Hi, first of all I would like to congratulate you on your channel which I find very useful and interesting. I would need an advice on a power cable (2m) which should be connected to the Oehlbach XXL 909 power strip and to the wall socket thank you
@@simonebiagini1409 Thank you! I've found that that cables that were working best and didn't ruin the wallet were blue Furutech fakes, FP-314AG (check my video on that if you need more details)
That's interesting. I have reviewed Odin Gold and found it nothing like warm, slow or soft. A bit dark, maybe, a bit dry, maybe, but clear, airy and transparent at the top. No muddiness. What's your equipment? Did you give the cable some time to burn in?
The Aliexpress Valhalla sounds very different to the original cable, no where near as good. Visually inspecting the strands between fake and real, there are differences to be seen.
Yes the name Valhalla is stretching things a bit, there is no branding on this fake it just looks like Valhalla. What differences could help people recognize the fake? (Not mentioning the cheap plastic plugs)
@@k4syx it doesn’t look like Valhalla, similar in design but vastly different looking at all the details in person. Wish I could send a photo through here. Genuine Valhalla, The inner black & red threads circulating the conductors are dual threads that also twist around each other, the clear tubing covering the outside of the cable is far tighter on the genuine, like it was almost shrink wrapped, colour of threads more vibrant thickness of cable vastly different to Aliexpress. There have been a few different fake Valhallas that I have come across but none that looked visually similar in person.
@@k4syx your comment about maybe night shift created them is false & will just throw people into confusion. I have tried fakes based on hearing in forums that they’re just as good as the original and it’s the same cable but offcuts. I wish it were true because the cables are WAY over priced, but it is not. However I will add that I also believe some of the cheap fakes are superior to Nordost’s own genuine BlueHeaven 👌
@damonsbest thanks for the description, you may try to link the photo here but the description will also help as some folks were asking how to tell the fake from original
it's a crap cable. It won't show a 7N purity. the 99.999999% purity. It won't be capable of high end plug ends. its tresses looks correct through. It might end like if someone boosted a white lightning in a difficult monowrap design, enhancing sound, but no more than that. Where the buyer loses everything with these fake cables, is that a fake always looks badly made in materials and curves, compared to an original. Lesson story: never buy a fake item.
Do you think it would have sounded better if you didn't know it was fake? Surely you're not actually serious about power cables changing the sound... are you? Surely not. How would that possibly actually work? The audio signal doesn't even pass through the power cable. The job of the power cable is to deliver the mains voltage to the power inputs of the equipment. Two or three bits of wire. Job done.
That was my take on this idea (as an electronic engineer) - I had a laugh. Until I got fancy looking power cord for my Stax headphones setup. It fkd up the sound so bad, that I've literally disassembled everything in my audio chain looking for damages (it was new setup that I've paid for something like 2.5k USD just a few days earlier and silly wanted to have a nice looking power cord). Since then I've learned - by experiments - that to my total surprise power cords do affect the sound. The difference is most notable at the source (DAC) but it does slightly affect also preamps, poweramps and my electrostats (these are powered too). So at the moment I suspect the thing is EMI and proper cable shielding, either by brute force shields (layered) or EMI rejecting geometry. Or both in some cases. So anyway, unfortunately (for my wallet and sanity) this works, and it's not placebo because you have the same chance of improvement as serious damage to sound quality. Check my review for fake Cardas 5 power cable: it can cripple your carefully matched system in one move - just plug it in and cry. I guess companies like AQ do know what's going on as far as physics goes and that's why they are able to design a "ladder" for their products, it doesn't look like blind experimenting result. I know a guy locally who produces all kinds of cables, he is also engineer and he had learned to build cables to order (I want warm one, I want analytic one, I want bassy etc) either by geometry or right materials, but he keeps his mouth sealed and shares nothing. By reviewing these I want to learn something too - by looking at repeatable patterns. So far I know that geometry>>>>>materials. It's his business.
