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>From Tom Fine: "... do you think powerline fuzz and hash matter more, less
or none to modern gear that uses cheaper/lightweight and switching-type power supplies? I'd think the
old-school stuff wouldn't care, it was designed to operate on the principle of an over-spec'd power supply
providing a large reserve for peak-power demands after the conversion to DC. But some of these modern
devices -- including well-rated professional gear -- seem to have such flimsy power supplies, I
wonder if all this matters more in that world. Plus, there are arguments to be made about the
quality of internal power and the performance of digital devices, but again what is provided on the
gear may well be up to the job in the case of professional-grade equipment. Bottom line, I highly doubt
what sort of power cord you use as long as you're using properly-spec'd gauge wires, matters in any
of this..."
I've heard power cords make a surprising difference especially shielded vs. non-shielded. Tying every neutral in an audio system together at one point makes a bigger difference as does cleaning and tightening every single AC connection all the way back to the power pole. Doing both in my experience has reduced the effect of AC cords considerably.
You can ask anybody in the touring sound business and they'll talk your ear off for an hour about the incompetent power supply and grounding design found in most of the past 40 years worth of so-called "pro" audio gear and there is no reason to expect consumer audio to be any better. When you consider how little AC wiring has even been touched in a half century and how poorly designed most gear is, it shouldn't be surprising that anything that alters the frequency response of an audio grounding system may well be audible due to different flavors of RFI. Obviously if you can hear anything change, all flavors are wrong but those of us who hear this stuff aren't lunatics and at least some of us are pretty happy with a heavy duty, well shielded $20 power cord.
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined! 615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com http://www.thewombforums.com