Neil McCauley
20-10-2016, 18:12
Editorial note: Written by Alan Elsdon and Re-engineered by Colin Wonfor.
Q: Looking at the EWA MC5 power cord – your design - it doesn’t look anything special. But knowing you, there’s clever engineering that’s gone into it and so a few questions if I may.
Let’s start by looking at the topic through the eyes of a novice, or perhaps a skeptic or even yes ….. a cynic. I’m none of these but some of our readers are. So your answer should please be constructed with them in mind. Here’s a typical observation …. “Power cords surely can’t make a difference. It’s daft.. n kilometers from a power station and you’re telling me that a glorified kettle lead of a 1.5m and an idiotic price and a bling IEC plug can make the sound better. Pull the other one, son”.
A: The problem with mains power delivery is the same as signal transfer from point A to B. The better you can transfer power / signal then the better the sound should be coming out of the speakers. At the same time you have to stop this transfer being affected by external events AND stop the transfer itself from affecting other equipment. Basically the ring-main in your house is relatively low impedance (mostly capacitance), this is feeding into a higher-impedance load via the mains cable which can act as an aerial receiving and transmitting noise.
Q: Hmm, okay and thanks. So now, back to our reality. So for the rest of us, power cords do make a difference. That said, does the audiophile world really need yet another power cord and if so, why?
A: Not really - all we need is the perfect means to transfer power from the mains to all devices without any waste of power any interference - simple. Since this does not yet exist then we will keep seeing people trying to resolve all the issues surrounding power delivery.
Q: In a nutshell, what’s your take on an age-old design; what makes the EWA one so special?
A: In a nutshell .....
Continues at http://www.hifianswers.com/2016/10/ewa-ltd-alan-elsdon-colin-wonfor-discuss-their-first-product-the-mc5-power-cord/
Q: Looking at the EWA MC5 power cord – your design - it doesn’t look anything special. But knowing you, there’s clever engineering that’s gone into it and so a few questions if I may.
Let’s start by looking at the topic through the eyes of a novice, or perhaps a skeptic or even yes ….. a cynic. I’m none of these but some of our readers are. So your answer should please be constructed with them in mind. Here’s a typical observation …. “Power cords surely can’t make a difference. It’s daft.. n kilometers from a power station and you’re telling me that a glorified kettle lead of a 1.5m and an idiotic price and a bling IEC plug can make the sound better. Pull the other one, son”.
A: The problem with mains power delivery is the same as signal transfer from point A to B. The better you can transfer power / signal then the better the sound should be coming out of the speakers. At the same time you have to stop this transfer being affected by external events AND stop the transfer itself from affecting other equipment. Basically the ring-main in your house is relatively low impedance (mostly capacitance), this is feeding into a higher-impedance load via the mains cable which can act as an aerial receiving and transmitting noise.
Q: Hmm, okay and thanks. So now, back to our reality. So for the rest of us, power cords do make a difference. That said, does the audiophile world really need yet another power cord and if so, why?
A: Not really - all we need is the perfect means to transfer power from the mains to all devices without any waste of power any interference - simple. Since this does not yet exist then we will keep seeing people trying to resolve all the issues surrounding power delivery.
Q: In a nutshell, what’s your take on an age-old design; what makes the EWA one so special?
A: In a nutshell .....
Continues at http://www.hifianswers.com/2016/10/ewa-ltd-alan-elsdon-colin-wonfor-discuss-their-first-product-the-mc5-power-cord/