Mains cables / House wiring / advice please

[Audio Al]

Hello

I have not been a member on the forum for long but in that time I have seen lost of posts re mains cables

1st silly question , What do they do ?

2nd silly question , If they do good things , how can they as you plug them into a wall socket in your house and as with my house , it was built around 1950 and to my knowledge has some original wiring , It still works fine no problems with the wiring and I recently had a new consumer unit installed under the stairs , I also have a modern digital electric meter

Any advice most welcome :)

[Audio Al]

Looks like I am not alone

65 views and no comments :scratch:

[Daniel Quinn]

Hi: Al, I am new member to , but I do know that the good people of AOS are normally not so reticent with their views. I suspect the problem here is with the narrative of your question .

There is an ambiguity to your questions which means it is possible to legitimately read your question as a “provocative piss take” . I am not saying this is what you meant , just that it can be read in such a way . This is not entirely your fault . Cables and especially mains cables are a hotly contested issue and there are other forums were posters deliberately post similar questions in order to spark a row , not really requiring an answer .

I suspect it is this ambiguity which as detracted posters . Lets face it , even you acknowledge they are silly questions and what does a mains cable do is indeed a silly question as they clearly take power from the wall to object you plugged in to the wall. ;) If you had asked how, can and do they effect the sound quality of your hi-fi then more interest may have been sparked . :D

Additionally the premise of your second question makes no sense at all . The age of your mains cabling and whether it works fine is not a sufficient argument to defeat any advocation of the benefit of mains cable .

I for one am prepared to accept your question is genuine as it allows me to get on my soapbox. So I would say, if as you state you have read previous post , you will be fully aware that some people argue that mains cables can effect sound for the better and others will even say the quality of the mains up to the plug can also improve quality and so and so a dedicated mains spur with audiophile wiring will improve things . Others will say its complete rubbish . It should be noted that those who advocate audiophile mains wiring and equipment leads , do not agree what improvements it brings , it brings different things to different people .

Hifi Sound at its basic is electricity turned into mechanical energy so it is intuitive to assume the “quality” of the electricity may influence matters . Whether this applies to the signal path or power path is again at hotly contested issue .
Advocates cannot explain what is going on , no matter what they say . Any explanation will at best be an untested hypothesis, not a theory . This does not mean they are not correct, it doesn’t mean they are right either, Although there is one thing worth considering and that is in order for those that consider such issues to be rubbish to be correct , they must logically and necessarily conclude that advocates are deluded and/or lying . This seems unlikely ?
Your only solution is to either ignore it and get on with enjoying your music or try it out, as a million debates on AOS will not solve the issue as it is not solvebale through debate and argument only emprical experimentation .

[Martinh]

Hi Allen,

Logic says that improving the last meter of cabling in an entire house/street/estate is not going to make a difference, especially if the existing wiring is old and knackered.

I have a Marantz PM6004, which I believe is the latest version of the amp that you have. I have just upgraded to a Bushmaster DAC and Exposure amp and i can tell you that the Marantz wasnt really good enough to resolve the differences between the bushmaster and my old Dacmagic. So, I'm not sure if spending cash on your mains will be worth it or not.

However, as always, the best way to tell is to try it in your system and see what you think. Its easy to spend hundreds on mains, when another upgrade may be more cost effective.

just my thoughts,

[Audio Al]

Hello Dennis and Martin

O dear Looks like I have put my foot in it

When I said silly question I did not mean any of it to be a piss take

It may be common knowledge to experienced Hi Fi users but I thought about it and it did not make any sense to me how putting something as you say at the last meter of your power supply could make a difference

Thanks for taking the time to rely

Looks like I need to be more selective on how I ask questions in future

[Daniel Quinn]

Hi Al , I wounldnt worry about it , I may not be correct , as you are new it is probably that people havnt known how to take it , but again im guessing . You should be gratefull you posted in this forum there are few others were by now you would be knee dip in vitriolic contradictory comment in which each successive post ignored the last and simply spouted thier dogmatic mantra and you and everybody else would be none the wiser.

[realysm42]

Personally, I don't think there's anything wtrong with saying your question might be silly; it's hiuman nature to be a little shy about possibly asking something that would make you look stupid.

Although I can't help with your main question, don't hold back from asking away on here mate; it's why I joined, to learn and learn I have.

"The only stupid question is the unasked one"

[anthonyTD]

Hello Dennis and Martin

O dear Looks like I have put my foot in it

When I said silly question I did not mean any of it to be a piss take

It may be common knowledge to experienced Hi Fi users but I thought about it and it did not make any sense to me how putting something as you say at the last meter of your power supply could make a difference

Thanks for taking the time to rely

Looks like I need to be more selective on how I ask questions in future

Hi Allen,
You shouldnt be put off from asking questions here, no matter how silly or foolish they may seem to some of the more experienced. If your questions are genuine, ask away, there are a lot of decent, patient people here with vast amounts of experience in all aspects of audio related matters.:)
Anthony,TD...

[Martinh]

Hello Dennis and Martin

O dear Looks like I have put my foot in it

When I said silly question I did not mean any of it to be a piss take

It may be common knowledge to experienced Hi Fi users but I thought about it and it did not make any sense to me how putting something as you say at the last meter of your power supply could make a difference

Thanks for taking the time to rely

Looks like I need to be more selective on how I ask questions in future

Hi Allen,

I read your post and didn't see any problem at all. Just re-read it and all is good with me :)

Anyway, back to the subject, is there any way to borrow some cables/blocks to try?

Cheers,

[Puffin]

Russ Andrews markets a Silver Super Duper Fandango'd PowerKord (mains cable to you and me) for around £1500. I assume he sells some of them. I bought some if his entry Yello PowerKords over 10 years ago. I thought then that they might have made a difference. In the main I use bog standard kettle IEC leads. I could not now genuinely tell you if my CD player/Amp etc had the Yello or crap (depending on your view point) attached to it. Cleaning the plug pins and shining the fuse with Brasso seems to be worthwhile though

EDIT: I was wrong, it was double £!500

http://www.russandrews.com/product.asp?lookup=1&region=UK&currency=GBP&pf_id=1564&customer_id=PAA2867067112005RYGHEDHVNGQSEPWH

[daytona600]

in last couple of weeks fitted a mains 1.5kw regen unit , mains filter & mains leads
got them all on home loan so if they did not work i could send them back kept all of them. Did improve the sound in my system , not tried re-wiring yet or changing fuses

[John]

Most of us hear use decent mains cable I certainly think they make a difference in my system and would invite anyone around who thinks differently to hear for themselves
Bugt I also would say I live close to factories so have more mains issues than most so think it one of those things that can make a difference but not always
Sorry cannot give a scientific reason for this just my experience