@@k4syx It's nonsense. Power cords do not affect the sound. To suggest that they do would require invention of new laws of physics. Any competently designed equipment will contain a quality PSU capable of removing any variations of the mains supply and producing a nice smooth DC supply for the equipment within. Even if the mains supply is less than ideal, the way to clean it up would be with a well-designed EMC filter, not a super-fat gimmicky cord with transparent connectors. Whatever you hear, or think you hear, is something else. Human hearing is fallible, and suspectible to expectancy bias. There is crosstalk between the visual and hearing senses. Just the experience of looking at and fondling the expensive looking cable can create the desire to listen for things and hear things that were not noticed before.
@@jamesrindley6215 ok just one question here: have you actually tried it for yourself? Because its not any new laws of physics. Its just something you wrote too: "Any competently designed equipment will contain a quality PSU capable of removing any variations of the mains supply and producing a nice smooth DC supply" Well, PSUs are built to a price point and no, they do not remove HF noise, and no, they do not produce nice smooth DC. There always is a ripple, higher or lower, there always is a load dependency, and they do let HF noise pass. Interesting thing here is that 5 years ago in many different forums I was stating EXACTLY THE SAME things as you do now. So, dont believe me, do not take my words for granted, just get a BAD power cable check for yourself.
@@k4syx I can't reliably hear any difference between any cables, whether they are phono interconnects, speaker cables or power cables. Also, I have good reasons to believe that there are no differences to be heard based on the fact that electrical distortion in wires just isn't a thing. There's no theoretical basis to it and a THD measurement will confirm that. We can easily measure distortions that are inaudible to the human ear, so it's reasonable to suppose that if we measure nothing then there's nothing to be heard. Can I ask have you tried these changes using a double blind ABX test? It's easy to hear differences in sound from exactly the same track played on the same system, based simply on position and angle of your head, how you're feeling that day, what you've been listening to before and whether your cup of coffee smells good. Even when differences can be heard, it can be very hard to determine which is better or worse.
@@jamesrindley6215 yes I've done ABX with help of my wife. I'm not talking about THD for audio band here. I'm talking about EMI in AM,FM etc frequency affecting stability and working of the equipment after the power supply section. And no of course I am not implying that you will hear MHz range stuff. When I was in university we've had this laboratory where we were testing influence of EMI on power supply and electronic equipment, the goal was to learn about importance and types of proper shielding. So anyway we were doing a simple circuit with some clock, registers, some gates and LCD display, it was set up so it was displaying repeatable patterns on LCD. And the thing was that if you've moved your hand over it closer than 15-20cm (including power supply though to lesser extent) you were able to introduce errors, and not just single occasional hiccups. It was like a wave of random stuff flooding over display. Why? Because our bodies were working like antennas focusing all EMI surrounding us - from 50Hz from power grid (which you can always see touching oscilloscope probes with your bare hands) up to kHz and MHz ranges from all radio equipment emissions that are everywhere. And so far I've learned (have I wrote that already earlier?) that cables with multiple shields and/or specific goemetries seem to work best. And it's not some magic sound change: they just don't allow all the junk to enter the device. Well that was long. Don't trust me, just check it. If you've done that and haven't heard the difference then: You live in EMI free area (cool!) Your equipment is not transparent enough (it's not about being not expensive enough! Transparent, like in planars or electrostats) You just can't hear that (which is still fine, my wife can't too, and my 11yo daughter can even better and faster than me) In all cases above you're one of lucky guys saving money.
Thanks for this great video! I find these reviews super helpful of AliExpress items that I’ve been wondering about. Please keep them coming!
Thank you, I will :)
I have more lined up with final comparison of all of them. Stay tuned :)
Cable is ok ,but the pulg is Brass
That tin is going to make it sound tinny!
Hi, first of all I would like to congratulate you on your channel which I find very useful and interesting. I would need an advice on a power cable (2m) which should be connected to the Oehlbach XXL 909 power strip and to the wall socket thank you
@@simonebiagini1409 Thank you!
