WTF!

ICBM

robwright said:

It's not the audio improvement i question, it's the seemingly overinflated prices. Can it really cost £500 to manufacture an IEC lead that you then go onto sell for £1500? 

It's the audio improvement I question - or more accurately, flat-out deny is anything other than self-delusional wishful thinking.

There is *no* physical mechanism for the "quality" of a mains cable being able to affect the sound in any way, assuming that it is not of wholly inadequate gauge so that the voltage reaching the equipment is measurably lower. No such power cable that would pass electrical safety regulations exists.

And even if it was possible then as I implied earlier, why does the many more metres of plain cheap solid-core copper wiring in the walls of your house, and the hundreds of metres of cable back the substation transformer (the first point which can be considered the 'source' of the electricity) not negate any improvement in the last less than one percent of the length? It would be like stacking up a hundred dirty panes of glass and cleaning the last one, then claiming that you can see through them much better.

Signal interconnects can definitely affect the sound, because they have quite significant capacitance in the range that can alter the frequency response. Speaker cables can possibly affect the sound because they can have resistance which is just enough to affect the damping factor of the speakers, if they're not of sufficient gauge. But power cables can't. If you can demonstrate otherwise in any kind of properly-conducted measurement or blind listening test, feel free to do so and I'll say I'm wrong.

Same as it ever was and ever will be...

exocet

I love the descriptions (or rather the lack of) for the "burn in process."

beed84

Rocker said:

robwright said:

http://www.russandrews.com/the-superkord500-sdii-uk-mains-w350i-ag-hc/

Sigh! When you have nothing to say, slag off audiophiles. If you had simply tried one in your hi-fi system, you do have a hi-fi system?, and found that everything that RA wrote about it is bollox, your opinion would have some credibility. Without trying it out yourself, your opinion is mere conjecture [whatever the "experts" say]

To be fair, I don’t think it’s us who are making things up... 

Legionreturns

beed84 said:

Rocker said:

robwright said:

http://www.russandrews.com/the-superkord500-sdii-uk-mains-w350i-ag-hc/

Sigh! When you have nothing to say, slag off audiophiles. If you had simply tried one in your hi-fi system, you do have a hi-fi system?, and found that everything that RA wrote about it is bollox, your opinion would have some credibility. Without trying it out yourself, your opinion is mere conjecture [whatever the "experts" say]

To be fair, I don’t think it’s us who are making things up... 

Indeed. I rather think the onus is on the ones charging a grand and a half for a plug, to prove that it's worth the money. 

Alternatively...

Anyone wanna buy some pants from me? Still made of cotton but it's been pre pouched and undergone a number of secret processes that will make your love tackle instantly better. 

Only £500 a pair.

For an extra £25 I'll put some skid marks in them to save you the bother.

chillidoggy

What a load of old shite.

You'd be better off spending the same amount on upgrading your CD player, amp, or speakers.

shrinkwrap

Can't the trade descriptions act get the voodoo digital cables dumped?
No different from homoeopathy.

Funkfingers

To me, the acronym KORD suggests a small rotary offset German printing press design of the early twentieth century.   http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heidelberg-Kord-64-Printing-Press-/152685163021?hash=item238cbeb20d:g:XUgAAOSwXq5Zp~sO

RaymondLin

Welcome to 2000, Russ Andrews has been around for yearssssssssssssssssssssss, there are enough people who fall for it to keep him in business so I'm not sure if he does do something special that I'm missing out or are people generally just stupid.

JamesAshworth

As I don't know anything about electronics I'm not going to ask about the power or speaker cables as I wouldn't understand the explanation, but why would that USB cable be so expensive? Surely the data either gets through intact, or it doesn't?  Kind of  like when you listen to DAB in the car and when the signal goes the sound just goes, no distortion or crackle etc. Isn't it the quality of the kit that converts digital to analogue that makes the difference?

chillidoggy

I'm starting to wonder if Russ Andrews isn't really JCon in disguise.

kin

 Tonewood. It's indefinable, it's mojo, if you can't hear the difference then you probably don't even play the guitar and have cloth ears.

 Superkord 500, it's a load of old bollocks init? Fancy paying stupid money for something when something half the price does the same job.

