[Harold Mars]

I have recently changed the stock power cord on my Sony G70 to

a Nordost Eldorado then to an Elrod EPS-2 signature cord. In each

instance, I became aware of brighter whites as well as deeper

color saturation, but also what seemed as a loss of sharpness,

especially noted off Dish satellite feeds, both for HD and SD.


This effect became apparent within a very short time. Is there a burn in

factor required, or does the altered AC power affect resolution in some way. As of now, there is no line conditioner in the circuit...would

this help, or do I need a recalibration to benefit (?) from the more

esoteric power cords.


Thank you.

 

[Curt Palme]

The last time this topic came up, it turned into a 'voodoo magic' vs 'down to earth technician' debate. I'm of the side that there's no way that a power cord can make a difference at all, but if you see a difference and you're happy, then it is money well spent.


Mind you, I still have to try it, and I now have access to high end power line conditioners (made by Inouye) that I can try out for free, so I'll give it a try and report back.


Curt

 

[jcmccorm]

Curt, I'd be curious about your findings as well.


My opinion is that the the engineers built a power supply to that seperates the AC line voltage from the DC supply rails in the projector to a very large degree with lots of bulk and local charge storage throughout. It's hard for me to believe that a power cord could make a difference.


If I actually did see a difference though, I'd certainly be a believer (and want to figure out *why* I see a difference...)


Cary

 

[WD-40]

Did you contact Nordost yet, and get a quote on bulk cable?


Because 5 feet of fancy wire isn't going to make much of a difference if the 50 feet of wire in your wall before your outlet isn't any good. Have you upgraded your outlets yet?


Hope you didn't spend too much...... (but you probably did).


- David

 

[M NEWMAN]

Here we go again....The placebo effect is still alive and well in electronics...


It's amazing to me that people can be hoodwinked into believing that a 6 ft long, passive cable can negate the effects of several hundred feet of plain jane romex and crap breakers, etc into a switch mode power supply and deliver an improved picture that's obviously visable. Now, if Nordost somehow managed to cram a trick filter in that plug to cut down on the unavoidable noise pumped back into the electrical lines by the switch-mode PS, then "maybe" I'd believe it was "slightly" possible to see an effect. Of course, this all assumes a really good grounding system, instead of the usual steel clamp on a dirty cold water pipe that's typical...

 

[Curt Palme]

Are you telling me Mike that you have _NOT_ yet pulled your breakers and gold plated them? I did that as soon as I moved into my new place. I also plated all of the Romex ends, and petitioned the hydro company to climb the pole, but I have yet to hear back from them. I also want to change the power pole transformer to a Toroid.


Curt

 

[benny]

Hey there Harold ...


didn't a large number of you guys have a lengthy power blackout last month? I reckon a lot of the power cords in use at the time must have had their quantum alignment properties drained from being without power for hours on end. Just as well the suppliers of the new cords had the forethought to realign their product before selling them, otherwise you would have seen no difference at all, and then thought to yourself ... "what a waste of money that was !"


Cheers


Russ

 

[deronmoped]

As for the power cord I did notice that the cheap or bad ones warmed up at the plug end, poor connection.


As for good overall power, make sure you have the proper voltage at the receptical, I had the electrical company in my area come out and set a new transformer, as there was too much of a voltage drop to my house and other houses down the line from me. Turn off the washer and dishwasher, these will cause voltage spikes as the motors kick in. Have everything on the PJ curcuit tailed out, replace the breaker, check the connections on that breaker, make sure you have a good grounding system, 8' ground rod or ufer ground, and the water pipes are bonded to the ground. I would go as far as grounding all my system components together. That should be done if you have a good ground system and three prong plugs on your equipment. Your stereo stuff probably has no ground, but one can be added.


Deron.


Deron.

 

[M NEWMAN]

Quote:

Originally posted by Curt Palme Are you telling me Mike that you have _NOT_ yet pulled your breakers and gold plated them? I did that as soon as I moved into my new place. I also plated all of the Romex ends, and petitioned the hydro company to climb the pole, but I have yet to hear back from them. I also want to change the power pole transformer to a Toroid. Curt

Naaahhhh!


I'm still relying on my same old crappy, totally molested and butchered electrical power from my garbage panel and breakers that everyone else has. Something about electrical power taking the path of least resistance anyway stops me from adorning my electrical system with jewelry. That, and the fact that switch-mode Power supplies not caring much about noise on the line anyway after chopping it into tiny pieces and filtering it, then chopping it into more pulses.........

 

[mp20748]

"Do power cords affect image? "


Only if it gets in between the projected image coming from the tubes and the screen.


I had this problem on my system. I changed to a shorter cord, and now the problem is solved... but I have no idea who made the shorter cord, there's no name on it.

