I've got one of these connected to my Mac Mini. I like nice looking cables and I needed a longer one to plug into my UPS. I couldnt find any lower cost ones at the length I needed so I grabbed one of these. I gotta say, while I didnt expect it, the difference is staggering. The picture, the sound... Even my hard drives performance got a bump. My 1TB SSD can now hold over 2TB. Im thinking of getting one for my refrigerator so my leftovers can last longer.
Well, whatever you do, don't use them on vacuum cleaner. Company says the cord is directional so your vacuum would spit out dirt rather than suck it in....
Actually I think given the very low DC resistance, it wouldn't drop as much AC voltage across it as the kettle consumes huge amounts of current so you would be able to get your water to boil a couple of seconds quicker funny enough it is probably the best use case for this cable!
@@Jordonater i know many successful people who can't speak extemporaneously like this. It probably is just one of those things where once you know so much about a topic, it becomes trivial to talk about it at length.
My brother in law was a electrical engineer for Rockwell Collins Aerospace and funny my other brother in law is a electrical engineer for a small private company that engineers GPS systems for farm equipment here in Iowa. I have shown them a few of your video's and even though neither are audiophiles they both agree with your testing methods and equipment to provide adequate information about equipment performance. They said the same thing as you. Even the super sophisticated sensitive equipment they work with doesn't go to the lengths of these audio companies to function properly. If the equipment is engineered properly ya shouldn't need a fancy cable.
"Even the super sophisticated sensitive equipment they work with doesn't go to the lengths of these audio companies to function properly." Wtf sort of English comp is that?
@@johnsmith1474 Its obviously referring to the cables they use with test equipment or cables/wiring used with other precise sensitive equipment.... They are also both senior electrical engineers and see no issue with Amirs practices. I took college comp 1,2 a writing class and speech. I'm not writing a farking paper for an exam, its youtube comments on my phone I don't give a schiit.
Nice. I can say the same for network cables. Datacenters are packed with generic patchcables and wiring. Kilometers. Due to the network protocols which check packet consistency etc. The only exception is fiber. These are of higher quality because the ends are polished better etc. But even then, before it reaches your house the total could exceed 4000 km. I.e. a qobuz Datacenter to your house. I have cheap fiber interlinks and utp cables. No need for fancy stuff
@@johnsmith1474 "wtf sort of english comp is that" I'll ask you the same question. Wtf sort of English comp was that. If the person's point wasn't clear, ask him. Please don't correct grammar for the sake of correcting grammar. No one wants another English teacher
I find these power cables add a 7-9% increase in nobility and enchantment. If cryogenically treated they add an additional 5-8% sense of wonder. After a 150 hour burn in the bloom increases by about 6%
I'd like to see a class action lawsuit against whichever company sells the most $ value of these, force triple damages on gross sales for false claims consumer fraud.
Power cables that improve sound is pure marketing nonsense. You can have current starvation from having a smaller gauge conductor on a power amp, but that’s another story. Using unlisted products in power cable manufacturing is unwise at the least. Back when I made upgrade cables for power amps, I still used only listed products to make them. I used hospital grade connectors as these have better retention and contact over standard rated connectors. Having a more positive contact and higher retention may not make a hang about the audio quality, but it made sure that the connectors were making the most positive contact and therefore not likely to be questionable in quality. Using the hospital grade receptacles also helps in this. Your only as good as what lies hidden behind your walls also. Sub standard wire will not aid your efforts. The size wire determines the current it can safely carry. That’s not opinion, that’s a fact. Special circuits used just for audio equipment electrical requirements are not uncommon in high end systems. These dedicated branch circuits are specifically for audio use. Don’t expect a power cord to provide a miracle cure because it isn’t going to improve your enjoyment, it will yield a lowering to your account. It’s your money! Have fun. I’ll use listed gear and be safe. Stay safe my mates!😊👍🏻😁
You do a great service for the community, the results were as expected. Thanks for your efforts on our behalf even though you reviewed the speakers I have rather poorly at least you gave ways to mitigate their problems.
Folks, just imagine how much money (let's say you had a disposable income and were thinking about buying based on such Stereophile recommendations) you are saving thanks to Amir and his measurements that any Faculty of electrical engineering in the world would be happy to endorse. Watch the Jay Audio channel where he claims the power cords do matter, he truly believes it. That is the power of placebo
The thing is, some of these people manage to be smart enough to create decent essays about why this stuff is supposedly better, but refuse to believe any scientific things including psychological effects .
dude it's an $80 cable... my advice is to stick to your low-end best buy stereo system and the cords that come with it. Any upgrade of cables with your system will NEVER make an effect to your listening ears.🙄
That’s exactly what Paul would tell you. They use top of the line Audioquest cables all round and plan to rig their new Octave Records studio with them as well.
High End Munich is coming up. i wonder how much visit it which are here following the videos. we should make a contest "Most ridiculous product" in Munich 2022. i think after contest we have a top 200 list of useless expensive stuff.
I bought one of these expensive power cables and was pissed when I "listened" to it. It was so effective at removing distortion, that Jimi Hendrix's Stratocaster sounded like an acoustic guitar.
I think they call that airy with black back ground. I might ask Jay if he want's to try one of my gold earthing rods for his turn table as it really brings the sound stage out.
😬 I’ve been a recording engineer for some 40 years, and also do relevant electrical installation with trained staff. An electric conductor and its insulation are plain physics…! Angel dust or magic spells will never change that. The power grid is way too crappy with veeery long cables and a plethora of enormous transformers, creating harmonics. When would a 100 dollar 6” cable be able to change anything in this equation? Has capitalism and Hi-Fi got into a crazy partnership, or are we making too much money even in these troubled days? I thought quackery got illegal after Coca Cola had to change it’s content somewhat. I’m just flabbergasted… it’s a power cable…
Well said. Sadly people put aside all logic and go by their "ears" not realizing that their hearing is dynamic and changes what it hears when you compare cable A vs B. The confuse that with cable B sounding better and go spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on cabling!
Reading the stories in the comments section makes me think that, surely, what companies like Audio Quest are doing is illegal under something like The Trades Description Act here in the UK. I'm sure The USA and other countries have similar legislation on this matter.
I am making two comments today, this one is more serious. I was working on plasma chambers with DC power supplies of around 60kW output. One of the requirements is it minimize arcing and micro arcing. Micro arcing is when you get a short from the cathode in to the plasma. To suppress arcs and micro arcs, the power supply can measure these and will temporary reverse the polarity of its output (which is really impressive if you think about the speed and power these things have to switch). Some plasma power supplies can will give a count of the micro arcs which can be very useful for trouble shooting and development purposes. We had one type of cable that would use a huge bundle of 20 gauge Teflon wires. rather than one big conductor. The reasoning is that when you get an arc, the inertia of the electrons is so big that even reversing the polarity of the power supply is not enough to reverse the electron flow fast enough to suppress the arc. By having parallel wires, the the electrons are divided over more paths and the inertia is also divided by the amount of wires. And indeed the micro arc counter on the plasma power supply can measure the difference. This is the only instance I know, where cables make a difference. It was an eye opener none the less.
What you are describing is not inertia. Electrons move extremely slowly in a conductor even when the current is many amps. They also have minimal mass. But inductance could be what you're describing, since that will tend to maintain a current flow for a period of time when the current source is removed and inductance of a cable is reduced by using cables in parallel (ten cables in parallel gives one tenth of the inductance, for example, and also one tenth of the resistance if that is important).
At this point I don't trust anything with the "Audioquest" brand on it. It all seems to be grossly over-priced and rides a tidal wave of buzz words and exaggerations. Horrible company.
Even if I basically know the outcome even before starting the video now, I could watch your "Reviews" about "Debunking Stuff" all day. Do all the video you want about Cable, Purifier, Power Plants and such. I will watch everyone of them!
The problem with the NRG line of power cables is not the copper or the geometry. It's the connectors. They very purposelessly degrade the performance. It's just brass. It isn't even copper. Connectors are just about everything. It's the beginning and end of the power transfer. What happens in the middle is just trying to keep up what started. If your plug connector sucks, then you degrade what you start with and transfer it to something that degrades it further.
Interesting, I went to the AudioQuest website. They don't mention the NRG connector materials, which I find suspicious. Two other high-end power cords I looked up mention the connector materials: Shunyata Venom V14 $175 (nickel-plated brass/copper/zinc alloy) and Wireworld Stratus 7 $110 (silver-clad copper alloy). Let the buyer beware.
