[bikes and beats]

Dang, this is harsh!

http://gizmodo.com/371536/300-audiophile-grade-power-cable-is-really-worth-15
 
discuss...

[sts9fan]

Anyone shocked? 

[SET Man]

Hey!

   Wow! And it took a kitty to exposed this!

   Good thing that the kitty didn't try to disassemble it while it was plugged in. 

   Can't wait 'til what schemes this kitty will expose next!

Take care,
Buddy

[nathanm]

I don't own a cat, but it seems unlikely it could do quite that much damage. Chewing up the techflex sure, but busting open the plastic plug and neatly snipping the copper wire too?  Hmmm.  The photo looks staged.

And how dumb are people?  What do they expect to come out of high priced cable anyway?  Magic beans?  Molten gold?  It's wire fer crying out loud, wire wound up inside a jacket.  What incredible thing would have to come out of that cable to justify "$300" to them I wonder?  If you want to be impressed by electronic gubbins, open up a Power Mac\Mac Pro sometime  — that actually looks "money."

[TONEPUB]

Im always somewhat annoyed at the Gizmodo site.  They always have
all this other wacky worthless ipod junk, but seem to really have a
hard on for the audio industry.

[Imperial]

To design A/C cables on a DIY basis is a hobby for me, and I've made a few.
It can take a long time to assemble them! Some times I can remember spending as much as 3 days, like 8-10 hours getting one assembled.
I guess this is the price then, 15$ in parts and some hours making it all conduct the current.
Hey, If somebody would come up with a gizmodo muffler, that would be worth at least 15$ ...

  

Imperial

[SET Man]

I don't own a cat, but it seems unlikely it could do quite that much damage. Chewing up the techflex sure, but busting open the plastic plug and neatly snipping the copper wire too?  Hmmm.  The photo looks staged.....

Hey!

   Nathan, I think you are right. I have a cat. And the edge of those gas tube seems too clean to me. And it is unlikely that any cat would chew it way through those copper wire also. Doesn't look like it had been chewed up by a cat.

  Still! I find it is funny. And those wire green, white and black don't look much different than those in my Carol 12ga that I got from Home Depot

   Anyway, not to worry I would predict that this thread will be trashed soon since some people can't handle the truth!

   "You want answer?" "You can't handle the truth!"

Take care,
Buddy

[Wind Chaser]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/my-cat-tore-up-my-virtual-dynamics-power-3-a-293165/

The above link includes more pictures.  The cat did nominal damage to the cord.  It was the owner who tore the cord apart to see what was on the inside.

Regardless of how costly a power cord is (or any cable is for that matter) I wouldn't expect to see too much either.  We're essentially talking about wire.

[Imperial]

Here we are. A picture of my 10 hour build!

Here be the innards of that cable.

It was built with a highly complex weave. My poor fingertips was sore a week after!!!
It would hum, then it would be opaque 
And I'd have to start all over.. OUCH!! , and then suddenly... Utter silence and superb sound!!
Tada!!! 

And for the sake of argument, only half of the cable is showing. The real secret is hidden from view..

The price was like 300$ in parts...This is a silver A/C cable.. (Heck I bought a used Audioquest silver speaker cable and
gutted it to pieces!!! - to make this A/C cable..) I'm bad as well... 
At the time I could not afford a proper ac cable, So I copied about 5 patents into one.  Give or take. And it worked..
Actually for the amp it was made, it was never beaten for noisefloor and silence, and null ill effect on dynamics.
The amp was a 50w Class A, with a constant 575w powerdrain on the grid. (the headroom for the A/C design was 2300w)




Imperial

[Toka]

There was a similar hub-bub on AA a few years back...someone opened up a cable from another "respected" manufacturer (not saying which) and found it was simply a bulk OEM piece covered in techflex. Same part number out of the catalog and everything, it wasn't even a custom build. Huge markup for absolutely nothing.

[djbnh]

"Cat-eat" emptor! 

