Mains Cable Madness

Ultrasonic cleaner delays with that.

I have frequently washed second hand parts for that reason.

Oli, Do you think I believe mains cables makes a difference? lol 🤣

never mentioned it before but I did have an MCRU power cable here a while back. Thicker than a baby's arm with massive connectors on it, like something from a nuclear power station. Cost a thousand quid.

Could not tell any difference between it and the freebie cables that come with the equipment. But I tried.

Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery.

Very repeatable though.

Ah, but it will be your systems fault......or you haven't got mains conditioning......or you need different interconnects to really hear the benefit!

Had all of those things said to me, yet when I change an RCA socket, everything else in the system is good enough to tell them apart.

I'm not mad keen on this idea that mains cables make a difference, but they have had an effect here....but then again, I have heard some mega money ones here, and I felt they took the system backwards.

Odd

Yeah, I have been happily listening again this evening and the Belden stuff has both removed that strange bloated bass I had and put my mind at ease, but I did notice something interesting.

I hadn't really rearranged the cabling, so the mains cables we're not dressed very well. I noticed something wasn't right when listening, like I'd lost a bit of leading edge transparency, so i decided to properly install everything. Dress the cables etc.

I'd also left a couple of kettle leads around the mains block, as I had been experimenting and just left them where they dropped. .

Once I'd dressed the cables and removed any unnecessary cables.....leading edge returned.

Odd, but I recall Macca experiencing something similar.

I'm going to have a proper tidy up tomorrow and remove as much stuff as I can. Just to see if it makes any difference.

Thinking of removing all of the wall plugs and just hard wiring everything in.

I have a good Consumer unit, so shouldn't bee too much to worry about?

Yes I did and I spent the thick end of two grand for no reason before I discovered the cause - or what I think was the cause.

I think certainly some of the improvements people claim from fancy mains cables are due to them using cheap unshielded cables and  not paying attention to cable dressing. Then when they install the shielded cables all the mush created by EMR around their signal cables disappears.

Okay you could get the same benefit just by keeping signal cables at least an inch from power cables but so many don't do this and just have a rat's nest behind the rack.

If they are the sort that quite often swaps equipment in and out a hell of a mess can build up round the back.

With the MCRU cable I was surprised to hear no change since usually swapping anything will cue the mind to perceive a difference. Plus it really looked the part too which should be another cue. The same day I swapped digital cables and immediately perceived a difference so it's not like I'm immune.

other than EMR  there is no (known) reason why a power cable could make a real change to the sound. Cable companies could publish measurements to back up their claims, or fund blind testing but they never do, you have to ask yourself why that is as if they could prove their claims they would sell a hell of a lot more product.


I know most members here are probably a lost cause but for anyone else reading, don't spend your money on these things. Just keep signal cables away from the power cables and keep it all neat at the back, with no unused cables or wires lying about. 

If you are using fancy plugs, would fancy wall sockets be better?

Is WAF a consideration, or not?

So you could fit a proper consumer unit? One of the small ones.

That is what I was thinking. Run a direct feed to a small consumer unit, and wire the HiFi direct to the RCDs.