I spent 10 years is test and measurement for the US Navy ( NSA detachment) from small signal analysis from microwave , ground integrity on to telecom and all its foibles. .Then another 6 years in telecom as an analyst. Lots of test equipment lots of measurements, lots of "that fricken blows my mind " moments. There was a reason that wire insulation evolved over time to Teflon . There is a reason that better copper is needed to assure long-term reliability. But forget all that, the thing being missed here is contacts and contact degradation and resistance are lurking. The nemesis of any Submarine or Aircraft etc,. ( or anything else) built over time immemorial. The first question to ask IMHO: What would be the ideal reference in connecting almost anything electronic to a power source .? If that has an answer then it must be considered. (Recalling that The "last two meters" is the war cry. of many audiophiles). But we are forgetting something here: Forgetting that the previous X amount of meters of 16 ga. Romex starts at the distribution panel , goes through a fuse or breaker ( resettable) and then on to 4 or five other outlets ( wired in series) whose contact resistance and integrity are often ignored and often poor. . . So is there an absolute reference? For the sake of argument concerning power distribution..YES. (To back up for just a moment, the role of a power cable needs some basic explanation: Do no harm! Don't be a filter and don't be worse than romex for conductivity, impulse response and high frequency high current demands). So the reference.?Some magic needs to be employed ( maybe more like imagination) . If every component in your system were somehow directly wired to the AC D, panel and soldered directly to the input side of the transformer (in each component) that would be as good as it gets , it would seem. As long as the peak current demand is not exceeded. at the panel.... not likely. So NO contacts no "pinch points " . Just straight wire connected to every component on its own circuit..soldered down. THAT IS A FEFERENCE to me. How do you approach that? You prioritize differently perhaps. You clean every contact ( is use KONTAK for that ) that includes the male and female sides of everything you can think of , starting at each the outlet ( ovevrkill allowed) . The goal; As much as possible make it look like lust another piece of wire After everything is clean with oxidation removed ( remember an oxidized car battery terminal can stop an engine from turning over) . Now protection. There are some products that work well to protect the cleaned area from re-oxidizing ; thin coats always. That is where that battle begins. If you want to be startled at how good your system actually is and expose other weaknesses ; you start here. (For older equipment the power switch definitely comes into play as well). Now you can assess power and speaker cable from a much better vantage point. Oh, and the other 4 or 5 duples oulets in line with you equipment , do the same thing, Take the outlet out, if it is funky, junk it and replace with a hospital grade outlet. Remember to clean the copper ( on the romex) to a bright finish then add some oxidation protection. Okay , NOW you can proceed and things will be lightyears easier to asses upstream. The moto: "ALWAYS START AT THE SOURCE". Okay, just one more thing if you can stand it. When a new outlet or ac plug is installed , let it sit overnight as the cooper ( esp. solid cooper) will deform resulting in a less than ideal connection. Now retighten it again, and you will notice it did need some final tightening.. OVERKILL That's it. Merry Christmas.
I'd like to at least see an ACTUAL LIVE "measurement" done by him. I've watched over a dozen of his videos and NOT 1 live testing, nada..., zippo... none. The irony is; his video are the same type of snake-oil proof that gullible people buy into it. Both are birds of the same feather.
Great video! It reminds me of a quote I read from Nelson Pass. A reviewer was interviewing him at his lab/workshop noted that he used generic power and speaker cables to test his amps and they asked why. He said "I don't want anyone else taking credit for my work." That was a pretty cagey answer but I took that to mean he didn't see any value in fancy cables. And if generic was good enough for The Nelson Pass...
Not a big power cord guy myself, but feel a hundred here or there is a rounding error for a multi-thousand, even tens of thousand dollar system. Not a big deal, and cost less than a car detail job. Comparatively, power cord looms do look good. Aesthetics can not be dismissed entirely. Piano black or veneer finish anyone? I have wondered if shielded power cords do reduce EMI radiation that can supposedly be picked up by other cables and electronics. This, separate from the noise coming through the wire, which is cleaned up by the internal PS anyway. I thought the review to be fair, open minded, clear in his own views, and very well done.
The least surprising find of the century. Thanks for taking the time and personal expense! Contact resistance is generally the most important parameter for cables, moreso than the wires themselves (except for some poor conductor choices like aluminum). Gold plated contacts go a long way. The problem with IEC connectors is that contact resistance will vary a lot because of inconsistent manufacturing, plating choices, alignment variations etc. I can imagine scenarios where someone has a particularly crusty wall receptable and a new cable either helps clean some corrosion off the contacts or creates better contact because of dimensional differences. If you're at an ohm or more in terms of contact resistance, I can imagine that having some impact on peak power for your setup along with safety concerns from the contacts melting. Ironically, it could ever so slightly help with noise because it would form an RC filter haha. ;)
Hi Amir, I will send you a can of my Audiophile Paint to test. The difference in audio quality is night and day. Wider sound stage, greater dynamics and detail. You can tell what the artist had for breakfast. I also have a range of Quantum Magic Beans that counter the distortion caused by the Earth’s magnetic field.
My basic question to any company that does not include measurements at all is how do you control quality in production if you have nothing but a hearing test to go by? Does some grab each cable and listen to it, in both directions mind you, and generate a pass or fail for quality? Keep up the great work Amir.
"Long grain copper minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries that exist within any metal conductor." Yikes! Like the copper "metal conductors" inside my amp that are an extension of the power cord that plugs in at the back? WTF AudioQuest ? Why don't you include snake oil....opps, I mean LGC cables for inside my amp to avoid a bottleneck (of "distortion"). Silly me, this cable is still on the AC side, so now I also need your LGC cables to rewire my house (at least the circuit) and a cable to go back to the power station, because that is how AC circuits work. I hope it doesn't cost me more than $100 million. Considering the insane markup in snake oil cables. I guess I have to bite the bullet and pay the price, because I care about my audio quality. I actually only care about things that gives me better audio quality in the real world. I can't fool myself with the placebo effect. Audiophiles would save a lot of money if they took the time to at least learn the basics of electronics and they could repair and/or modify their gear. They would be immune to snake oil salesmen and put them out of business.
I still dont understand how a change in cable BEFORE the power supply is supposed to chang anything.........as long as the connectors have a low resistance BTW could you do a test on CAT6 as speaker cable twisted or not ?
Have used cat6 as speaker cable for a while only issue is that it was solid core so more brittle than the stranded stuff, which got annoying, other than that it worked great, it doesn't make good usb cable though(at least the unshielded stuff doesn't).
The lack of safety certification is the most absurd part, that is mind-boggling at ANY price point. As you said, it's unlikely to be of real concern, but it does speak to the misplaced priorities of a manufacturer to forgo something so basic. It also likely limits it to private applications only, as I can't imagine any recording studio or live venue even considering running non-certified cabling.
Good point about their priorities. They spend a ton of money on graphics, packaging, etc. to convince buyers of audio myths around cables but won't spend a few dollars getting safety certifications.
Remember years ago one of my buddies was a band member and I used to hang out at the music shop where he worked. There was one guy who would rave about how good his $1000 power cable made his gear sound and he swore by it and waved it around as though it was the Excalibur. Everyone else swore he was batsh*t crazy, and I thought he was just an isolated old crank. People like this can’t really exist in numbers. And then a couple years ago I saw an “Ask Paul” video and was blown away by the fact that this is real. People believe this stuff, and on a large scale. Seeing someone pay $10k for a record player and saying it’s the only way to listen to music is truly something out of the twilight zone for someone like me having come from car audio. I had a reel to reel when I was young, but only so I could dub studio masters that my brother got from a collector. I would have never considered it to be vastly superior to CD even with the nostalgia factor. It’s amazing what can happen when people are not properly educated. When they are deluded to the point that even basic reasoning does not work.
The situation has gotten seriously bad in that people think these myths are the norm. I get cables to test from many who were told by a salesman to buy them and they thought they should. Ditto for what they read online. Hopefully we can turn the tide with solid facts and objective data.
I love Amir's work and have been wanting this kind of public testing since the 1980's, but I also feel the need to be realistic about what we can do here. People have been scamming audiophiles out of their money for many decades and yet there are probably more believers, and thus buyers, of this nonsense today than ever before. Why? Because advertising has money and psychology experts, while you and I do not. The Internet has made information more available than ever, yet what we've learned is that bad information is far more virulent and profitable than good information. Even many reasonable, scientifically-literate people still use magic words to describe audio and claim to hear impossible differences between incredibly transparent audio gear. To some inescapable degree, high-end audio is about feelings, not physics :(. So long as scammers can sell people feelings, they'll make a lot of money doing so, often even pretending to themselves that their lies are true; that their AC power cord really "made more sense of the music." How? Well, by making the Stereophile reviewer "a happy guy." He felt better having a fancy AC cable, so that alone makes it better. It's even possible the reviewer felt happy because he got paid to sit at home and listen to AC cables; a sweet gig if you can't get it. Humans are incredible creatures, but they are not reasonable and never will be; Reason is our last-ditch option used only after zeal and fear are spent. Questioning what someone believes to hear is exactly the same as questioning a religious belief; we're just blasphemers and naysayers interfering with their truly blissful ignorance. You can't defeat highly invested Bliss with a distortion chart. The more ridiculous the Bliss, the more powerful it becomes. With sufficient Bliss, you'll find yourself listening to vinyl LP's on $35,000 worth of audio equipment on a flat Earth that's just over 5,500 years old and realize that Audio Science Review is a CIA operation.
