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$3,500 power cord! — Parallax Forums

$3,500 power cord!

W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
edited 2010-02-03 07:37 in General Discussion
www.highendcable.co.uk/Nordost%20VALHALLA%20Power.htm

So you spend $3,500 for a power cord for your hi end audio system then realize that on the other side of your outlet is Romex. (insert face-palm icon here)

Un-freaking believable!

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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.

Comments

  • PhilldapillPhilldapill Posts: 1,283
    edited 2010-01-30 04:54
    Wow. That's almost scam worthy, but the worse thing is, there REALLY are people that buy it. Whoa.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-01-30 04:58
    The high-end audio market is rife with Smile like this. Somewhere I saw some magnetic disks that you're supposed to place on top of your amp to improve fidelity and spectral purity. It's said that "a fool and his money are soon parted." And maybe they deserve to be. Dumb, rich audiophile wanna-be's seem particularly vulnerable. But even "lower end" stuff like Monster cables appeal to the same sort of material ego and abject ignorance.

    -Phil
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2010-01-30 05:00
    this belongs in a fail blog some where ..

    KG6LSE

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    "Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
    peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
    LOL
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2010-01-30 05:06
    You see a similar crazy thing in art dealerships near touristy places. In almost every fine art store there's a piece of work that has nothing special about it except that it's 100x whatever everything else is. The reason: once every few years a taste-free tourist walks in with more money than senses and "needs" to buy the most expensive item. cha-ching!
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2010-01-30 05:13
    monster is a joke ! IMPO.. its just more plastic..

    I use 18 AWG zip cord for my speakers and I get great sound and its cheap .

    and "those power conditioners" Meh most AV gear goes in to a SMPS anyways .. so what if the wall is off by 3 V or a few Hz .

    mind you I Use high end TrippLite Isobars on all my gear . but its not for better sound .. its for the naasy spikes Edison puts on our line back In CA..

    I love being a E tech . you can walk in to a B Buy and cut through the junk they try to sell you ..
    yet I make my own cables o for everything I can . I use RG6 with snap and seal conns ..



    BTW if you want to annoy a audiophile . you can tell them that technically every solder joint in there gear is a point contact diode that could add some minute amount of rectification that can resort in distortion .

    now us RF guys We NEED high end stuff when working with 8GHz and the like .

    audio is darn near "DC " to me smile.gif "On the whole"

    KG6LSE Peter

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    "Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
    peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
    LOL
  • Harrison.Harrison. Posts: 484
    edited 2010-01-30 05:27
    Dave Jones has a video blog talking about these ridiculous cables: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ERMu825m4.
  • MikerocontrollerMikerocontroller Posts: 310
    edited 2010-01-30 07:46
    He calls them "Audiophools" in the video. I stand by my opinions of tubes vs. transistors but the extreme end of audiophilia intrudes upon the field of electronics and must endure the scrutiny of our people. We on the other hand must stay out of other people's fields where we make fools of ourselves.
  • MikerocontrollerMikerocontroller Posts: 310
    edited 2010-01-30 08:09
    Check out this YouTube video documentary on audiophiles:
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs1aUws0Lrs&NR=1
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2010-01-30 11:19
    Now, if you REALLY want to give the audiofools a kick in the groins, see if you can find an electrical contractor that installs wiring in ordinay homes, and get them to let the fool watch how they pull cables through the tubing...

    There's nothing like inflicting brute force on ignorance...

    And no, it doesn't matter what kind of power cable he uses if there's a switching mode PSU in his equipment.

    Tubes are nice... Very linear amplification, which means very little distortion.
    Unfortunately, they have two small disadvantages; lifespan and impedance.

