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The $199 power cable

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I had experienced the "thought something was working when it wasn't" before in the studio.

Engineer had me make changes to my active bass that we BOTH "HEARD" while my active preamp was OFF, no possible change could be heard.

We both laugh so hard we had to take a pee break.

"Could you turn up the bass? Yeah, that's it! Now a little mid" :D :eyebrow:

People always have and always will hear all sorts of crap that isn't there. That's why you usually need to ignore those that tell you to listen to it for yourself before you judge it. I may very well hear a difference. That doesn't mean it's there.
 
People always have and always will hear all sorts of crap that isn't there. That's why you usually need to ignore those that tell you to listen to it for yourself before you judge it. I may very well hear a difference. That doesn't mean it's there.

I had experienced the "thought something was working when it wasn't" before in the studio.

Engineer had me make changes to my active bass that we BOTH "HEARD" while my active preamp was OFF, no possible change could be heard.

We both laugh so hard we had to take a pee break.

"Could you turn up the bass? Yeah, that's it! Now a little mid" :D :eyebrow:

What we liked was, we listen to playback and thought it made all the difference.
Then after we found out there was no change we still thought there was a change, even A/B ing the previous track, only thing that changed was my attack.
 
I ended up getting two of these for free (long story) and they're nice, I guess. The funny thing with Victor Wooten being the artist behind the new cable is that you can't hardly hear the difference at all with bass.

We tested it a bunch with an Orange Tiny Terror, and we could hear a SLIGHT difference. Was it very noticeable? No. Were we standing in awe at the greater tone we achieved? No. A slight increase on the low end, and a nice mid. But it's relative at best, as the best we got was a shoulder shrug, and an "Um, I THINK I can hear a difference" from some people. I suppose there are audiophiles out there who would jump on those slight differences, but it's hard to think of 'normal' working musicians spending that kind of money on a power cable. Maybe in a studio, where every last little bit of tonality it worth spending tons of money on?

[Snip]

All in all, I lost an SVT's power cable once between shows. I grabbed the power cable from a PC and used that. My SVT did sketch out and sound noticeably bad. However, it doesn't take $200 to remedy that. I bought this 15' power cable ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed]), and it sounds great! I actually run two of these $18 cables; one to my head and one to my PedalTrain. Easy to coil, plenty of length to get to any power source, and they sound great.

From what I understand of the science behind power cords there is NO difference at all, neither audible or measurable,so it doesn't matter at all if you are hearing bass or guitar. And if your SVT started sounding bad with an otherwise functional PC cord then I fear for the health of your amp.

Martin
 
I roll with my $8 power cord and my SVT with joy and merriment; comforted to know that the $192 I saved could be used to really improve my sound - with either lessons, new tubes, or upgrades for my bass.


"Money goes a long way, when you ain't throwin' it away!"
 
An easy way to test the truth behind the claims would be to use a pre-recorded bass track for the audio source. Play the track through the amplifier, once with a plain old cheap power cable, and once with the $199 cable, and digitally record it each time. Between recording takes, don't change *anything* except the power cable. Do a frequency spectrum analysis of the resulting audio files and compare the two.

Perhaps this could be debunked once and for all!
 
An easy way to test the truth behind the claims would be to use a pre-recorded bass track for the audio source. Play the track through the amplifier, once with a plain old cheap power cable, and once with the $199 cable, and digitally record it each time. Between recording takes, don't change *anything* except the power cable. Do a frequency spectrum analysis of the resulting audio files and compare the two.

Perhaps this could be debunked once and for all!

This kind of test doesn't work.
You need to play through it, and you need to see what you are playing through. This is so you can play different and render a different result. Consciously or unconsciously.

This is called "feel". It works for cables, amps, cabinets, effects, really any bass gear.

Seeing is just as important as hearing. Just ask Mcgurk. :hiding:

It's a joke. :D
 
Bassist Ralph Armstrong interviews Michael Griffin, owner and founder of Essential Sound Products.

Starting at the 1.32 mark.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]



And for those who do not know who Ralphe Armstrong is. Do some research.










I'm an ESP power cord endorser.
 
Bassist Ralph Armstrong interviews Michael Griffin, owner and founder of Essential Sound Products.

Starting at the 1.32 mark.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]



And for those who do not know who Ralphe Armstrong is. Do some research.










I'm an ESP power cord endorser.
Dude THANKS for pulling our coats to this!

After seeing this, I don't care one way or the other about the cord :D
 
I had experienced the "thought something was working when it wasn't" before in the studio.

Engineer had me make changes to my active bass that we BOTH "HEARD" while my active preamp was OFF, no possible change could be heard.

We both laugh so hard we had to take a pee break.

"Could you turn up the bass? Yeah, that's it! Now a little mid" :D :eyebrow:
I did the same thing to myself at a gig with an EQ that was in bypass mode. Tweaked and tweaked for about 5 minutes, thinking I could hear the differences I was making. Then I saw the bypass button, and without stopping to think, I punched in the EQ. The PA immediately hurled itself into earsplitting feedback when all my "tweaks" came on line at once. So much for discretion... :D
 
I've seen the discussion, but never realized Wooten was an endorser. Guess what? I'm boycotting Victor!
Well, you know, Victor considers himself a bit of a mystic. Ever read his book, "The Music Lesson"?

Just because someone like Victor is a very accomplished musician doesn't mean he knows a whole lot about physics, engineering, and material science. In fact, I'll wager that there is somewhat of an inverse relationship there because someone with that much dedication to music probably hasn't had the time or inclination to study the physical sciences in any great detail. My guess is that he probably believes in the product.

If Victor is getting some side action with this endorsement, then more power to him, but I'm not falling for it. Caveat emptor.
 
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