I've found that that cables that were working best and didn't ruin the wallet were blue Furutech fakes, FP-314AG (check my video on that if you need more details)
@@k4syx ah ok perfect, thank you, I'll take a look. Congratulations again for the cables reviews
@@simonebiagini1409 Thanks!
Power cables really have zero effect on sound quality.
I have the fake Gold. I found it too be very warm, slow, bordering syrupy/chewy. A bit dark and soft as well.
That's interesting. I have reviewed Odin Gold and found it nothing like warm, slow or soft. A bit dark, maybe, a bit dry, maybe, but clear, airy and transparent at the top. No muddiness. What's your equipment? Did you give the cable some time to burn in?
I too didn’t find my fake Odin gold even slightly warm sounding. And that was before it was burned in
The Aliexpress Valhalla sounds very different to the original cable, no where near as good.
Visually inspecting the strands between fake and real, there are differences to be seen.
Yes the name Valhalla is stretching things a bit, there is no branding on this fake it just looks like Valhalla. What differences could help people recognize the fake? (Not mentioning the cheap plastic plugs)
@@k4syx it doesn’t look like Valhalla, similar in design but vastly different looking at all the details in person. Wish I could send a photo through here.
Genuine Valhalla, The inner black & red threads circulating the conductors are dual threads that also twist around each other, the clear tubing covering the outside of the cable is far tighter on the genuine, like it was almost shrink wrapped, colour of threads more vibrant thickness of cable vastly different to Aliexpress. There have been a few different fake Valhallas that I have come across but none that looked visually similar in person.
@@k4syx your comment about maybe night shift created them is false & will just throw people into confusion.
I have tried fakes based on hearing in forums that they’re just as good as the original and it’s the same cable but offcuts.
I wish it were true because the cables are WAY over priced, but it is not.
However I will add that I also believe some of the cheap fakes are superior to Nordost’s own genuine BlueHeaven 👌
@@damonsbest well that was my suspicion about fake Audioquest cables based on what I see inside. These Nordost fakes are just fakes and that's it.
@damonsbest thanks for the description, you may try to link the photo here but the description will also help as some folks were asking how to tell the fake from original
I installed a cable like this for $70 on my home PC. It didn't hurt at all.
it's a crap cable. It won't show a 7N purity. the 99.999999% purity. It won't be capable of high end plug ends. its tresses looks correct through. It might end like if someone boosted a white lightning in a difficult monowrap design, enhancing sound, but no more than that. Where the buyer loses everything with these fake cables, is that a fake always looks badly made in materials and curves, compared to an original. Lesson story: never buy a fake item.
Do you think it would have sounded better if you didn't know it was fake?
Surely you're not actually serious about power cables changing the sound... are you? Surely not. How would that possibly actually work? The audio signal doesn't even pass through the power cable. The job of the power cable is to deliver the mains voltage to the power inputs of the equipment. Two or three bits of wire. Job done.
That was my take on this idea (as an electronic engineer) - I had a laugh.
Until I got fancy looking power cord for my Stax headphones setup. It fkd up the sound so bad, that I've literally disassembled everything in my audio chain looking for damages (it was new setup that I've paid for something like 2.5k USD just a few days earlier and silly wanted to have a nice looking power cord).
Since then I've learned - by experiments - that to my total surprise power cords do affect the sound. The difference is most notable at the source (DAC) but it does slightly affect also preamps, poweramps and my electrostats (these are powered too).
So at the moment I suspect the thing is EMI and proper cable shielding, either by brute force shields (layered) or EMI rejecting geometry. Or both in some cases.
So anyway, unfortunately (for my wallet and sanity) this works, and it's not placebo because you have the same chance of improvement as serious damage to sound quality.
Check my review for fake Cardas 5 power cable: it can cripple your carefully matched system in one move - just plug it in and cry.