I got one for you. Next time a vinyl enthusiast swears their turntable is magical, ask them if they know about the effects of having large inductance at the end of a long cable. If they know anything, they would say that it is a bad idea cause it makes the cable to have way more significant role in the filter this arrangement creates. Then ask if that is good for interference. Then ask why their 10k turntable does not have a buffer inside its tonearm, as close as possible to the coil that produces the sound signal. That why this piece of marvelous and superior tech does not have an pre-amp and RIAA internally, since that is the place it should be if sound quality is our #1 target. Absolutely no engineer would design turntable the way they were made back in the day, as passive devices. We would place the first buffer as close to the cartridge as possible to get rid of that inductance ASAP. Then we would have pre-amp before we expose cabling to the outside world. There are no ifs and buts, this is the only way to do it properly. And yet.. you can find 100k turntables without active circuitry... A swiss clock that has perfect balance, incredibly smooth bearings and then.. cable coming out of its ass, going to the external pre-amp. Why? Because you can't sell "audiophile quality" turntables with active electronics, that is for some reason forbidden. When it is, and i can't stress this enough: the ONLY way to do it is with active circuitry. The signal is going to be amplified so it is better to amplify it as close to the source to a level where our cabling does not impact anything.
to be fair, a $10k record player likely has a much more dramatic effect on sound over a $100 record player than a $10,000 power cable has on a $5 power cable.
PAUL’S REFERENCE AudioQuest Dragon AC Power Cable 2 meter version costs $10000, "These gems have breathed new life and opened up the soundstage in ways rarely experienced in this world class system. AC power technology is well over a century old and was never designed to meet the exacting standards of today’s high resolution audio-video components. AC noise is at the utility source, and is made worse by the component power supply. This creates distortion and low-level signal losses via the “masking effect.” The AQ Dragons solve this problem by the use of superior conductors, controlling the characteristic impedance, and dissipating ground noise. Connect a Dragon to your high-end audio system today, and get ready to be amazed." and nope this not a joke, 10K for a power cable; currently sold at PS audio
I mean at least they have some relevance with the "masking effect" that's been around the past two years . But you can also just take off your mask and save $10k
Yupp, and a waste of money. Paul is a bit like steve jobs. Excellent salesman. Until you understand what he's trying to sell..... than the illusion becomes very clear
Wonder why their gear needs the help of a cable to sound right. So all of their customers without such a cable are kidding themselves that their system sounds good?
Another great review debunking overpriced garbage claiming to do things that they don't do hopefully you have saved some gullible fool from waisting money on this rubbish,
Really? How did he "debunk" anything? One thing is, this only an 80 dollar cable. Next, now stay with me on this, get away from gullible-land. Where did YOU witness a LIVE testing buy him? Are you sure he actually tested anything, or did he just show you graphs with squiggly lines and you bought into it because it supports your thoughts? I can create a graph and have the next door neighbor's 7 year old draw a squiggly line on it, would you also buy that, too? He selling snake-oil, just like the over-priced product in the audio world. Both are cut from the same cloth... ah the irony.
Ohh! Come on Amir... A $100 AQ power cable. Really? That's not high end enough. I'll send you my Cardas Golden Reference PC (about $500 USD when new) for testing and I can guarantee you that it will measure and sound every bit as good as that $5 generic cord you have there. Fortunately I bought it used for $350 CAD...
I'd never buy used. The electrons would be pretty tired having been jiggled back and forth at 60Hz for all that time. If you must buy used, get one from Europe. With 50Hz mains there will be 16.7% less wear and tear on the electrons. ;)
@@GodmanchesterGoblin I'll keep that in mind for the next time around. You've even accurately calculated the electron wear down to one decimal place... LOL
these cables are actually a great investment. prices went up about 20-40 % over the last few years. so buy them, don't open the package, store them and try to sell them after a while. oh, and hope that not too many see this video...
Thing is cable manufacture is huge messy industrial work. None of these Hi-fi companies make their own cable. I bet 99.9999% of Hi-Fi cable was originally designed for the likes of aviation or the medical industry for CAT scanners etc. All made in China or Eastern Europe. Oh yes and it all costs $0.05 a meter. They just go through a catalogue from the cable manufacturer, select what they like and rebrand it. It's not like Audioquest etc. has a team of metallurgists waiting around to design a new cable and then make it. By all means buy good quality cables in terms of manufacture but $20 should be tops.
Funny you should say that generic power cable can be used as a high-quality signal carrier, Amir - that's exactly what I do. I remember a review of speaker cables in a British hi-fi magazine (I think the review was carried out by Barry Fox) about 40 years ago, which included mains cable as a wildcard: it came second overall. So that's what I use it for!
Tweaker/reviewer Jimmy Hughes writing in HIFI answers "kicked off the whole solid core industry" when he suggested UK 15A twin & earth for speaker cable as far as I can remember.
AudioQuest is the biggest purveyor of snake oil products in the industry. Followed closely by Synergistic Research. I love to read their marketing claims on their products. It just makes me laugh. I don’t know how these companies stay in business selling that nonsense.
Amir mentioned something I've thought about every time this subject comes up. My version has been "how can the last few feet of cable delivering power make much of a difference when the first several hundred feet is whatever was installed in the walls".
And with this video I subscribe! I was eyeing this cable for long wondering how a 2m power cable would change my speakers to sing differently .. from $100 to $10000 speakers!
The basis of UL, CE, CSA is fire prevention. Your insurance company has a valid reason to deny a loss clime due to fire if it started in a non listed product.
Not just fire prevention. CE covers safety in terms of shock hazards (insulation, pull tests, plug and socket dimensions), chemical hazards (from plating, solder, plastics, etc), and also electromagnetic compatibility. The lack of CE marking would prevent the cable from being legally sold in Europe.
So in the USA, if a cable is sold without UL, its not illegal but optional? Now, can a home owner, if say a fire started due to a non UL listed cable sue the maker of the cable?
@@alcamacho1844 UL is not a legal standard. It is a optional standard. Being the most common standard you will find it required in the local building codes. Many cities have their own standards which may be more stringent than UL. LA city building codes are an example that in some cases exceeds UL. As for your insurance company their job seems to be to to find reasons not to pay out climes. The bottom line is here we have a $1000 chunk of 16/3 cable with some molded plugs on each end. You would think that they could afford too have the cable listed.
Late to this thread, but I'm pretty content with the performance/main components of my modest HiFi system so naturally my mind has been drifting toward potential 'enhancements' to get the most out of it 🙂. Late one night, after a great listening session and some web surfing I ordered a knock-off Nordost ODIN Gold power cord from aliexpress for like 50-60.00USD. It came pretty fast and was surprisingly well made, but of course made no audible difference that I could discern with my Lyngdorf 1120. I'll admit, I'm still slightly curious about isolators for speakers and components and would love to see Amir do similar testing on some of these, but my gut is telling me that they are probably of similar snake-oil/placebo grade with regards to audible improvements.
You know what, after listening to your video on that, as a " beginner level " audio man , this confirms what i've been thinking for years and i never understood why demos and audiophiles would spend a few hundred on AC power cables .. I mean this is straight connected to the power outlet, so makes one with all the " spaghettis " that are in the walls and usually gets cut/filtered etc when it gets inside most audio equipment. By simple logic, one would think that the line interconnect cables could matter, because of low voltage/power , but AC cables ? Neway another great simple to understand yet instructive video ! Bravo !
You're the man! The NRG-X3 does not look pretty, so it's not for me. Translucent silicon rainbow colour cable with metallic glitter would be nice......
All of this power cord crap started when the original manufacturers tried to save a few bucks by offering different cables/plugs for different markets. Cheaper than manufacturing different models with hard wired cables just throw in a different cable. Now companies are making gear that works in all markets to ;limit the number of sku's.
You buy after-market replacement power cables for their craftsmanship, the quality of their materials and their ability to hold up and last over time. You don't buy them because they improve the quality of the audio in your system at all - because they clearly won't. As long as you don't foolishly spend (waste) thousands of dollars on them, there's nothing wrong with owning them. Just be honest with yourself about why you are actually buying them - and what they will do (and more importantly WON'T do) for you.
