I was reading the thread on this last year and wound up buying the MusicCord cable anyway. I've settled on my amp at this point (I'm using an Aguilar Db728 power amp) and have been working on getting everything necessary to keep it operational without problems as I can really afford constant maintenance. I got one of the big Mesa shock racks with the space around the sides for ventilation to protect it from bumps and overheating. I manually do a careful ordered sequence of switching every time I power it up or down. I know I could get a Furman to do the ordered power switching operation (I've got a friend who does this) but I've always been skeptical of those things, even before learning on here from some of you engineers that you can't "condition" the power without big expensive heavy equipment. I've seen people with home studios that have this implemented and I can confirm that it wouldn't really be a portable solution. Anyways, thanks to last years thread I knew better than to look for tonal or performance enhancement from a cable or "conditioner". Normally I make my own cables or use Lava Cables (his soldering is the cleanest I've ever seen) to make custom ones but I don't really trust my personal work for power or speaker cables where a mistake could potentially kill you. I had some electronics training when I went to school for sound engineering but I'm not an real electrical engineer (ie I mess about with pedal electronics quite extensively but not the insides of amplifiers). Someone here in this thread was asking what your ideal power cable would look like. I don't need an ideal cable but there are some things I was looking for that I would be willing to pay more for. Like I'll pay for a heavy gauge copper but not silver wiring. I'll pay for hospital plugs properly installed to the ends. I'll even pay for the mesh wrap around the cable because it looks cool like the over priced Monster "Studio" cables. But when I got the cable, for less than the price of basic Furman model I might add, I also got all the added benefits of a powerful placebo effect. It looks like it means business coming out of the back of my Mesa shock rack. Someone is less likely to yank it out of the socket while my amp is turned on which is one of my real concerns. It's a big fat thing someone who didn't know better would think twice about just grabbing willy-nilly. Even if they do grab at it it has the added benefit of sticking in the socket pretty firmly buying me the time to run over and offer my assistance without having to tackle anybody. I never really bothered to check if the cable sounded any better. I can report that the thick gauge didn't affect the sound in any negative way so I stopped thinking about it.
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Only $2,000 to improve your amp's performance
- Thread starter Bluesy Soul
- Start date
If you don a giant cod piece for every show your playing will improve dramatically, again, for the same reason. Strangely enough, people will also think twice before grabbing your thingy willy-nilly.
Still using my MusicCord Pro... Still a good product...
None of the electrical engineers seem to have any rational responses even after all this time.
None of the electrical engineers seem to have any rational responses even after all this time.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
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- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
What sort of rational response are you seeking, and would you recognize one if it were offered?
Fair enough...
It's just that paying extra for something to actually have better physical properties doesn't mean you disrespect the realities of electrical engineering. Everyone with actual engineering experience seemed to be reacting emotionally against a good product just because the marketing was ill advised.
It's just that paying extra for something to actually have better physical properties doesn't mean you disrespect the realities of electrical engineering. Everyone with actual engineering experience seemed to be reacting emotionally against a good product just because the marketing was ill advised.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
I haven't seen any emotion-based responses except from the people who think the power cord has better physical properties; the rational ones are from the people who point out that a $200 or $2000 cord actually does the same thing as a $10 one. Are you trolling?
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
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For the same reason why oncologists have no explanation why Laetrile is such an effective cancer treatment, and a good thing too, otherwise Steve McQueen would have died 30 years ago.
Oh, wait...
Yeah, sure looks like trolling to me, Bob... Seems to me that the EE types here have been the most rational posters of the threads, and the least emotional...
- georgestrings
The Laetrile reference made for some interesting reading. I still don't see my amp getting unplugged out of proper sequence anytime soon. The price argument makes more sense to me but we're not even talking about very much money. I still think you would be better served explaining to people how their power conditioners offer no benefit and have large potential drawbacks. The reason I thought of this thread was a thread about how essential power conditioners are to a rack rig. And yes I don't miss the irony of making that statement in a thread about a non-essential power cable by a company called "Essential Sound Products". haha Just because the product is non-essential doesn't mean it doesn't fill a real gap in the market. It's like how nobody respects Accugroove anymore after their spurious claims about the realities of impedance in speaker cabinets. Their speakers still sound better than 95% of the alternatives on the market.
Honestly, I work in a commercial music studio that does voiceover and mixing for corporate television commercials and I can tell you that if you're not ignoring anything related to marketing or advertising that's put in front of you, you're not doing it right. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart, and if you have engineering training you should know that better than anyone to be frank.
Electrical principles are fairly straight-forward, and magic cables of any sort fall in the same category as rubber bracelets that improve your balance - things people will buy because they think they make a difference. Blind tests usually prove it's nothing but human behavior in full effect.
Electrically identical doesn't mean the physical product isn't more robust, ie less likely to be yanked upon. To tell me that is irrational I would understand. To tell me I'm wrong because I'm not making blind tests to test the sound quality differences would be to miss the point.
So the benefit of the esoteric cable is that it's less likely to be yanked upon?
Somebody's yanking upon something.
For $125 what more could you really ask for? I don't need something crazy, I just need you not to touch it. If you've ever looked at nice preamps you'd know that every component adds to the cost. Not having miniaturized components would add to the costs. Not having transformers on the inputs on the ins-outs cuts down the costs. I don't need my power cable to make up for the the fact that I don't practice. It just needs to be a power cable. A nice cable that I couldn't wire up myself is a practical luxury, but not necessary. I'm still glad I bought it...
I just spent more time than I should have reading this entire thread. 
Now, there's a LOT I don't fully understand about what was written, so maybe someone can clear it up for me:
1. One gentleman noted that the super-duper high priced cable is for high-end, audiophile grade (whatever that means) equipment, not live gear. Ok, fair enough, but then why the endorsements from musicians who's quotes mostly mention the improvement to THEIR sound?
2. Unrelated to No. 1 (above) - If I accept the proposition that there exists some minority that can reliably hear a difference (and let's assume that difference is an improvement (again, dismissing the subjective nature of THAT
)), does that mean that the benefit of the cable or fancy power strip is solely for that individual purchaser? If *I* think my gear sounds better with a super-duper-extra fancy audiophile thing, that, to me, wouldn't justify the cost if my listeners (live or memorex) can't tell the difference.
3. Do they come in a relic'ed finish?
Now, there's a LOT I don't fully understand about what was written, so maybe someone can clear it up for me:
1. One gentleman noted that the super-duper high priced cable is for high-end, audiophile grade (whatever that means) equipment, not live gear. Ok, fair enough, but then why the endorsements from musicians who's quotes mostly mention the improvement to THEIR sound?
2. Unrelated to No. 1 (above) - If I accept the proposition that there exists some minority that can reliably hear a difference (and let's assume that difference is an improvement (again, dismissing the subjective nature of THAT
)), does that mean that the benefit of the cable or fancy power strip is solely for that individual purchaser? If *I* think my gear sounds better with a super-duper-extra fancy audiophile thing, that, to me, wouldn't justify the cost if my listeners (live or memorex) can't tell the difference.3. Do they come in a relic'ed finish?
If you're going to promote yourself as a "mediocre bassist" why do you think I should even consider your opinion? Who cares? There's enough apathy to go around...
