The $800 dollar power cord from ESP (they do not have a $2000 power cord) was never intended to be used for live pro sound. It was intended for the high-end audiophile market, for customers who spend large sums of money (whether they are getting their monies worth or not is up for discussion) on their gear and want to maintain a high-end solution. The actual cords that we should be talking about are the $109 and $159 MusicCord/MusicCord Pro. Still expensive and high-end, but hardly $2000. I think the point is... has anyone on this thread who claims this product is snake oil, pseudoscience and a fraud proven it as so? I have seen a whole host of negative and, dare I say, egotistical opinions of what "is" possible yet no actual tests? Hardly scientific, wouldn't you say?
Forgive my layman understanding of Science and Physics, but it was always my understanding that they were tools to uncover truth, not truth themselves. Science once said that man would never fly. Tell that to the Wright brothers. Before Issac Newton discovered the theory of gravity, did all physical objects float off into space? Of course not. Science is constantly updating itself as the reality of ourselves, our world and universe are revealed. But paradigms can't be broken if people remain closed-minded. Those who are scientific minded tend to be skeptical and that is a good thing. But to also be so closed minded such that a person's own understanding of physics literally keeps them imprisoned is hardly ideal. If a closed-minded sceptic runs a blind test with such a mindset, then without realizing it, that person may themselves become a component in the failure of that very test to provide an accurate result.
I too am very skeptical about the possible sonic improvements that can be had via a $159 power cord, but at least I remain open-minded enough to consider it a "possibility".
I guess what I'm saying is if a bassist says they hear a difference when using this power cord, or instrument cord, or speaker cord, or gamma isolation pad, or strings, pickups, amp/cab combo, etc., so be it. If it sounds good to him/her, then it does to them. You can argue all you want with scientific charts, knowledge, etc... but their hearing is 100% subjective to them and it is their decision if the price paid for said improvement was a good use of money.
You're kind of missing the point. Of course their money is theirs to spend. my goodness, who ever said it wasn't? So please just drop that one; it's an irrelevant nonstarter.
As for science, of course it's a search for truth. But here's what you seem to be missing: every step on that path is based on something already achieved. IOW, we learn stuff, and the stuff we learn next is learned against the framework of what we've learned already.
This means that we don't try to reinvent the wheel every time around, for one thing. It also means that for some questions, there already exists good presumptive evidence for or against, before you even start to address the question. And you are not compelled to give equal weight to a possibility if there is no evidence for it and a lot of presumptive evidence against it. (Before you jump to conclusions, that does NOT mean that you refuse to be convinced by solid proof if that does become available.)
Thus, if a 400 pound man comes up to me and says, I can fly like a bird just by flapping my arms, what do I do? Do I pretend that this is possible and plausible and think, gee, I dunno, maybe he can, I guess I shouldn't say he can't until someone proves it's impossible? Is that what you think science demands? No, of course not. In this case, there is VERY strong presumptive evidence against the possibility that the man can do what he says, and no sensible person would give this idea the time of day without a bucketload of proof. The burden of proof is not on the person who thinks the guy can't fly, it's on the would-be flier. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
What the electronics people on this thread are telling you is that this power cable business is basically the same kind of thing as the 400 pound guy flapping his arms and flying. There's a lot of presumptive evidence counting against it, and virtually none of any weight counting for it. For this reason,
it doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt; it deserves to be doubted until it can prove itself (if it ever does, which I doubt).
You might think, well, aren't there some scientific ideas that everybody pooh-poohed at first, yet that later turned out to be true? Of course there are. But here's the point: they all prevailed because when push came to shove,
they could actually prove themselves. You could put them to the test, and they would pass, or at least do significantly better than the prevailing theories or practices. The power cable guys haven't done that, and seem to be afraid of the very idea of trying. Therefore, until they come up with some real evidence, I see no reason to accord their claims any credence at all. That's not closed-minded, whatever you may think; it's just attempting to have a little rigor in your thinking.