 For all I know, that 13a superfuse could really bring out the hitherto hidden nuances of my Motorhead albums, in fact maybe the only other major improvement could be if Lemmy had used a different fret board wood 

bingefeller

thermionic said:

I bought one of these for my kettle. The tea tastes FANTASTIC.

That's a plug for mugs.  

bingefeller

shrinkwrap said:

Can't the trade descriptions act get the voodoo digital cables dumped?
No different from homoeopathy.

No.......  https://web.archive.org/web/20160405202532/http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2014/1/Russ-Andrews-Accessories-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_228690.aspx#.WcgNAdHTWf0

Three-ColourSunburst

ICBM said:

It's the audio improvement I question - or more accurately, flat-out deny is anything other than self-delusional wishful thinking.

There is *no* physical mechanism for the "quality" of a mains cable being able to affect the sound in any way, assuming that it is not of wholly inadequate gauge so that the voltage reaching the equipment is measurably lower. No such power cable that would pass electrical safety regulations exists.

...Speaker cables can possibly affect the sound because they can have resistance which is just enough to affect the damping factor of the speakers, if they're not of sufficient gauge. But power cables can't. If you can demonstrate otherwise in any kind of properly-conducted measurement or blind listening test, feel free to do so and I'll say I'm wrong.

I don't care what pseudo-science anyone comes up. It is undeniable that power cable make as much difference to the fidelity of sound reproduction as an ash body versus an alder body does in an electric guitar. In fact, as much as 80% of what you hear coming out of the speakers is down to what power cable you use. Anyone who says otherwise probably hasn't got the finely-tuned ears of a true audiophile.

Three-ColourSunburst

shrinkwrap said:

Can't the trade descriptions act get the voodoo digital cables dumped?
No different from homoeopathy.

Or 'mojo'.

BloodEagle

christ life can be a drag sometimes

JezWynd

exocet said:

I love the descriptions (or rather the lack of) for the "burn in process."

It's highly technical.

ICBM

JamesAshworth said:

As I don't know anything about electronics I'm not going to ask about the power or speaker cables as I wouldn't understand the explanation, but why would that USB cable be so expensive? Surely the data either gets through intact, or it doesn't?  Kind of  like when you listen to DAB in the car and when the signal goes the sound just goes, no distortion or crackle etc. Isn't it the quality of the kit that converts digital to analogue that makes the difference?

Yes.

Three-ColourSunburst said:

I don't care what pseudo-science anyone comes up. It is undeniable that power cable make as much difference to the fidelity of sound reproduction as an ash body versus an alder body does in an electric guitar. In fact, as much as 80% of what you hear coming out of the speakers is down to what power cable you use. Anyone who says otherwise probably hasn't got the finely-tuned ears of a true audiophile.

At the risk of being dragged into your pointless nonsense again, there is a very simple difference.

The difference between an ash body and an alder body can be very clearly demonstrated by measurement and has been done in that 'Stormriders' research, regardless of what their written conclusion states. The difference is clearly visible between the blue and pink lines.

The difference between mains cables cannot be measured or recorded in any such way. (According to that link, Russ Andrews did, but they specifically tested outside the audio range in order to do so.) Nor can it be demonstrated in properly-controlled blind testing. Therefore it is not real.

And once again, that's all I'm going to say because I'm quite sure you're just trolling this time .

Sassafras

Here's a glowing review for the slightly more expensive rhodium plug that's persuaded me to sell my motorbike so that I can buy a decent power cable:

http://www.russandrews.com/the-superkord500-sdii-uk-mains-w350-evo-rhodium/#reviews

Three-ColourSunburst

ICBM said:

The difference between an ash body and an alder body can be very clearly demonstrated by measurement and has been done in that 'Stormriders' research, regardless of what their written conclusion states. The difference is clearly visible between the blue and pink lines.

And once again, that's all I'm going to say because I'm quite sure you're just trolling this time.

Odd that you should put such faith in a graph found in a student project, and yet reject the findings of a properly controlled academic study...

To be honest, I saw this thread and thought it was a carefully laid trap, designed to ensnare me with its irony. I now realise that the thread's commitment to things such as science, rationality and blind testing was not meant to be a piss-take!

Sorry, my mistake!