I guess companies like AQ do know what's going on as far as physics goes and that's why they are able to design a "ladder" for their products, it doesn't look like blind experimenting result.
I know a guy locally who produces all kinds of cables, he is also engineer and he had learned to build cables to order (I want warm one, I want analytic one, I want bassy etc) either by geometry or right materials, but he keeps his mouth sealed and shares nothing.
By reviewing these I want to learn something too - by looking at repeatable patterns.
So far I know that geometry>>>>>materials.
It's his business.
@@k4syx It's nonsense. Power cords do not affect the sound. To suggest that they do would require invention of new laws of physics. Any competently designed equipment will contain a quality PSU capable of removing any variations of the mains supply and producing a nice smooth DC supply for the equipment within. Even if the mains supply is less than ideal, the way to clean it up would be with a well-designed EMC filter, not a super-fat gimmicky cord with transparent connectors.
Whatever you hear, or think you hear, is something else. Human hearing is fallible, and suspectible to expectancy bias. There is crosstalk between the visual and hearing senses. Just the experience of looking at and fondling the expensive looking cable can create the desire to listen for things and hear things that were not noticed before.
@@jamesrindley6215 ok just one question here: have you actually tried it for yourself?
Because its not any new laws of physics. Its just something you wrote too: "Any competently designed equipment will contain a quality PSU capable of removing any variations of the mains supply and producing a nice smooth DC supply"
Well, PSUs are built to a price point and no, they do not remove HF noise, and no, they do not produce nice smooth DC. There always is a ripple, higher or lower, there always is a load dependency, and they do let HF noise pass.
Interesting thing here is that 5 years ago in many different forums I was stating EXACTLY THE SAME things as you do now.
So, dont believe me, do not take my words for granted, just get a BAD power cable check for yourself.
@@k4syx I can't reliably hear any difference between any cables, whether they are phono interconnects, speaker cables or power cables. Also, I have good reasons to believe that there are no differences to be heard based on the fact that electrical distortion in wires just isn't a thing. There's no theoretical basis to it and a THD measurement will confirm that. We can easily measure distortions that are inaudible to the human ear, so it's reasonable to suppose that if we measure nothing then there's nothing to be heard.
Can I ask have you tried these changes using a double blind ABX test?
It's easy to hear differences in sound from exactly the same track played on the same system, based simply on position and angle of your head, how you're feeling that day, what you've been listening to before and whether your cup of coffee smells good. Even when differences can be heard, it can be very hard to determine which is better or worse.
@@jamesrindley6215 yes I've done ABX with help of my wife. I'm not talking about THD for audio band here. I'm talking about EMI in AM,FM etc frequency affecting stability and working of the equipment after the power supply section. And no of course I am not implying that you will hear MHz range stuff.
When I was in university we've had this laboratory where we were testing influence of EMI on power supply and electronic equipment, the goal was to learn about importance and types of proper shielding. So anyway we were doing a simple circuit with some clock, registers, some gates and LCD display, it was set up so it was displaying repeatable patterns on LCD. And the thing was that if you've moved your hand over it closer than 15-20cm (including power supply though to lesser extent) you were able to introduce errors, and not just single occasional hiccups. It was like a wave of random stuff flooding over display. Why? Because our bodies were working like antennas focusing all EMI surrounding us - from 50Hz from power grid (which you can always see touching oscilloscope probes with your bare hands) up to kHz and MHz ranges from all radio equipment emissions that are everywhere.
And so far I've learned (have I wrote that already earlier?) that cables with multiple shields and/or specific goemetries seem to work best. And it's not some magic sound change: they just don't allow all the junk to enter the device.
Well that was long.
Don't trust me, just check it. If you've done that and haven't heard the difference then:
You live in EMI free area (cool!)
Your equipment is not transparent enough (it's not about being not expensive enough! Transparent, like in planars or electrostats)
You just can't hear that (which is still fine, my wife can't too, and my 11yo daughter can even better and faster than me)
In all cases above you're one of lucky guys saving money.