I bought Audio Comet speaker cable which were £3000 dollars 10 yrs ago beautiful.. But mine were £114 replicas from Ali Express 1yr ago..Beautiful build I love being ripped off like this... Stick to ur door bell wire friends or ur Beldens..
Now it's audiophile WALL OUTLETS!!! Try to explain to these people it's nonsense and placebo and they get violent, like you just insulted their mother or something, jaw dropping stupidity.
I SEE YOU ARE A BIG GOV GUY AND YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYTHING UNLESS THE PEOPLE THAT WORK IN GOV WAVE THEIR HANDS OVER IT BTW GOV PEOPLE ARE THE LAST PEOPLE YOU WANT TO ENTRUST YOUR SAFTY TO . I THINK I BIG LAWSUIT IS ENOUGH TO KEEP YOU SAFE.
Being a retired electrician, and electronics hobbiest since I took it in High School, I was amazed at the people that believed a six foot wire with NO audio signal that gets what's at the wall to the back of the gear would make ANY difference much less all the wild claims made. Even people with no electrical knowledge should be able to grasp it's snake oil. As long as the cord is adequate size and undamaged your good. Use ohm's law and figure the size wire needed even for a 1000w tube amp, then tell me you need #10 wire for a CD player! Too funny, plus most of these cords put undue stress on the connectors, which eventually could lead to connection issues you wouldn't have had with the stock cord. You should test a multi thousand dollar cord so people can see..........NO DIFFERENCE.
I enjoyed this one immensely. I think Amir was being extremely fair and rigorous. I don't fall into the measurements are the most important thing camp but in the case of mains cables I am with him 100%. I buy relatively cheap aftermarket cables( less than £50 ) because they have better IEC plugs, look good and handle better. I recently bought a Kinki Studio EX-M1 amp ( great amp imho ) and was amused to note it did not come with what they call an El Cheapo power cable as they know Audiophiles are going to want to provide their own "better" cable A great way to save a couple of bucks while flattering their customer (you are too much of an expert to want to use a generic cable) and flatter their own product ( it's so good it deserves a posh cable ). Clever marketing.
I just love the logic - why worry about the metre or so of the unit cable when there's yards of it outside & inside your house you have no control over?!! Incidentally I wonder why I have never suffered a ground loop problem with any of my equipment in the UK or Portugal? Is it something to do with the relation of cycles & voltage compared to 120v/240/230 perhaps or am I just lucky? Thanks again for your reviews Amirm. Looking forward to an objective & technical review of the Wiim Mini streamer... 👍
" Discovered " 😃... your excellent channel Review about the PS Audio P12 Powerplant ...a 6000 dollar useless piece of audio gear..now these Audio Quest expensive power cables...and review CX81 Cambridge Audio amplifier...Very good and useful tests... thanks...being also a Ham Radio Guy with rather big output Transmitters ....there is a lot of CRAP audio TV Gear in the world !! .prone to interference..😫
It's a power cord. It carries current from the mains to the unit being powered. If it does so without losing too much voltage, catching fire (these are related) or short-circuiting (see FIRE), that's all it needs to do. A 10A IEC power cord (which this is) costs $5. Anything more spent is wasted.
"Stereophile review" with NO measurements section--tells you EVERYTHING you need to know. Reminds me of a character called the Artful Dodger. AC 'cable' makes the guy feel good. Whatever. Thanks again Amir. Wonderful service to the public.
Hello Amir. Thank you for your website, articles, and these videos. I understand why some manufacturers and maybe some audio enthusiasts don't like what you do, but I do not understand why anyone in the consumer community or Reviewers who claim to be objective / science-based would be prompted to criticize you. You are providing truth in audio and you are completely unsponsored. You are providing a great service to me and the audio enthusiast/consumer community. Please keep up the good work!
For a million dollars you can change the utility pole in the street with a pole made of exotic rosewood, a gold-plated transformer and pure silver wire connecting the AC to your house. Music reproduction by then should be so fantastic you won't even need loudspeakers to hear it. Next phase : Invest in a power plant. I'm told audiophiles favour nuclear, as the noise signature is truly random and de-correlated.
Funny you should say... solar panels are actually quite noisy, enough that you just might like to do something extra to get rid of the inverter whine... About the only case when you might have to install some sort of power conditioner is when you generate your own power.
You are joking but I am starting to hear more and more audiophiles getting all cabling replaced to the transformer and such, spending tens of thousands of dollars on the upgrade!
It's sad that it even needs to be measured. What happened to common sense...? Anyone with a bit of common sense can smell the snake oil stench from miles away.
![GR Research B24 AC Cable Review Follow up [Entertainment]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_7HbjdQRaAM/mqdefault.jpg)
![GR Research B24 AC Cable Review Follow up [Entertainment]](/img/tr.png)
I've got one of these connected to my Mac Mini. I like nice looking cables and I needed a longer one to plug into my UPS. I couldnt find any lower cost ones at the length I needed so I grabbed one of these. I gotta say, while I didnt expect it, the difference is staggering. The picture, the sound... Even my hard drives performance got a bump. My 1TB SSD can now hold over 2TB. Im thinking of getting one for my refrigerator so my leftovers can last longer.
🤣
Well, whatever you do, don't use them on vacuum cleaner. Company says the cord is directional so your vacuum would spit out dirt rather than suck it in....
@@AudioScienceReview HA. That's some quality AV based humor right there!
@@AudioScienceReview Good one!!!
If the refrigerator thing works out, let me know, huh? Groceries are getting expensive!
Such a bargain, I'll get one for my electric kettle to dissipate the noise.
It will probably get you better kettle whistle tonality on the boil. A theme is emerging with AQ products.
@@ericr385 my tea never tasted better !
Actually I think given the very low DC resistance, it wouldn't drop as much AC voltage across it as the kettle consumes huge amounts of current so you would be able to get your water to boil a couple of seconds quicker funny enough it is probably the best use case for this cable!
I would buy it if came in a cool color and on the used market for a good discount. Mostly for looks and theater
What a natural presenter Amir is. He just presses record and churns out content that is entertaining and easy to follow. Not a common skill.
=
yeap 100% agree on that. very pleasing
I guess you would gain that ability when you have worked for Microsoft AND Sony.
@@Jordonater Age and experience also helps. I was quite shy before i had a business and served thousands of customers.
@@Jordonater i know many successful people who can't speak extemporaneously like this. It probably is just one of those things where once you know so much about a topic, it becomes trivial to talk about it at length.
The Stereophile reviewer, Stephen Mejias, now works for Audioquest. Make of that what you will.
This reminds me of big pharma executives becoming FDA executives and vice versa, a revolving door syndrome as it is called.
My brother in law was a electrical engineer for Rockwell Collins Aerospace and funny my other brother in law is a electrical engineer for a small private company that engineers GPS systems for farm equipment here in Iowa. I have shown them a few of your video's and even though neither are audiophiles they both agree with your testing methods and equipment to provide adequate information about equipment performance. They said the same thing as you. Even the super sophisticated sensitive equipment they work with doesn't go to the lengths of these audio companies to function properly. If the equipment is engineered properly ya shouldn't need a fancy cable.
Thanks. That is very reassuring to hear.
"Even the super sophisticated sensitive equipment they work with doesn't go to the lengths of these audio companies to function properly." Wtf sort of English comp is that?
@@johnsmith1474 Its obviously referring to the cables they use with test equipment or cables/wiring used with other precise sensitive equipment.... They are also both senior electrical engineers and see no issue with Amirs practices. I took college comp 1,2 a writing class and speech. I'm not writing a farking paper for an exam, its youtube comments on my phone I don't give a schiit.
Nice. I can say the same for network cables. Datacenters are packed with generic patchcables and wiring. Kilometers. Due to the network protocols which check packet consistency etc.
The only exception is fiber. These are of higher quality because the ends are polished better etc. But even then, before it reaches your house the total could exceed 4000 km. I.e. a qobuz Datacenter to your house.
I have cheap fiber interlinks and utp cables. No need for fancy stuff
@@johnsmith1474 "wtf sort of english comp is that"
I'll ask you the same question. Wtf sort of English comp was that.
If the person's point wasn't clear, ask him. Please don't correct grammar for the sake of correcting grammar. No one wants another English teacher
The cable has magical properties when connected to PS Audio components! 😉
Improved wallet draining - level 6
@@CyberBeep_kenshi Add a power plant for the full experience. LOL.
