power cord break-in or burn-in is there such a thing?

[Tony]

maybe you can help me out, in one of our local sites, i found a thread wherein breaking-in or burning-in of power cords was mentioned as making audio gears sound better!!! and onother actually changed the power cable of his cd player to bigger size and reported improvements in sound, what can you say to all this claims??? any scientific reasons? i seem to be lost....

[tg3]

Some say yes, some say no, and some say they aren't sure.

YMMV.

[Christer]

Sure, just connect it between two wall outlets and make sure
you reverse one of the plugs.

This is joke. Do not under any circumstances
try this or anything remotely similar!!


Sorry for interrputing. I have no opinion. Just couldn't resist
an obvious joke.

[Da5id4Vz]

But are they directional?

Cable Directionality (Moved Threadjacking)

[theChris]

yes, in fact you should contact your local power company and have them reverse the entire path to your house, you know, just to be sure the entire line is correctly aligned...

[Salas]

Yes power cords do affect the sound of all equipment. If you substitute any thin as it comes with the box ac chord with a proprietary one you always get a sure change. It depends on the individual components if they get dissjointed in sound or not. Other power chords give big soundstage and a slaggier bass, other work complimentary and lower grunge aslong as helping bass impact and timing.
As for brake in, it does exist but is not a strong issue. They can sound a bit cleaner after 100 hours or so.

[Circlotron]

Many people say "YES!"
instead of "I think so"

or "NO!"
instead of "I don't think so"

when talking about all kinds of things...

Power cords? I don't think so.

But..... there is alway the possibility that if you are *expecting* to hear an improvement then perhaps your ear/brain actually works more acutely and so you really *do* hear an improvement, but not for the reason that you expected.

I'm prepared to believe that.

[ashok]

IMHO the answer to the topic is a big YES !
But why ? If the power cord ( conductor) is thin , you will get a significant voltage drop across it when your amp draws large amounts of current. That will drop the voltage of your power supply.
If it terminates in a socket there is one additional connector in series. So at two connections there will be voltage drops across the terminals ,sometimes nonlinearly with current. You will be surprised how badly oxidized some contacts can get in certain areas. So these factors summed up will cause fluctuations in the power supply of the amp.

Now it depends on the PSRR of the amp to show up these variations as artefacts in the music. Within limits, amps like the Gainclone should be quite resistant to cable and power connector problems. Tube amps on the other hand are potentially problem prone due to their poorer PSRR capability.

So different systems will have different characteristics . Only way to find out if your system is sensitive to this is to try it out yourself. Be cautious - mains voltages can kill you . Everything should be switched off from the mains sockets and possibly the house mains if you are cleaning up the contacts of your mains sockets.
Cheers.

[SY]

With the exception of Ohm´s Law voltage drops, the rest would appear to be sheer fantasy, sociology, and hype by opportunistic writers, wire companies, and gulls. Or the laws of physics are wrong and your computer now doesn't work.

If you want to convince yorself, look at your amp's power supply rails (with a scope) while playing music or test tones through it. Now change the power cord and do the same thing. Gee, no difference. The laws of physics must be wrong and the power cord peddler is now in line for a Nobel Prize.

[protos]

This is a touchy subject since it may bring forth the conflict between the "trust your ears" camp and the "if you can't measure it it's not there" camp.
I have heard differences between power cables.Some have been improvements , some have been just been "sideways" changes.