These problems include triboelectric noise, strand interaction and contact noise. Shielding a cord is helpful because it can eliminate external interference and increase capacitive filtering, but other audible problems remain. Of course, the reason we hear sonic changes from power cords is that component power supplies are imperfect and they allow power line noise to mix with the music, which masks detail, adds coloration and compresses the sound. “Generic power cords actually do cause audible problems and that’s why a thoroughly engineered cord can make great improvements in music reproduction. Therefore, spending more than $100 on a power cord is usually a waste of money.” Going “off the grid” is another unnecessary endeavor with good equipment, as far as sound quality is concerned.Īnother fact regarding power cords is that, behind the wall, there are 10’s of feet (sometimes more) of household wiring to the breaker box. If people think beefing up the last 10% of 60 foot run is going to make a difference, they will be sadly mistaken. Well-designed equipment filters and regulates power internally so that, aside from brownouts or blackouts, the equipment runs flawlessly even on distorted and noisy AC power. It’s important to mention that well designed equipment doesn’t need special power cords or even power conditioning. Good quality is a must for any decent system, with every part of the system. Other factors such as capacitance, inductance, and shielding, are “in the noise” and not significant enough to affect the sound of even the most revealing audio systems.įor power amps as well as other equipment, the quality of the connectors is important, but the reasons are reliability and contact resistance. “The most important feature of a power cord for amplifiers is simple resistance. My question was, “How can a basic stock AC power cable negatively affect audio gear?”įrom Tommy O’Brien, Digital Amplifier Company Recently I decided to ask two industry participants their take on power cords. I’ve been reading and watching the discussions since I wired up my first stereo system.
#EXTEND MIC CABLES OR WORD CLOCK CABLE PROFESSIONAL#
And I recently visited a largish seller of professional audio equipment where it took a few salesmen before anyone understood what I was talking about when asking for the word-clock termination.SHARES Twitter 44 Facebook Email Print LinkedIn Pinterest SMS WhatsAppĬable discussions can turn normally rational audiophiles into nut-cases. The reason is that an unterminated line is more susceptible to noise and component drifts and that kind of things, and the whole idea of running the word-clock cable from the beginning is to get more precision in the timing. Only the last slave in the chain should have the termination connected.įor a short word-clock cable, perhaps a meter or a bit more, the termination might not strictly be needed (there are ways to calculate this, but that takes math I´ve mostly forgotten), it might be a bit belts and suspenders. Generally, you see this because there is a switch or whatever where you can disconnect it. Now, before going ahead buying the termination and T, check if your slave might have a built-in termination. Ĥ) The termination finally goes on the last open T, on the last slave. (Never, ever, connect the chain "through" a slave, using the in/out connectors). You want the 75 Ohm.ģ) Daisy chain the cable, from the T-connectors, slave to slave. Warning - most of these things comes in both 50 and 75 Ohm variations. It is picture number 4 (click on the picture and it expands), sort of like a T (two times male, one times female connector). Use the "Out" connector.Ģ) Now set one T-connector at each slave, at the "In" connector. In the right corner there is a white square where you can enter a search term, in this case they are part numbers in their catalog.ġ) Anyway, connect the cable to the master. Sorry for the Swedish, hope the pictures talk for themselves. I´ll point you to my electronics supplier for pictures. I have difficulty finding pictures of this on the net (had a few links before, lost them).