@@mark-anthonyhutchings8915 have you tried shoving 12 gas turbines in your livingroom? 😉🤣
I find these power cables add a 7-9% increase in nobility and enchantment. If cryogenically treated they add an additional 5-8% sense of wonder. After a 150 hour burn in the bloom increases by about 6%
😂😂😂
What if you raise them off of the ground, how much will that add😂
@@a0r0a7 You'll need Teflon cable trestles. Maybe a couple Shun Mook disks. And be sure they run East-West. Never North-South.
Sounds promising...
Just wait until you experience the wireless speaker cables...
🤣
The most important part is when and how you install the cable: this should be done during a blood moon while just havin bathed in goats blood.
OMG another cable video! - Having a hard time distinguishing this channel from a comedy channel, lol... Good job Amir!
I'd like to see a class action lawsuit against whichever company sells the most $ value of these, force triple damages on gross sales for false claims consumer fraud.
Power cables that improve sound is pure marketing nonsense. You can have current starvation from having a smaller gauge conductor on a power amp, but that’s another story. Using unlisted products in power cable manufacturing is unwise at the least. Back when I made upgrade cables for power amps, I still used only listed products to make them. I used hospital grade connectors as these have better retention and contact over standard rated connectors. Having a more positive contact and higher retention may not make a hang about the audio quality, but it made sure that the connectors were making the most positive contact and therefore not likely to be questionable in quality. Using the hospital grade receptacles also helps in this. Your only as good as what lies hidden behind your walls also. Sub standard wire will not aid your efforts. The size wire determines the current it can safely carry. That’s not opinion, that’s a fact. Special circuits used just for audio equipment electrical requirements are not uncommon in high end systems. These dedicated branch circuits are specifically for audio use. Don’t expect a power cord to provide a miracle cure because it isn’t going to improve your enjoyment, it will yield a lowering to your account. It’s your money! Have fun. I’ll use listed gear and be safe. Stay safe my mates!😊👍🏻😁
You do a great service for the community, the results were as expected. Thanks for your efforts on our behalf even though you reviewed the speakers I have rather poorly at least you gave ways to mitigate their problems.
Folks, just imagine how much money (let's say you had a disposable income and were thinking about buying based on such Stereophile recommendations) you are saving thanks to Amir and his measurements that any Faculty of electrical engineering in the world would be happy to endorse. Watch the Jay Audio channel where he claims the power cords do matter, he truly believes it. That is the power of placebo
Jay is just another talking head "audio reviewer" clown
The thing is, some of these people manage to be smart enough to create decent essays about why this stuff is supposedly better, but refuse to believe any scientific things including psychological effects .
dude it's an $80 cable... my advice is to stick to your low-end best buy stereo system and the cords that come with it. Any upgrade of cables with your system will NEVER make an effect to your listening ears.🙄
@@BumpNrun69 who the fuck are you talking to? Cables make no difference. Wake up
I'm glad that you do these tests. Even though we all could guess the result, we should never assume things- this is why we test and verify.
Sorry that I scrubbed to the end for the conclusion… exactly what I expected, ZERO difference.
let's see Paul response.. will he maintain the "torn on the side of the COMMUNITY" narrative??? bets are on.. thank you, Amir
Is he missing? Perhaps one of his magic boxes shorted out and he fell off his soundstage.
The real magic happens when you connect one of these to the PS Audio P12.
I actually tested the P12 with my Pangea cable to satisfy those that really think that!
That’s exactly what Paul would tell you. They use top of the line Audioquest cables all round and plan to rig their new Octave Records studio with them as well.
@@UfukDirim -- For me, McGowan's climbing into bed with Audioquest was the last nail in the coffin of his credibility.
High End Munich is coming up. i wonder how much visit it which are here following the videos. we should make a contest "Most ridiculous product" in Munich 2022. i think after contest we have a top 200 list of useless expensive stuff.
Many thanks for ASR for this interesting and eye opening review. Easy to follow and understand. Cheers and have a grea day.
AudioQuest is completely garbage 🗑
I bought one of these expensive power cables and was pissed when I "listened" to it. It was so effective at removing distortion, that Jimi Hendrix's Stratocaster sounded like an acoustic guitar.
I think they call that airy with black back ground. I might ask Jay if he want's to try one of my gold earthing rods for his turn table as it really brings the sound stage out.
Haven't even watched the whole video yet, and already got a good chuckle out of it. Thanks for all your time and effort ASR.
No need to comment much when I see an Audioquest product. You can bet it's money you wasted.
You forgot one thing. This cable is exceptionally in transferring money from one pocket to another.
as with anything in this life... go figure.
😬 I’ve been a recording engineer for some 40 years, and also do relevant electrical installation with trained staff. An electric conductor and its insulation are plain physics…! Angel dust or magic spells will never change that. The power grid is way too crappy with veeery long cables and a plethora of enormous transformers, creating harmonics. When would a 100 dollar 6” cable be able to change anything in this equation? Has capitalism and Hi-Fi got into a crazy partnership, or are we making too much money even in these troubled days? I thought quackery got illegal after Coca Cola had to change it’s content somewhat. I’m just flabbergasted… it’s a power cable…
Well said. Sadly people put aside all logic and go by their "ears" not realizing that their hearing is dynamic and changes what it hears when you compare cable A vs B. The confuse that with cable B sounding better and go spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on cabling!
Reading the stories in the comments section makes me think that, surely, what companies like Audio Quest are doing is illegal under something like The Trades Description Act here in the UK.
I'm sure The USA and other countries have similar legislation on this matter.
I am making two comments today, this one is more serious. I was working on plasma chambers with DC power supplies of around 60kW output. One of the requirements is it minimize arcing and micro arcing. Micro arcing is when you get a short from the cathode in to the plasma. To suppress arcs and micro arcs, the power supply can measure these and will temporary reverse the polarity of its output (which is really impressive if you think about the speed and power these things have to switch). Some plasma power supplies can will give a count of the micro arcs which can be very useful for trouble shooting and development purposes. We had one type of cable that would use a huge bundle of 20 gauge Teflon wires. rather than one big conductor. The reasoning is that when you get an arc, the inertia of the electrons is so big that even reversing the polarity of the power supply is not enough to reverse the electron flow fast enough to suppress the arc. By having parallel wires, the the electrons are divided over more paths and the inertia is also divided by the amount of wires. And indeed the micro arc counter on the plasma power supply can measure the difference. This is the only instance I know, where cables make a difference. It was an eye opener none the less.
What you are describing is not inertia. Electrons move extremely slowly in a conductor even when the current is many amps. They also have minimal mass. But inductance could be what you're describing, since that will tend to maintain a current flow for a period of time when the current source is removed and inductance of a cable is reduced by using cables in parallel (ten cables in parallel gives one tenth of the inductance, for example, and also one tenth of the resistance if that is important).
At this point I don't trust anything with the "Audioquest" brand on it. It all seems to be grossly over-priced and rides a tidal wave of buzz words and exaggerations. Horrible company.
Power cable review… bring on the crazies. 🍿
Amir liking this means he is biased. Nice one!
@@gioponti6359 We’re all biased. That’s why we do the measurements.
@@timealchemist7508 what measurements do you chose to do when you’re convinced the damn cable doesn’t make a difference?
I use fancy power cables. They look great and not expensive. It’s mostly for show and theater
Even if I basically know the outcome even before starting the video now, I could watch your "Reviews" about "Debunking Stuff" all day.
Do all the video you want about Cable, Purifier, Power Plants and such. I will watch everyone of them!
Oh, that is very kind of you.
The problem with the NRG line of power cables is not the copper or the geometry. It's the connectors. They very purposelessly degrade the performance. It's just brass. It isn't even copper. Connectors are just about everything. It's the beginning and end of the power transfer. What happens in the middle is just trying to keep up what started. If your plug connector sucks, then you degrade what you start with and transfer it to something that degrades it further.
Interesting, I went to the AudioQuest website. They don't mention the NRG connector materials, which I find suspicious. Two other high-end power cords I looked up mention the connector materials: Shunyata Venom V14 $175 (nickel-plated brass/copper/zinc alloy) and Wireworld Stratus 7 $110 (silver-clad copper alloy). Let the buyer beware.
I spent 10 years is test and measurement for the US Navy ( NSA detachment) from small signal analysis from microwave , ground integrity on to telecom and all its foibles. .Then another 6 years in telecom as an analyst. Lots of test equipment lots of measurements, lots of "that fricken blows my mind " moments. There was a reason that wire insulation evolved over time to Teflon . There is a reason that better copper is needed to assure long-term reliability. But forget all that, the thing being missed here is contacts and contact degradation and resistance are lurking. The nemesis of any Submarine or Aircraft etc,. ( or anything else) built over time immemorial.
