I cannot explain it, I am quoting Furutech. I donāt obsess with specific lengths, just that power cables make a difference. Just borrow cables from a dealer and assess for yourself
Yep, and letās face it Furutechās entire market is consumer audio related, so total ā ā and no science on their part.
Why are there no proper cable manufacturers making impossible claims?
You donāt hear companies like Belden, Van Damme, Canare, Sommer etc. spouting the sort of bullsh!t you hear from Audioquest, Furutech, Chord Cable Company etc. Why is that?
Because as cable manufacturers and suppliers to the professional audio industry, they know these claims are ā ā .
Their professional customers would fail to take them seriously.
1.8m is the length of a standard power cord (at least in the US).
If the āideal lengthā were less than that, then some potential customers would balk at the purchase, because using the āaudiophileā power cord would require rearranging their listening room.
If the āideal lengthā were greater than that, then no one would object, but the cost of manufacture would go up. Since the price the gullible audiophile is willing to pay is completely independent of the length (as long as the length is greater than or equal to the length of his existing power cord), this would be a net loss of profit for Furutech.
Ergo, the āideal lengthā turns out to be the length of a standard power cord.
No knowledge of physics (or anything except basic marketing) was required to predict this.
If you have a better (or, really any) explanation for why the āideal lengthā of āaudiophileā power cord just happens to be 1.8m, Iād like to hear it.
The ideal length is what gets you from your device to the outlet. Any shorter and the sound is far too laid back - to the point of non-existent. Any longer and youāre good, though then one just has to hide the excess.
DC cables for power supplies on the other hand, shorter is better (and the fatter the gauge the better ime). Some say the shorter the speaker cable the better, but then again it depends on the amp - with my vintage Naim amps the longer the better (as the cable acts as part of the Zobel network). But whatever gets you hook up and sound is the optimal length.
Almost no āaudiophileā power cables are UL-listed. (They may use some UL-listed parts in their construction, but thatās not the same thing.) So thatās not the reason.
well thatās not very comfortingā¦ That would suck if youāre equipment went up in flames from a non ul-listed power cable. Iām sure insurance companies would have a field day with this oneā¦
even if it wasnāt from the power cable itās one thing they can use against you if you had to make a claimā¦ and theyāll look for everythingā¦
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
341
Um, on everything? So, youāre not going to answer any of my questions about burn-in?
Have you ever assembled a power cable before? I really wouldnāt worry about this. Itās really nothing more than a wire stripper, screwdriver and some heat shrink/etc for strain relief, and getting live to live and neutral to neutral and ground to ground. If itās done wrong, it just wonāt work, or would short the first time plugged in.
I doubt there have been very many cases of audiophile or otherwise cords spontaneously combusting (more likely though with cheap UL hardware store cables that have been used and abused vs a pricey audiophile cable that gets plugged and unplugged infrequently and lives indoors behind a rack).
In case of fire with hifi, more likely some sort of fault with the gear itself than a power cable. Like the time my 80 year old stepfather blew a fuse in his Carver amp and thought you could put a piece of tin foil in there as a replacement (no, itās not a '56 Buick). Big sparks and dead amp.
That said, itās best practice to buy a cable (audiophile or otherwise) that fits the space without severe bending at the outlet or IEC.
Typical fault mode on power cables: degradation of the insulation on the wires inside the cable (due to mechanical stress, heat, age or some combination of the above) leading to a short.
Iām not saying that bespoke āaudiophileā power cables are any more vulnerable to this (Iām also not saying that theyāre not). But if your house burns down because of one, you can kiss your homeownerās insurance claim goodbye.
Bill, with all due respect your questions were a bitā¦unusual, let me try. 1. I do not think a cable returns to its original state if not used, why do I state that? Because my system was in storage for 7 months and all was good, none of the burn-in responses when the cable was new. 2. You state maybe the music was horrible, hmmmm, I will choose not to respond to such a comment, were you actually serious? 3. Maybe the electrons cut a groove in the conductor and the cable is now damaged, Bill, Bill. Bill , come on now. I will take a fifth, I am sure you will understand, were you smoking a joint? So in conclusion, do you have a serious question? Take care mate
Life is full of risks. The āaudiophileā cables I have, and the DIY ones, I have no concerns about. More often than not, when one hears about a house fire itās: kitchen, candles, smoking, space or baseboard heaters, or very old lamp or internal knob and tooth wiring being frayed from rodents. I would assume rarely, or possibly never, an overbuilt audiophile cable. I have priceless negatives in our home, so Iām pretty careful about all of our wiring and potential fire risks.