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Only $2,000 to improve your amp's performance

#302
fdeck said:
One idea is simply to measure the voltage drop across one leg of the power cord with a (suitably isolated) differential probe, and feed it into a spectrum analyzer. This would tell you exactly what the cable itself is doing.

Or you could use Ohm's Law. :D
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I think I'd start with that. Check to see if the ESP actually filters anything. I can even interject some HF junk on the line with an inverter to accentuate. Compare against a regular IEC.

I could also measure delay induced by skin effect, though HF behaviour is hardly important in a 60Hz power cable.

Then I'd check the DC power supply of a connected amplifier using the ESP and the IEC both under idle and load conditions.

Then I'd do a frequency response sweep to see if the amplifier exhibited wider bandwidth with the ESP, which is something they actually claim on their website.

Then I'd stick an accelerometer on both cables to measure any mechanical vibration to test the veracity of that claim.

Hmm, if my retroactive raise comes through this week, I think I might order one.
 
#303
Mark Reccord said:
I could also measure delay induced by skin effect, though HF behaviour is hardly important in a 60Hz power cable.
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LOL, delay of a single frequency would be equivalent to resetting the clocks in your house by a tiny fraction of a second. You could test this effect by listening to your sound during normal time and Daylight Savings Time.
 
#304
fdeck said:
LOL, delay of a single frequency would be equivalent to resetting the clocks in your house by a tiny fraction of a second. You could test this effect by listening to your sound during normal time and Daylight Savings Time.
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But, but, but according to ESP, power from the wall is available at all frequencies and the 60Hz is just a carrier... :help:

It's a meaningless test, I'm just curious as to whether the ESP cables actually do exhibit less HF delay as they claim. I'm well aware that they're basically solving a non-existent problem by doing that. :p
 
#306
Implosion said:
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Aside from the fact that their graphs are pure BS it still boils down to a six foot cord can't make up for what happens between the generating station and the outlet, a generating station that can be hundreds of miles away.

As to those graphs, they apply to transmission of radio frequencies, not 60 Hz AC. Virtually every claim made for every high end cable, AC or signal, is culled from what happens with transmission of radio frequency signals. If tire manufacturers used the same criteria they'd be selling tires rated for hyper-sonic speeds. Even the least technically astute person wouldn't pay a premium for a tire that's safe at 3000 MPH. But that same person will pay stupid prices for cable based on what it will supposedly do above a megahertz.
 
#307
LOL, I wish I could cut and paste some of that BS. "Current flows faster, just not enough of it....".

There probaby is some application for that cable. 115v going into your amp (or an audiophile's) is not one of them, IMO. It probably has more to due with RF interfering with sensitive equipment, like at the Large Hadron Collider, or some of the radio astronomy telescopes. Etc.

Looks like somebody found a fancy cable, made a cord out of it, compiled a sales pitch and is fleecing sucker "audiophiles".

I think guys with way too much money should come up with some jewelry or some other kind of bling for their "audiophile systems". Lets face it, this stuff is like bling for ultra wealthy guys. Like when I was in Jr High (25 years ago) and the rich kids left the price tags on their $100 sneakers. ;)
 
#310
Lukejt said:
LOL, I wish I could cut and paste some of that BS. "Current flows faster, just not enough of it....".

There probaby is some application for that cable. 115v going into your amp (or an audiophile's) is not one of them, IMO. It probably has more to due with RF interfering with sensitive equipment, like at the Large Hadron Collider, or some of the radio astronomy telescopes. Etc.

Looks like somebody found a fancy cable, made a cord out of it, compiled a sales pitch and is fleecing sucker "audiophiles".

I think guys with way too much money should come up with some jewelry or some other kind of bling for their "audiophile systems". Lets face it, this stuff is like bling for ultra wealthy guys. Like when I was in Jr High (25 years ago) and the rich kids left the price tags on their $100 sneakers. ;)
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#315
Consider this. A power cable carries most (99.9999%) of its current at 60Hz. If your power cable does NOT, then we wouldn't have to plug our amplifiers in at all - the noise inherent in the cable would be enough to power a small amp. Makes sense?

Now noise can come in many different forms, but most of them will be high frequency (higher than 60hz) line noise, which possibly can come from other appliances attached to the same power circuit. Also very intuitive. So a generalised way to think of the power coming from the wall is a lot of it at 60hz, then some noise at higher frequencies.

Now, do you want a cable that filters those higher frequencies out, or lets them into your amplifier? Cause even if this power cord works the way they claim it does, why would i want all that noise going into my amplifier?
 
#316
Limeman said:
Bob - can you explain the issues you see with this marketing info? And also - have you read ESP's white paper? I'd appreciate your take. Thanks!
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It's all vague pseudo-scientific, pseudo-technical baloney. It's like saying it "goes to 11" and adding some meaningless graphics.
 
#317
Limeman said:
OIC... so only a person with a "scientific" background can have opinions based on facts? Interesting again...
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Actually, "opinions based on facts" isn't a bad definition of science, if we avoid nitpicking the terms too much.

If we do start nitpicking, it could be paraphrased as "a view of the natural world based on observations that meet high standards for validity of evidence".
 
#319
Limeman said:
OIC... so only a person with a "scientific" background can have opinions based on facts? Interesting again...
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Now where did I say that? Everyone should base their opinions on facts. It's just that some people refuse to believe facts, no matter how much evidence you present to them.

And if you are trying to imply something with the usage of "...", please say it out loud so that we don't have to keep guessing.
 
#320
What they're claiming is that an amp draws current from the AC mains at non-60Hz frequencies based on what's what's going on in the audio circuit. Obviously, the speaker load on the amp demands current from the audio circuit based on the magnitude of and the frequencies involved in the audio signal. They're claiming that the current demanded from the wall works similarly and as such the gauge of the wire can affect the delivery of said current via the skin effect.

;)
 

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