I own an ESP power cord. I won't make any claims on tone or sound or polarity alignment, but I definitely have had $150 of conversation started with sound guys and other players because of it.
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High priced power cords, koolaid?
- Thread starter David A. Davis
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Here's one way to look at it... a highway comparison.
First of all, the circuit you have your amp plugged into can already handle a lot more than your amp. So, for highway comparison, you are already only running 1 car every 20 seconds down a four-lane highway. Now, for the last bit of time that electrons travel towards your amp, you throw in the "better" power cord. That would be like adding 6 more lanes to your already-too-wide highway for the last few miles of the trip. You have gained nothing. And how "clean or dirty" your power is will be determined by just about everything BEFORE your power cord. Those last few feet aren't going to "clean up" anything. It's rubbish..... pure and simple.
First of all, the circuit you have your amp plugged into can already handle a lot more than your amp. So, for highway comparison, you are already only running 1 car every 20 seconds down a four-lane highway. Now, for the last bit of time that electrons travel towards your amp, you throw in the "better" power cord. That would be like adding 6 more lanes to your already-too-wide highway for the last few miles of the trip. You have gained nothing. And how "clean or dirty" your power is will be determined by just about everything BEFORE your power cord. Those last few feet aren't going to "clean up" anything. It's rubbish..... pure and simple.
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So basically it's a $150 conversation starter.
That's actually the first believable benefit that I have heard for a "high end" power cord. I won't comment on the whether the conversations were worth the $150, but I would agree that it's a quantifiable attribute.
That's actually the first believable benefit that I have heard for a "high end" power cord. I won't comment on the whether the conversations were worth the $150, but I would agree that it's a quantifiable attribute.
all the professional musicians i know, not one of em would use something like that.
a lawyer or doctor that plays the bass as a hobby, however......
a lawyer or doctor that plays the bass as a hobby, however......
I've said it 50 times: Do the slobbering drunks in the back of the tavern really hear a difference in our BS quest for the "Perfect Tone"?
Definitely not. Heck, I've gotten the most tone compliments(even from people that weren't drunk) playing my CV Precision bass through a GK MB112 combo. I have $415 total into the whole rig. $422.99 if you count the cheap instrument cord from guitar to amp.
This /\
Plus, we all know how chicks dig expensive speaker cable (and the attendant discussion/arguments). :scowl:
That's why my extra money is slated for cool shoes and stuff, not extension cords.
I just looked at their Essence Reference-II cord at $1999.00
Features Premium Quality FURUTECH Plugs & Connectors with Solid Copper Terminals!
FURUTECH?
My Square-D box in the basement and my wall outlets are probably made with just plain old polycarbonate. Shucks! Well, at least they all have solid copper like the above does. I hate connectors with liquid or gasseous copper.
Wait until you try liquid copper, man. I have a jar of it on top of my amp and it INSTANTLY sounds like a 70's SVT (or B-15 if I pour a little out and twist it slightly counter-clockwise). The thing is though, after a while it starts to lose its mojo, even if it doesn't sound like it does, and the guy I bought it from says I need to replace it on the 1st and 15th of every month. Not switching it out could give my amp dirty vibes or make ghosts want to inhabit the head and slightly interfere with the frequency response.
And don't buy the knock-offs, I bought one that was half the price and all it made me sound like was an Acoustic 360
Then there's this from another TB thread. If professional classical musicians can't tell the difference on something like this acoustically, we are to believe electric instruments would be helped by a power cord to some discernable level?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivec...uble-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad
time for the monkey wrench
I was on tour in Paris a few years back. We play big concert halls so the PA guys are pretty much as good as you can get.
The sound guy gives me a ($150) power cable to try. I figure it can't hurt. After sound check I a/b'd it with my cord. I was kindof shocked---it sounded noticeably better. It was the beginning of the tour and he said I could keep it until the end of the tour as we finished in Paris.
One day I spent two hours in the concert hall a/b ing the cable with a regular one. Bass impact was more powerful---the envelope was noticeably better. Not super profound but not subtle either. I bought it.
It has a small plastic box in line with some electronics in it. Supposedly it filters out junk. Maybe I'll send it to some expert here to see what's inside.
It is used extensively in recording studios in France. I don't have it handy---I actually don't use it regularly----too expensive! I'll find the name and post it.
I was on tour in Paris a few years back. We play big concert halls so the PA guys are pretty much as good as you can get.
The sound guy gives me a ($150) power cable to try. I figure it can't hurt. After sound check I a/b'd it with my cord. I was kindof shocked---it sounded noticeably better. It was the beginning of the tour and he said I could keep it until the end of the tour as we finished in Paris.
One day I spent two hours in the concert hall a/b ing the cable with a regular one. Bass impact was more powerful---the envelope was noticeably better. Not super profound but not subtle either. I bought it.
It has a small plastic box in line with some electronics in it. Supposedly it filters out junk. Maybe I'll send it to some expert here to see what's inside.
It is used extensively in recording studios in France. I don't have it handy---I actually don't use it regularly----too expensive! I'll find the name and post it.
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When I started gigging again in 2005 (lead guitar) I spent thousands on Mesa Boogie amps, a Matchless amp, Monster cables, and every booteek pedal ever flogged on TGP. And I wound up roght back where I started: Peavey Classic 50 combo and a $40 Bad Monkey.
I'd love to know what's in it, and I'd love to know how you'd have done blindly, 20 times.
I know it doesn't make sense, but a bassist I respect totally, Norm Stockton, made an (as far as I know) unpaid endorsement of these cables on his Facebook page after listening to their effect at the latest NAMM show.
Okay, I'll take one for the team and be the dick:
Was it a true double-blind, level-matched, ABX test? Or did you guys simply not know which cable was which?
I hate being the dick.
But someone's got to.
And fwiw, here's my "monkey wrench" story:
I did a non-level-matched, non-ABX, non-double blind listening evaluation of boutique AC power cords with a half dozen other audiophiles (sic) a year or two ago. And every one of us swore we heard a difference. I'm sitting there waving my hands around telling everybody "We haven't accounted for expectation bias, this test reveals more about our perceptions than it does about the cable!" and yet I too thought I could hear a distinct difference between the $5 power cord and the $500 power cord.
Which sort of proved my point...only not to anyone else there!
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