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First venture into the world of HiFi mains cables

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Ernie View Drop Down
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    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 at 7:57pm
I finally succumbed to trying a HiFi mains cable. It’s a marmite topic, people either seem to wax lyrical or flatly refuse to even contemplate such a notion. So I bought one from a UK supplier that’s build like a ships hawser. Very high quality build, high purity conductors, screening, ferrites both ends and connections that look and feel like they’d withstand a nuclear blast.

So, very well build which you’d expect for the £250 it cost. Expensive but I had to finally find out for myself. To test it I left it plugged in to a source component for 6 weeks listening as usual to the system.

After week 6 I swapped back to the “kettle lead” that came with the device. No difference, no difference what-so-ever. Nothing, zilch, zip, nowt for good or ill.

I’ve approached this with an open mind and invested a decent amount of money in the experiment with a hope to hear a difference good or bad.

I’m actually pleased because I finally scratched an itch and found I don’t need to make further investment in this area. More money for music and GS components.


There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Cyreg View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cyreg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Nov 2019 at 11:13am
Hi Ernie, just curieus but...
...you have experienced differences in sound between several interlinks and/or speakercables Question

Edited by Cyreg - 30 Nov 2019 at 11:14am
TecnoDec/RB250/MP110>GramAmp2C/PSU1; Cyrus CD8SE; Cyrus FM7 > Exposure XXXV > Harbeth C7ES-3 '35th Anniversary'
cabling: IC 3x DNM V3; LScable Exposure DMF-two; Furu TP60 + MWaY and AH! powercords   
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BackinBlack View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BackinBlack Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Nov 2019 at 1:12pm
It does defy logic that changing the last metre or so of 10s of kilometres of mains cabling, transformers, switches etc in the distribution network will bring any improvement to the sound.  The fancy mains cable supplied with my old Audio Analogue Maestro CD player made no discernible difference and it was a pita to route due to it's bulk.
I too remain a little more than sceptical of the benefit.
Just listen, if it sounds good to you, enjoy it.
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Ernie View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ernie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Nov 2019 at 6:47pm
Originally posted by BackinBlack BackinBlack wrote:

It does defy logic that changing the last metre or so of 10s of kilometres of mains cabling, transformers, switches etc in the distribution network will bring any improvement to the sound.  The fancy mains cable supplied with my old Audio Analogue Maestro CD player made no discernible difference and it was a pita to route due to it's bulk.
I too remain a little more than sceptical of the benefit.

Quite, but it was an itch I needed to scratch a what if scenario, am I missing out? Turns out that no I’m not. 

To answer Cyregs’ question, yes speaker cables and interconnects do make a difference in my experience. I remember changing my naca5 cables to nordost. Like night and day.
There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Aussie Mick View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Aussie Mick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Dec 2019 at 12:31am
I’m a convert to mains cables in the right context. In my studio (detached from the house and it’s own power) I really can’t hear a difference. However, a friend who lives in an apartment complex has a system that clearly benefits. Is it because of noise rejection? Cables made a worthwhile difference for him, and when he added a regenerator it went to another level of quiet. 

Everything he owns plugs into the wall.

Most things I own have an external power supply (PSU1 and Proprius external supplies). That would surely make a difference in noise rejection, yes?

Mick.
Rega RP8 - Apheta 2 - Accession MC Enigma PS -Solo ULDE (Focal Utopia) - PS Audio M700 - Fical Kanta No2
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Eargie Virgile View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Eargie Virgile Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Feb 2020 at 10:16am
I can just paint my own experience with cables. Until about two years ago I qualified the discussion on cables as voodoo talk. 
It started to become very obvious to me when I compared different loudspeaker cables and interconnects in my home hifi environment. Meanwhile I am a strong believer that cables can make a huge difference. LOL
When I also focused on mains cables I got in contact with a guy (retired engineer who worked many years in the hifi industry) who developed a mains cable with a power conditioner built in. He is a very picky perfectionist indeed who loves to work on getting the best out of a hifi system.  He explained to me that this is not a filter but just a gear to ‚calm down‘ the power to a steady flow (you will notice that I am not a techy guy). When using them with my equipment it is uplifted to a different quality level indeed. A magic that I do not really understand but enjoy. There is no whiff of constraints that I contrariwise already experienced using power filters.
It‘s just hand-made products and not produced big scale, so just available on very limited demand unfortunately. But it shows that there must be some differences with power supply.
As I already read about the Lautus interconnects and GSP ls cables I will also want to try them out in comparison.

Eargie
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Robnpg View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robnpg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jun 2020 at 1:12pm
I know cables are one of the most highly debated topics on the Net. When I see these cables costing thousands it makes me say there MUST be something to it?.? 
Anyhow, I’ll start off with just loaning some of the cables here :)
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