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Today's Featured Head-Fi Blog: A Japanese headfier's monologue (Sasaki)
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Skeptics think that the nuclear power plant is outputting the same voltage as their systems are powered with. What comes from the power plant is hundreds of thousands of volts, and at the substation it gets stepped down to about 1/10th of that, it's still tens of thousands of volts. After the breaker box of your house, you get 110-230 volts which is about 1/1000th of what it used to be.
If you step down the voltage many times the cables at the end of the chain matter the most. The lower the voltage is the more sensitive it is to power cords.
So how long are the cables inside your walls from the breaker box to the wall outlet you're using? And what material are they?
__________________ "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." Ben Franklin, 1759
I've tried a LOT of equipment over the years, including power cables and interconnects from many different manufacturers. I believe power cables and interconnects have an impact on the sound in your system, and I currently have the investment in cables in active use to prove it (Cardas Golden Reference interconnects and speaker cables, Black Sands and PS Audio power cables, Moon Audio and Zu Audio headphone cables).
That being said, I rate the contribution of equipment to overall sound quality like this:
Speakers of Headphones: 75%
Amp: 15%
DAC: 5%
Power Conditioning: 3%
Interconnects / Speaker/Headphone Cables: 1.5%
Power Cables: 0.5%
If anything, I may be exaggerating the importance of everything but the speakers/headphones.
__________________
FLAC >> Benchmark DAC1 USB >> Qualia 010 headphones (sale pending)
-------------------------------------------------- >> Jeff Rowland Model 201 monoblock amps >> Dynaudio Confidence C1 speakers
I've tried a LOT of equipment over the years, including power cables and interconnects from many different manufacturers. I believe power cables and interconnects have an impact on the sound in your system, and I currently have the investment in cables in active use to prove it (Cardas Golden Reference interconnects and speaker cables, Black Sands and PS Audio power cables, Moon Audio and Zu Audio headphone cables).
That being said, I rate the contribution of equipment to overall sound quality like this:
Speakers of Headphones: 75%
Amp: 15%
DAC: 5%
Power Conditioning: 3%
Interconnects / Speaker/Headphone Cables: 1.5%
Power Cables: 0.5%
If anything, I may be exaggerating the importance of everything but the speakers/headphones.
Pretty good percentage of contribution. I would do it a LITTLE different: 65% speakers, 25% amp though.
Pretty good percentage of contribution. I would do it a LITTLE different: 65% speakers, 25% amp though.
Way off topic, but this seems really hard to quantify to me. I've never heard an amp that makes me tempted to shell out more money for my Grados, but I've heard a few that are definitely on my "to-buy" list for my Sennheisers.
So how long are the cables inside your walls from the breaker box to the wall outlet you're using? And what material are they?
I made a 2 year blind test. I experimented and came to the conclusion that my apartment wiring is 14awg and made of copper with bad insulation. When I looked inside the wall the wiring looked just like I thought it would look. I haven't measured but it looks like 14awg.
But the crappy apartment wiring doesn't bother me because Valhalla cleans it up and makes it sound smooth and transparent.
The length is around 20 meters, but the gauge size matters more than the length.
I could be wrong but I think of flowing current as similar to flowing water. The things affecting the quality of this flow are turbulence and variations in flow rate (voltage) and pressure (current). The torrent of water rushing from the power station is very turbulent, like a mighty river raging. As this huge amount of fast flowing water gets slowed down through smaller channels the speed and pressure are reduced. Maybe a good power cord has the same speed and pressure of flow as a cheap one, but the "water" (current) is flowing more smoothly, with less turbulence.
Similar to the way water flowing from an open tap in an old house can be swirling around as it comes out of the tap, all turbulent and messy.
Newer houses have a few sheets of mesh in a little metal or plastic device as seen in most modern bathrooms which can reduce this to a nice smooth flow. You may have to open the tap a little more but you can get identical flow rate and pressure, but with much less turbulence.
A good power cable is that little piece of metal or plastic screwed in the end of your bath tap. It smooths out the flow, regardless of what the juice was doing at the power station or in your walls.
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