The first question to ask IMHO: What would be the ideal reference in connecting almost anything electronic to a power source .? If that has an answer then it must be considered. (Recalling that The "last two meters" is the war cry. of many audiophiles). But we are forgetting something here: Forgetting that the previous X amount of meters of 16 ga. Romex starts at the distribution panel , goes through a fuse or breaker ( resettable) and then on to 4 or five other outlets ( wired in series) whose contact resistance and integrity are often ignored and often poor. . . So is there an absolute reference? For the sake of argument concerning power distribution..YES. (To back up for just a moment, the role of a power cable needs some basic explanation: Do no harm! Don't be a filter and don't be worse than romex for conductivity, impulse response and high frequency high current demands).
So the reference.?Some magic needs to be employed ( maybe more like imagination) . If every component in your system were somehow directly wired to the AC D, panel and soldered directly to the input side of the transformer (in each component) that would be as good as it gets , it would seem. As long as the peak current demand is not exceeded. at the panel.... not likely. So NO contacts no "pinch points " . Just straight wire connected to every component on its own circuit..soldered down. THAT IS A FEFERENCE to me.
How do you approach that? You prioritize differently perhaps. You clean every contact ( is use KONTAK for that ) that includes the male and female sides of everything you can think of , starting at each the outlet ( ovevrkill allowed) . The goal; As much as possible make it look like lust another piece of wire After everything is clean with oxidation removed ( remember an oxidized car battery terminal can stop an engine from turning over) . Now protection. There are some products that work well to protect the cleaned area from re-oxidizing ; thin coats always. That is where that battle begins. If you want to be startled at how good your system actually is and expose other weaknesses ; you start here. (For older equipment the power switch definitely comes into play as well). Now you can assess power and speaker cable from a much better vantage point. Oh, and the other 4 or 5 duples oulets in line with you equipment , do the same thing, Take the outlet out, if it is funky, junk it and replace with a hospital grade outlet. Remember to clean the copper ( on the romex) to a bright finish then add some oxidation protection. Okay , NOW you can proceed and things will be lightyears easier to asses upstream. The moto: "ALWAYS START AT THE SOURCE".
Okay, just one more thing if you can stand it. When a new outlet or ac plug is installed , let it sit overnight as the cooper ( esp. solid cooper) will deform resulting in a less than ideal connection. Now retighten it again, and you will notice it did need some final tightening.. OVERKILL That's it. Merry Christmas.
Perhaps if you upgraded the power cable on your analyser it would be able to measure more accurately,
Hahahaha
I'd like to at least see an ACTUAL LIVE "measurement" done by him. I've watched over a dozen of his videos and NOT 1 live testing, nada..., zippo... none. The irony is; his video are the same type of snake-oil proof that gullible people buy into it. Both are birds of the same feather.
Great video! It reminds me of a quote I read from Nelson Pass. A reviewer was interviewing him at his lab/workshop noted that he used generic power and speaker cables to test his amps and they asked why. He said "I don't want anyone else taking credit for my work." That was a pretty cagey answer but I took that to mean he didn't see any value in fancy cables. And if generic was good enough for The Nelson Pass...
Make up your own cable and it will be fine if you follow good procedure and approved wire, connectors and good technique.
Not a big power cord guy myself, but feel a hundred here or there is a rounding error for a multi-thousand, even tens of thousand dollar system. Not a big deal, and cost less than a car detail job. Comparatively, power cord looms do look good. Aesthetics can not be dismissed entirely. Piano black or veneer finish anyone?
I have wondered if shielded power cords do reduce EMI radiation that can supposedly be picked up by other cables and electronics. This, separate from the noise coming through the wire, which is cleaned up by the internal PS anyway.
I thought the review to be fair, open minded, clear in his own views, and very well done.
The least surprising find of the century. Thanks for taking the time and personal expense! Contact resistance is generally the most important parameter for cables, moreso than the wires themselves (except for some poor conductor choices like aluminum). Gold plated contacts go a long way. The problem with IEC connectors is that contact resistance will vary a lot because of inconsistent manufacturing, plating choices, alignment variations etc. I can imagine scenarios where someone has a particularly crusty wall receptable and a new cable either helps clean some corrosion off the contacts or creates better contact because of dimensional differences. If you're at an ohm or more in terms of contact resistance, I can imagine that having some impact on peak power for your setup along with safety concerns from the contacts melting. Ironically, it could ever so slightly help with noise because it would form an RC filter haha. ;)
Great effort here to describe sound quality with measurements. Many - Many people have tried this and failed for Many years now.
Hi Amir, I will send you a can of my Audiophile Paint to test. The difference in audio quality is night and day. Wider sound stage, greater dynamics and detail. You can tell what the artist had for breakfast. I also have a range of Quantum Magic Beans that counter the distortion caused by the Earth’s magnetic field.
I thought the Quantum magic beans would give you trouser shaking bass ;-)
@@RennieAsh The Trouser Trembling effect can be minimised by careful use of Telos Quantum X2 Stickers. Look them up, they are a real product.
@@geoff37s38 Wow. I'd love to know the science behind these (if there is any!)
Give more pain to snake oil salesmen who have destroyed our hobby.
This might sound like a silly question, but exactly what limitations would a so-called high quality mains cable be expected to overcome?
My basic question to any company that does not include measurements at all is how do you control quality in production if you have nothing but a hearing test to go by? Does some grab each cable and listen to it, in both directions mind you, and generate a pass or fail for quality?
Keep up the great work Amir.
Yeh, a critical question to ask....
Great question
A lot of audio usb cable does not have certification. I was very surpised. Got a Swedish Supra branded cable that is certified.
Yeh, USB like HDMI is screwed up in the way they didn't mandate certification from day one.
Oh hey a brand that ps audio sells...
Who says cable TV is dead? This is a great cable TV channel!
"Long grain copper minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries that exist within any metal conductor." Yikes! Like the copper "metal conductors" inside my amp that are an extension of the power cord that plugs in at the back? WTF AudioQuest ? Why don't you include snake oil....opps, I mean LGC cables for inside my amp to avoid a bottleneck (of "distortion"). Silly me, this cable is still on the AC side, so now I also need your LGC cables to rewire my house (at least the circuit) and a cable to go back to the power station, because that is how AC circuits work. I hope it doesn't cost me more than $100 million. Considering the insane markup in snake oil cables. I guess I have to bite the bullet and pay the price, because I care about my audio quality.
I actually only care about things that gives me better audio quality in the real world. I can't fool myself with the placebo effect.
Audiophiles would save a lot of money if they took the time to at least learn the basics of electronics and they could repair and/or modify their gear. They would be immune to snake oil salesmen and put them out of business.
How do they know ?
@@r423sdex How do they know what?
I still dont understand how a change in cable BEFORE the power supply is supposed to chang anything.........as long as the connectors have a low resistance
BTW could you do a test on CAT6 as speaker cable twisted or not ?
Yeh, I can do that. I have seen people use them as speaker cable.
@@AudioScienceReview Nice of you !!!
Have used cat6 as speaker cable for a while only issue is that it was solid core so more brittle than the stranded stuff, which got annoying, other than that it worked great, it doesn't make good usb cable though(at least the unshielded stuff doesn't).
I think Audiholics tested this years ago
AudioQuest, purveyors of the finest snake oil products.
Thank you for the review and your time spent, measuring lofty claims.
The lack of safety certification is the most absurd part, that is mind-boggling at ANY price point. As you said, it's unlikely to be of real concern, but it does speak to the misplaced priorities of a manufacturer to forgo something so basic. It also likely limits it to private applications only, as I can't imagine any recording studio or live venue even considering running non-certified cabling.
Good point about their priorities. They spend a ton of money on graphics, packaging, etc. to convince buyers of audio myths around cables but won't spend a few dollars getting safety certifications.
Remember years ago one of my buddies was a band member and I used to hang out at the music shop where he worked. There was one guy who would rave about how good his $1000 power cable made his gear sound and he swore by it and waved it around as though it was the Excalibur. Everyone else swore he was batsh*t crazy, and I thought he was just an isolated old crank. People like this can’t really exist in numbers. And then a couple years ago I saw an “Ask Paul” video and was blown away by the fact that this is real. People believe this stuff, and on a large scale. Seeing someone pay $10k for a record player and saying it’s the only way to listen to music is truly something out of the twilight zone for someone like me having come from car audio. I had a reel to reel when I was young, but only so I could dub studio masters that my brother got from a collector. I would have never considered it to be vastly superior to CD even with the nostalgia factor. It’s amazing what can happen when people are not properly educated. When they are deluded to the point that even basic reasoning does not work.
