .... who knows.... trust your own ears.

Usually, what hifi peddlars will tell you is that the MORE expensive stuff will SURELY sound better one ...

This is becoz more $$$ most times also means more SnakeOilium was used in the special proprietary process hence better sound quality !

Any "honest" hifi dealers here reading this thread are politely excluded of course....

Snake oil sold by snake charmers...
leofric32... improve?...have it crossed your mind it could be a degrade in reality? Its funny how the mind works... mostly improve when something is changed...

All said, the final verdict will be one's ears.
Furutech, Monster, Wireworld and other big name brands do charge a fair bit for their cables. This of course is due to their huge profit margins.

DIY is one way of doing things on the cheap. In fact many small name brands have also sprouted as a result of DIY. However, many scoff at the thought of DIY. For some, DIY may sound rather intimidating.

Of course DIY can be very simple or very complex. The complex stuff involves electronics like creating electronic circuits while the simple ones are like making cables.

I have DIYed cables and done simple electronic work on my equipment. No complex stuff for me though. So far I have been happy with my DIY jobs. For me DIY means doing the things other people have done successfully. It is merely imitating others. Simple as that!

My latest DIY project was changing a (just one) capacitor in my SF Concerto speakers. The result was truly satisfying. It was a HUGE improvement in performance!

I mainly search the internet for information on DIY projects. Much info regarding equipment mod, speaker building and cable (power, IC and speaker) building can be gathered from the internet.
In fact in Malaysia there is a big following of DIY hifi of which many of us do not know of. Of course there are also those that don't believe in DIY. We do have a choice to do either.

Why spend 200-300MYR for something which my DIYed stuff can do for (easily) twice the value (my perception may differ from others)?
PM me if you are interested in DIYing one (the simple stuff).

Cheers!

hi cmboy,

I agree with your comments on whether the changes is an improvement or otherwise. The mind really play tricks. Maybe we just tell ourselves that yeah there is improvement coz we spent that money.

Well, we also cannot denied that they are changes on the accessories and tweak. Changes towards our preferences, what I call improvement. If the changes is not what we want, then it could be the other end.

Sometime, i am thinking whether it worth that much of money for that slight improvement. It is hard to quantify Hifi.

I do believe in DIY, provided that you know what you are doing or you somehow in that line, electronics. Like for me, i always enjoy DIY but lack of the skills and knowledge.

hi forumers..

My opinion on this threat is simple..What ever cable that we want to used just buy the original stuff and if posible use the same brand name for male/female plug..Use all the equipments we have with same cable to get the same frequency and balance..

p/s-If our amplifier worth RM2k are we really need to use expensive (Rm500-1k) power cord to power up the sound quality?? If really want to spend, its worth it or not to pay for it..can it BOOOMMMM the sound up to 50% from standard cord...

thats what im thinking too,
unless theres a bad ass krell ksa sitting in my audio room definitely am wanting to change that

Speaking of which , there's this KSA thats been posted for sale for that Solehah person....since 2008 i think. I wonder if it's sold already or not?

i know, i've been watching that since 2008 oso

Solehah has a sexy black 400xi too. Yumy!

That 400xi has been around for quite some time already...

the 400xi is OBSOLETE.