    It's easy enough to replace the tubes, so it doesn't count as a major setback, but there's that impedance problem.
    In old designs I believe they used a transformer or something on thee final stage, before the speaker, to get around that, but modern designs have solved that.
    I don't believe that an audiofool would be able to tell the difference between a solid state and a tube amp in a proper blind test, though. So they're mostly for aesthetics, really.
    (That, and showing off how much money you're willing to spend on audio equipment)

    I use cheap 'speaker cables' (in that semi-transparent insulation) mostly because people expect to see cable like that(saves a lot of explanation).
    What matters most is the thickness of the cable. Sure, on the short runs from my amp to my main speakers (it's about 1 - 1.5meters) I can use practically anything, but on the rear speakers(awaiting reconnection and have done so since I moved two years ago) the lengths are getting so long that the resistance will actually add up to something, at least if I use the thinnest cables.

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  • CannibalRoboticsCannibalRobotics Posts: 535
    edited 2010-01-30 16:41
    When I designed high end sound systems in nightclubs we spent big money on hospital grade outlets, isolated electrical lines and getting the ground spikes as close to the audio rack and DJ booth as we could. If that's not done correctly, there is noise on the line. That cable is going to do a masterful job of getting the noise in the wall to the equipment.
    What fools!

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  • ercoerco Posts: 20,260
    edited 2010-01-30 17:43
    I've got the latest carnauba-fiber vacuum tube wax for these guys, only $50 per gram. But WAIT! If you order now, I'll double the offer and throw in a Tube Sham-WOW!

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  • MikerocontrollerMikerocontroller Posts: 310
    edited 2010-01-30 18:53
    If it's any consolation remember that these tubes operate at lethal voltage levels.· This could thin the herd.freaked.gif
  • mctriviamctrivia Posts: 3,772
    edited 2010-01-30 19:54
    I have an interesting vantigepoint. I use to DJ dances, I have a diploma in Electronics Engineering Technology, and I am a Commercial Electrician.

    Hospital grade outlets will not help. They only make it impossible to get a spark from the outlet to anything around(makes a difference if you have oxygen tanks around but not audio equipment). For most people if you are worried about this rap the outlet in electrical tape before putting in the wall.

    Isolated ground will improve sound quality if you pipe everything. The reason for this is AM radio stations can be picked up by the ground wire and play out as fantom sound over your speakers. Conduit will act as a fairdays cage blocking the radio signals preventing it from getting to your isolated ground wire.

    Other then that as long as your electrician follows the Canadian Electrical Code(Use 12 AWG instead of 14AWG for 20A circuits) you will not have any problems from the mains.


    The reason high end audio cables are directional is because of the shield. When made properly the shield should be grounded at the side of your amp only. If reversed the shield is useless and as a result you may here phantom AM broadcasts. Unshielded cables obviously do not mater what direction they go and cheap shielded cables are often grounded at both ends which is actually worse then not having a shield.

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  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-01-30 20:06
    mctrivia said...
    Conduit will act as a fairdays cage ...
    A Faraday cage (named after electrical pioneer Michael Faraday) works on rainy days, too! smile.gif

    -Phil
  • mctriviamctrivia Posts: 3,772
    edited 2010-01-30 20:07
    sorry never claimed to excel at spelling

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    24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

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  • Nick McClickNick McClick Posts: 1,003
    edited 2010-02-03 01:28
    Obviously, you missed the $15,000 power cord. I wouldn't dare listen to my 60kbs AAC+ Groove Salad stream on a device that used anything less...

    It makes the power your system depends on arrive quicker.

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  • mctriviamctrivia Posts: 3,772
    edited 2010-02-03 01:33
    how dumb can people be.

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    24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

    If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2010-02-03 01:55
    Nick McClick said...
    Obviously, you missed the $15,000 power cord.

    Wow. I did miss that.

    Rich H

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    The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2010-02-03 07:37
    I had a co-worker who was in to this sort of stuff and when I challenged him on the validity, he looked at me and said..."You're going to tell ME that I can't HEAR the difference??! What do YOU know what I hear??!"

    I exited the conversation rather quickly after that...

    DJ

    BTW - in the early 80's, the hot thing along with Monster Cable was the "audio brick"; a specially made composite that when placed on speaker cabinets was supposed to dampen unwanted resonances. That slighty made *some* sense, but when people began to place the brick on top of their stereo components and claim sonic improvement, I began to think that they had something awry in their cranial nether-regions.

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