[anthony a.]

hahaha, i think he was expecting magic beans to come out of the cable, but dissapointed when all he found was wire.  if his cat could talk, im sure it would tell him that she ate the beans and hence why his cable stinks. aa

[Watson]

I don't mind that Virtual Dynamics cables are just garden hoses with thin wires inside (the higher end models are filled with sand and/or pebbles depending on which model you see dissected)... the only thing that bugs me is the manufacturer trying to imply things that aren't true.  For instance, you often see the manufacturer claim that the cables are so stiff because the wire he uses is so thick.  The reality is that they're stiff because he uses thin wire surrounded by filler inside an inflexible garden hose.  As long as people know what they're buying though, doesn't bother me.

[rabpaul]

If a $15 cable makes your system sound as if it had a $1000 upgrade would you not pay $300 for it?
So have I been taken for a ride above? No not if I have spent $300 and got what I felt was worth $1000.

I do not know how many people there are like me, but I don't expect to get back as value what I actually pay for an hi-fi item. Sometimes you really get lucky. I have recently spent just $42 on one component and got a much greater difference than spending a $1000 on another component.

If you expect and keep expecting in return at least par value or more for what you invested in your system, you clearly don't understand the laws of diminishing returns that our hobby is famous for.

Let me say you should spend as much as you can afford to get want you want.

[BrianM]

This occurred to me a long time ago - the way to pass off a phony hi-fi cord as legit is to simply charge a thousand bucks for it (or five thousand! or why not ten thousand!! AH, Ah, Ah, Ah! (that was supposed to be the Count)).  Then anyone would be insane to cut it open, thus ruining it, when they could just sell it to another sucker for hundreds or thousands of dollars.  But someone should make the sacrifice in the interests of science; I'm sure it would be quite illuminating, and destructive for a largely bogus industry - and beneficial to everyone who could start putting their dollars into more worthwhile things.  But such is the "free" market, with its amazing ability to enslave people to things they don't really need.

Other than that I agree with rabpaul.

[Alan]

But such is the "free" market, with its amazing ability to enslave people to things they don't really need.

Wasn't it Will Rodgers who said "getting people to spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like."

[Wind Chaser]

If a $15 cable makes your system sound as if it had a $1000 upgrade would you not pay $300 for it?
So have I been taken for a ride above? No not if I have spent $300 and got what I felt was worth $1000.

Power cords can and do sound different, but as for making a positive upgrade, my experience is whatever money spent on a power cord, be it $200, $500 or even $2000, that same money could be far better spent elsewhere on a legitimate upgrade.

[nathanm]

"Enslaved" by the free market?  Can't say I ever heard that one before.    The market offers the choice of everything from unadorned, inexpensive cable to the most absurd varieties of expensive woo woo wire.  Nobody has to be a sucker for anything if they don't want to. 

[Imperial]

I don't mind that Virtual Dynamics cables are just garden hoses with thin wires inside (the higher end models are filled with sand and/or pebbles depending on which model you see dissected)... the only thing that bugs me is the manufacturer trying to imply things that aren't true.  For instance, you often see the manufacturer claim that the cables are so stiff because the wire he uses is so thick.  The reality is that they're stiff because he uses thin wire surrounded by filler inside an inflexible garden hose.  As long as people know what they're buying though, doesn't bother me.

Clear gardenhose is superb to build with, I've built cables with this myself, and it works!
Now, for the size and type of the wires, It's all about finding the right matches..
Sometimes the cost is minimal, but the build is really arduous! Some times lots and lots of combinations has to be tested to find the right match.

Once you have built some cables you understand that utter morons like that dweeb that posted on Gizmodo, are best just to ignore.
It's not the cost of the components that can make a good A/C cable it's how you use them that is the real trick.

Now, my cable generates it's own field so it is self canceling just at the red "thing" at the plug there. (The REAL short story... )
It is just as effective to use some kind of barrier like iron or something like that.



Imperial

[BrianM]

"Enslaved" by the free market?  Can't say I ever heard that one before.    The market offers the choice of everything from unadorned, inexpensive cable to the most absurd varieties of expensive woo woo wire.  Nobody has to be a sucker for anything if they don't want to.

Very true.  Often though, "slavery" is entirely voluntary.