The situation has gotten seriously bad in that people think these myths are the norm. I get cables to test from many who were told by a salesman to buy them and they thought they should. Ditto for what they read online. Hopefully we can turn the tide with solid facts and objective data.
I love Amir's work and have been wanting this kind of public testing since the 1980's, but I also feel the need to be realistic about what we can do here. People have been scamming audiophiles out of their money for many decades and yet there are probably more believers, and thus buyers, of this nonsense today than ever before.
Why? Because advertising has money and psychology experts, while you and I do not. The Internet has made information more available than ever, yet what we've learned is that bad information is far more virulent and profitable than good information.
Even many reasonable, scientifically-literate people still use magic words to describe audio and claim to hear impossible differences between incredibly transparent audio gear. To some inescapable degree, high-end audio is about feelings, not physics :(. So long as scammers can sell people feelings, they'll make a lot of money doing so, often even pretending to themselves that their lies are true; that their AC power cord really "made more sense of the music."
How? Well, by making the Stereophile reviewer "a happy guy." He felt better having a fancy AC cable, so that alone makes it better. It's even possible the reviewer felt happy because he got paid to sit at home and listen to AC cables; a sweet gig if you can't get it.
Humans are incredible creatures, but they are not reasonable and never will be; Reason is our last-ditch option used only after zeal and fear are spent. Questioning what someone believes to hear is exactly the same as questioning a religious belief; we're just blasphemers and naysayers interfering with their truly blissful ignorance. You can't defeat highly invested Bliss with a distortion chart. The more ridiculous the Bliss, the more powerful it becomes. With sufficient Bliss, you'll find yourself listening to vinyl LP's on $35,000 worth of audio equipment on a flat Earth that's just over 5,500 years old and realize that Audio Science Review is a CIA operation.
I got one for you. Next time a vinyl enthusiast swears their turntable is magical, ask them if they know about the effects of having large inductance at the end of a long cable. If they know anything, they would say that it is a bad idea cause it makes the cable to have way more significant role in the filter this arrangement creates. Then ask if that is good for interference. Then ask why their 10k turntable does not have a buffer inside its tonearm, as close as possible to the coil that produces the sound signal. That why this piece of marvelous and superior tech does not have an pre-amp and RIAA internally, since that is the place it should be if sound quality is our #1 target.
Absolutely no engineer would design turntable the way they were made back in the day, as passive devices. We would place the first buffer as close to the cartridge as possible to get rid of that inductance ASAP. Then we would have pre-amp before we expose cabling to the outside world. There are no ifs and buts, this is the only way to do it properly.
And yet.. you can find 100k turntables without active circuitry... A swiss clock that has perfect balance, incredibly smooth bearings and then.. cable coming out of its ass, going to the external pre-amp.
Why? Because you can't sell "audiophile quality" turntables with active electronics, that is for some reason forbidden. When it is, and i can't stress this enough: the ONLY way to do it is with active circuitry. The signal is going to be amplified so it is better to amplify it as close to the source to a level where our cabling does not impact anything.
to be fair, a $10k record player likely has a much more dramatic effect on sound over a $100 record player than a $10,000 power cable has on a $5 power cable.
Vinyl is indeed superior to CD.
PAUL’S REFERENCE AudioQuest Dragon AC Power Cable 2 meter version costs $10000, "These gems have breathed new life and opened up the soundstage in ways rarely experienced in this world class system. AC power technology is well over a century old and was never designed to meet the exacting standards of today’s high resolution audio-video components. AC noise is at the utility source, and is made worse by the component power supply. This creates distortion and low-level signal losses via the “masking effect.” The AQ Dragons solve this problem by the use of superior conductors, controlling the characteristic impedance, and dissipating ground noise. Connect a Dragon to your high-end audio system today, and get ready to be amazed." and nope this not a joke, 10K for a power cable; currently sold at PS audio
I mean at least they have some relevance with the "masking effect" that's been around the past two years .
But you can also just take off your mask and save $10k
Yupp, and a waste of money. Paul is a bit like steve jobs. Excellent salesman. Until you understand what he's trying to sell..... than the illusion becomes very clear
Wonder why their gear needs the help of a cable to sound right. So all of their customers without such a cable are kidding themselves that their system sounds good?
@@AudioScienceReview ye, you would almost think it is a selling trick 🤣
21:56 it helps convey artists intentions when you use it as a telephone cable so you can call them up
That's so funny.... :)
Another great review debunking overpriced garbage claiming to do things that they don't do hopefully you have saved some gullible fool from waisting money on this rubbish,
Really? How did he "debunk" anything? One thing is, this only an 80 dollar cable. Next, now stay with me on this, get away from gullible-land. Where did YOU witness a LIVE testing buy him? Are you sure he actually tested anything, or did he just show you graphs with squiggly lines and you bought into it because it supports your thoughts? I can create a graph and have the next door neighbor's 7 year old draw a squiggly line on it, would you also buy that, too?
He selling snake-oil, just like the over-priced product in the audio world. Both are cut from the same cloth... ah the irony.
Ohh! Come on Amir... A $100 AQ power cable. Really? That's not high end enough. I'll send you my Cardas Golden Reference PC (about $500 USD when new) for testing and I can guarantee you that it will measure and sound every bit as good as that $5 generic cord you have there. Fortunately I bought it used for $350 CAD...
OK, you had me going for a minute. :) I wouldn't mind testing yours if you want to send it in.
I'd never buy used. The electrons would be pretty tired having been jiggled back and forth at 60Hz for all that time. If you must buy used, get one from Europe. With 50Hz mains there will be 16.7% less wear and tear on the electrons. ;)
@@GodmanchesterGoblin I'll keep that in mind for the next time around. You've even accurately calculated the electron wear down to one decimal place... LOL
these cables are actually a great investment. prices went up about 20-40 % over the last few years. so buy them, don't open the package, store them and try to sell them after a while. oh, and hope that not too many see this video...
Thing is cable manufacture is huge messy industrial work. None of these Hi-fi companies make their own cable. I bet 99.9999% of Hi-Fi cable was originally designed for the likes of aviation or the medical industry for CAT scanners etc. All made in China or Eastern Europe. Oh yes and it all costs $0.05 a meter. They just go through a catalogue from the cable manufacturer, select what they like and rebrand it. It's not like Audioquest etc. has a team of metallurgists waiting around to design a new cable and then make it. By all means buy good quality cables in terms of manufacture but $20 should be tops.
Funny you should say that generic power cable can be used as a high-quality signal carrier, Amir - that's exactly what I do. I remember a review of speaker cables in a British hi-fi magazine (I think the review was carried out by Barry Fox) about 40 years ago, which included mains cable as a wildcard: it came second overall. So that's what I use it for!
You are right in that many people buy extension cords and use them for speaker wire.
Tweaker/reviewer Jimmy Hughes writing in HIFI answers "kicked off the whole solid core industry" when he suggested UK 15A twin & earth for speaker cable as far as I can remember.
ahhahah now this is perfect timing. 👍❤️😉❤️👍❤️😂❤️
AudioQuest is the biggest purveyor of snake oil products in the industry. Followed closely by Synergistic Research. I love to read their marketing claims on their products. It just makes me laugh. I don’t know how these companies stay in business selling that nonsense.
Amir mentioned something I've thought about every time this subject comes up. My version has been "how can the last few feet of cable delivering power make much of a difference when the first several hundred feet is whatever was installed in the walls".
“If we wanted to reason through this then we wouldn’t have even tested.” Priceless!
And with this video I subscribe! I was eyeing this cable for long wondering how a 2m power cable would change my speakers to sing differently .. from $100 to $10000 speakers!
I always use AudioFile snake oil. You spray it on the cable and let it dry. Works miracles. 😉
The basis of UL, CE, CSA is fire prevention. Your insurance company has a valid reason to deny a loss clime due to fire if it started in a non listed product.
If the policy says UL etc. was required for coverage.
Not just fire prevention. CE covers safety in terms of shock hazards (insulation, pull tests, plug and socket dimensions), chemical hazards (from plating, solder, plastics, etc), and also electromagnetic compatibility. The lack of CE marking would prevent the cable from being legally sold in Europe.
So in the USA, if a cable is sold without UL, its not illegal but optional? Now, can a home owner, if say a fire started due to a non UL listed cable sue the maker of the cable?
@@alcamacho1844 UL is not a legal standard. It is a optional standard. Being the most common standard you will find it required in the local building codes. Many cities have their own standards which may be more stringent than UL. LA city building codes are an example that in some cases exceeds UL.
As for your insurance company their job seems to be to to find reasons not to pay out climes.
