… that a power cord set up to "clean"/condition the line before it gets to the transformer would be the only reason I could honestly think of to have a different cord.
A power cord isn‘t going to clean the AC, what different wire doe3ws is change impedance curves which directly effects the signature of the sound. It’s more of a ‘synergy’ between cord and transformer. What is bass heavy on a CD Player may be just right on another CD Player or Amp.
…Frank's observations has led him to believe that a pair of Rad Shack cables are as good as it gets.
I just picked up two pairs of RatShack Gold Interconnects for my tape deck ($20/pair) and compared them to my MIT’s – WOW, not even similar! A near deaf imbecile can hear the difference!
… If that is how he feels, and he is the electrical engineer, who am I to argue.
Who are you to argue?!? Do you have two ears that basically work? If the answer is yes then you qualify as much as Frank! Because Frank knows circuit design doesn’t mean he has good taste. Hell, he might think brown polyester leisure suites are hip! Because he doesn’t ‘believe’ (or doesn’t want to believe) that anything is much different that a $20 pair of RatShack cables, isn’t proof-positive of its truth. Trust your own senses, there the ones you listen with, not Franks.
… We all have our opinions and biases, and that's ok. What's important here is to ... in the end listen to the music and ENJOY IT.
Absolutely, I just hate it when people tell me I’m a moron to ‘believe’ or that what I trust (my ears and brain) are being fooled by placebo. That’s just bullshit!
And yes, I listen to an enormous amount of music. I could listen to an old Sony walkman and a cheap pair of headphones if I had to but fortunately I don’t.
Short Story:
One of my dogs (a Boxer) nearly ate my Sennheiser HD600’s, I guess she wanted a little snack! I fixed them but had to replace the cord which is thinner then kite string. I made up a set of headphone cables from some silver plated copper wire in a Teflon jacket, I used a good quality Switchcraft ¼’ jack and PET insulation. After breaking them in for 100 hours, I brought them to a friend last night. He has the very same Sennheiser HD600’s with a ZuCable (cost about $200), he also has the stock cord and a nice headphone amp (Class-A, SET (EL84’s)). We listened to the two identical sets of headphones with two entirely different headphone cables. My opinion was that they sounded like two entirely different headphones. He thought so too. Later that night a couple of other friends came by and I asked them to give them a listen. BOTH were astonished how different the two headphones sounded. We all agreed, with no question (NO placebo!), that the wire not only made a difference but that it was so dramatic as to make the same phones sounds completely different. They both sounded very nice. It would be a difficult decision to choose which I liked better.