The bottom line is here we have a $1000 chunk of 16/3 cable with some molded plugs on each end. You would think that they could afford too have the cable listed.
@@jimnunn9232 Thanks for reply!
Late to this thread, but I'm pretty content with the performance/main components of my modest HiFi system so naturally my mind has been drifting toward potential 'enhancements' to get the most out of it 🙂. Late one night, after a great listening session and some web surfing I ordered a knock-off Nordost ODIN Gold power cord from aliexpress for like 50-60.00USD. It came pretty fast and was surprisingly well made, but of course made no audible difference that I could discern with my Lyngdorf 1120. I'll admit, I'm still slightly curious about isolators for speakers and components and would love to see Amir do similar testing on some of these, but my gut is telling me that they are probably of similar snake-oil/placebo grade with regards to audible improvements.
Amir is too funny analyzing The Writer's /Reviewer's words. They are word smith's that's about it. Can't analyze too long or your head might 🤯
Ok but did you give 2 months to burn in?
No, I did better. I have special wax that speeds that up. I put tons of it on it and it was good to go!
You know what, after listening to your video on that, as a " beginner level " audio man , this confirms what i've been thinking for years and i never understood why demos and audiophiles would spend a few hundred on AC power cables .. I mean this is straight connected to the power outlet, so makes one with all the " spaghettis " that are in the walls and usually gets cut/filtered etc when it gets inside most audio equipment. By simple logic, one would think that the line interconnect cables could matter, because of low voltage/power , but AC cables ? Neway another great simple to understand yet instructive video ! Bravo !
You're the man! The NRG-X3 does not look pretty, so it's not for me. Translucent silicon rainbow colour cable with metallic glitter would be nice......
No surprise…… whatsoever!!!! But did you test for cosmic rays? Just saying. Lol
All of this power cord crap started when the original manufacturers tried to save a few bucks by offering different cables/plugs for different markets. Cheaper than manufacturing different models with hard wired cables just throw in a different cable. Now companies are making gear that works in all markets to ;limit the number of sku's.
You buy after-market replacement power cables for their craftsmanship, the quality of their materials and their ability to hold up and last over time. You don't buy them because they improve the quality of the audio in your system at all - because they clearly won't. As long as you don't foolishly spend (waste) thousands of dollars on them, there's nothing wrong with owning them. Just be honest with yourself about why you are actually buying them - and what they will do (and more importantly WON'T do) for you.
I bought Audio Comet speaker cable which were £3000 dollars 10 yrs ago beautiful.. But mine were £114 replicas from Ali Express 1yr ago..Beautiful build I love being ripped off like this... Stick to ur door bell wire friends or ur Beldens..
Nice Video Amir! Can you maybe please test SUPRA cables? Thanks
Which cable from them?
The power cable, would be a good one.
Now it's audiophile WALL OUTLETS!!! Try to explain to these people it's nonsense and placebo and they get violent, like you just insulted their mother or something, jaw dropping stupidity.
I SEE YOU ARE A BIG GOV GUY AND YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYTHING UNLESS THE PEOPLE THAT WORK IN GOV WAVE THEIR HANDS OVER IT BTW GOV PEOPLE ARE THE LAST PEOPLE YOU WANT TO ENTRUST YOUR SAFTY TO . I THINK I BIG LAWSUIT IS ENOUGH TO KEEP YOU SAFE.
Great Video . Wish an High End Audioquest power cable testing. Like the "AudioQuest Thunder Power Cable" .
Being a retired electrician, and electronics hobbiest since I took it in High School, I was amazed at the people that believed a six foot wire with NO audio signal that gets what's at the wall to the back of the gear would make ANY difference much less all the wild claims made. Even people with no electrical knowledge should be able to grasp it's snake oil. As long as the cord is adequate size and undamaged your good. Use ohm's law and figure the size wire needed even for a 1000w tube amp, then tell me you need #10 wire for a CD player! Too funny, plus most of these cords put undue stress on the connectors, which eventually could lead to connection issues you wouldn't have had with the stock cord. You should test a multi thousand dollar cord so people can see..........NO DIFFERENCE.
Can't wait for your wiim mini review. Really excited to see your objective data on it.
I enjoyed this one immensely. I think Amir was being extremely fair and rigorous. I don't fall into the measurements are the most important thing camp but in the case of mains cables I am with him 100%. I buy relatively cheap aftermarket cables( less than £50 ) because they have better IEC plugs, look good and handle better.
I recently bought a Kinki Studio EX-M1 amp ( great amp imho ) and was amused to note it did not come with what they call an El Cheapo power cable as they know Audiophiles are going to want to provide their own "better" cable
A great way to save a couple of bucks while flattering their customer (you are too much of an expert to want to use a generic cable) and flatter their own product ( it's so good it deserves a posh cable ).
Clever marketing.
Can that company explain and demonstrate what exactly "strand-interaction distortion" is? What about "Direction-Controlled Conductors"? Lol.
*Amir, please review: PURITAN PSM136 Power Conditioner*
I just love the logic - why worry about the metre or so of the unit cable when there's yards of it outside & inside your house you have no control over?!!
Incidentally I wonder why I have never suffered a ground loop problem with any of my equipment in the UK or Portugal? Is it something to do with the relation of cycles & voltage compared to 120v/240/230 perhaps or am I just lucky?
Thanks again for your reviews Amirm. Looking forward to an objective & technical review of the Wiim Mini streamer... 👍
Just lucky. :)
" Discovered " 😃... your excellent channel Review about the PS Audio P12 Powerplant ...a 6000 dollar useless piece of audio gear..now these Audio Quest expensive power cables...and review CX81 Cambridge Audio amplifier...Very good and useful tests... thanks...being also a Ham Radio Guy with rather big output Transmitters ....there is a lot of CRAP audio TV Gear in the world !! .prone to interference..😫
Yeh, if you have a Ham operator next door, all bets are off. :)
High end power cables are nonsense. Use the standard power cables that came with you HIFI equipment.
Thank you Amir for saving me $100 Dollars.
It's a power cord. It carries current from the mains to the unit being powered. If it does so without losing too much voltage, catching fire (these are related) or short-circuiting (see FIRE), that's all it needs to do. A 10A IEC power cord (which this is) costs $5. Anything more spent is wasted.
now we know how owns that awesome $350 high powered best buy stereo rack system. 🤣
@@BumpNrun69 Not me!😂
Disgusting that wealthy people spend $30,000 on a cable when they could feed a family of four for two years with the money they wasted.
Audioquest mains and speaker cables ... surely not complete snake oil ... 😂🤣😅
"Delivered more music and made more (non)sense of the music." Stereovile.
You're supposed to cryogenically freeze it prior to a 1000 hour burn-in. Duh!
"Stereophile review" with NO measurements section--tells you EVERYTHING you need to know. Reminds me of a character called the Artful Dodger. AC 'cable' makes the guy feel good. Whatever. Thanks again Amir. Wonderful service to the public.
"A superb piece of writer's imagination" - pronounced JA.
Directional cable for alternating current
Hello Amir. Thank you for your website, articles, and these videos. I understand why some manufacturers and maybe some audio enthusiasts don't like what you do, but I do not understand why anyone in the consumer community or Reviewers who claim to be objective / science-based would be prompted to criticize you. You are providing truth in audio and you are completely unsponsored. You are providing a great service to me and the audio enthusiast/consumer community. Please keep up the good work!
For a million dollars you can change the utility pole in the street with a pole made of exotic rosewood, a gold-plated transformer and pure silver wire connecting the AC to your house. Music reproduction by then should be so fantastic you won't even need loudspeakers to hear it. Next phase : Invest in a power plant. I'm told audiophiles favour nuclear, as the noise signature is truly random and de-correlated.
Funny you should say... solar panels are actually quite noisy, enough that you just might like to do something extra to get rid of the inverter whine... About the only case when you might have to install some sort of power conditioner is when you generate your own power.
You are joking but I am starting to hear more and more audiophiles getting all cabling replaced to the transformer and such, spending tens of thousands of dollars on the upgrade!
It's sad that it even needs to be measured. What happened to common sense...?
Anyone with a bit of common sense can smell the snake oil stench from miles away.
is this the review GR research was complaining about measuring power cables that were not plugged into anything?
You like highend then why bougth a 100 dollar cable? Go get a 10000dollar pwercable
Bah! Safety ratings increases distortion and decreases sound stage.
Cutting a generic power cable and using it for speaker cable seems like the way to go!!
for them high-end system that you purchase at best buy for three hundred dollars... oh-boy! 😂
@@BumpNrun69 Efficiency does not equate to price in every circumstance.
As I've said so many times; if there is a need to measure something not audible to humans, then what's the point?