 

[M NEWMAN]

Quote:

Originally posted by mp20748 "Do power cords affect image? " Only if it gets in between the projected image coming from the tubes and the screen. I had this problem on my system. I changed to a shorter cord, and now the problem is solved... but I have no idea who made the shorter cord, there's no name on it.

 

[RobertV]

You know, when you have your PJ mounted on the floor, the Big Dog Brand can change the image, but the Little Dog Brand does not affect the image at all. Funny how that works.

Not that I have any of the above (no dogs and the PJ is mounted in a loft.)

 

[spearce]

Given that I have a floor mounted projector, I've stayed away from both Big Dog Brand and Little Dog Brand, as well as Furry Fuzzbal Cat Brand. I just use a computer power supply cable I found in a box in my junk closet. Funny how those things seem to breed when left alone in dark places for a while....

 

[Curt Palme]

Can someone recommend a cure for the Flying Moth pulldown screens?


Seems to happen a lot when I have the screen door open in the summer and fall.


Curt

 

[bblue]

There's a lot of strange things that go on in neighborhood and household AC distribution that can raise havoc with electronic gear of any type. The AC and ground circuits are pipelines to an outside (or even inside household) world of extreme noise, voltage or current spikes, and RF contamination that you're connecting directly to electronic gear.


Most power supplies do a pretty commendable job of trying to isolate and filter some of this contamination, but very few get it all. As a result, the power supply could be passing virtually untouched, various types of noise and other disturbances through its circuits and right past decoupling circuits that are aimed at primarily internally generated noise. Not to mention crazy stuff that actually exists on the ground leg which you bring right to the chassis of the electronic device.


Most power cords do nothing but connect point A and B with three wires and pass whatever is there along to the equipment. But *some* of the better cords include ferrite chokes and/or a filtering network between all three lines that are designed to minimize the noise and other garbage that gets passed through to the device. In some AC environments with particular characteristics these can make quite a difference.


On a projector, power cables can't affect things like brightness, resolution, etc., but certain types of cables can, under the right circumstances, decrease video noise, which is perceived as more saturated colors, better blacks and the like.


A lot of the different power cables really are snake oil, but there can be improvements to be had with the right filtering, which can sometimes be accomplished with a simple power cable change.


--Bill

 

[Curt Palme]

Bill, in all seriousness now, can you link me to a cable that has built in suppression? I agree that in severe cases, a power line conditioner can clean up AC power, but you need fairly large chokes, coils and caps to do that. No power cord that I know of can build an LC network into a power cord.


Curt

 

[Specboy]

I thought the chokes on power cords were more for preventing switching noise produced from the switchmode ps itself going back up into the mains supply rather than the other way around.


In short, fancy power cords are a con job.

 

[bblue]

Hi Curt,


A few years ago I could have given you several links but I haven't been following it lately. The reason I am aware of this trick is that I have taken several of them apart to see why there was any difference.


I had a running joke/argument with a friend who runs a high end audio store, who was constantly prodding me to take home some of these power cables because (he said) they made such a difference in the sound on higher end audio gear. I told him I thought it was total BS and there's no way a power cable could make the slightest difference unless it was 30 gauge or something and had a severe voltage drop across it. And that would be a difference I wouldn't want to hear.


But for the heck of it I tried some of them, and though most did nothing there was one of his cables that really did make a difference in the audio so I was determined to find out why. It was just an ordinary 14 gauge cable wire-wise, but had series inductors in each leg and an r/c network in each end and a larger inductor in the ground leg. I checked several after that and found they contained anywhere from nothing to something similar in others, but they didn't make any difference that I could notice in the system except for the one.


I live in a fairly RF hot area (UHF/VHF frequencies) and am on a mountain top, so it's not at all unusual for house wiring and the ground system to act as an antenna system which can inject all sorts of disturbances into audio or video equipment. My audio gear is very wide bandwidth and high resolution so anything that can affect the source signal is clearly heard. My supposition on that power cable which made the difference was that because of particular RLC characteristics it was suppressing some RF which was getting into my gear.


I have since rebuilt the house and in doing so put in a 5 point earth ground system and extremely long and deep electrical ground system as one of those points. All audio and A/V gear throughout the house references the earth ground rather than the electrical ground, which has eliminated completely any sensitivity to outside noise and RF. If I was to try the power cable test now, I'm quite sure it would not make a difference.


But I firmly believe that anyone with high resolution high bandwidth audio or video gear could benefit from some of these techniques (even power cables of the right type), especially in an AC noisy or RF hot area. Generally speaking, you don't just plug all your gear into wall outlets and get the best performance.


--Bill

 

[johnd393]

No

 

[MikeEby]

Top 10 things I have done to improve my picture.


10. Built a pyramid then installed the projector beneath it.


9. Installed a pump to fill your theater with a richer oxygen air mix.


8. Installed lead shielded conduit for each RGBHV signal as well as the 110-ac supply.


7. Cool your HTPC with liquid nitrogen.


6. Use a wired remote with the cable installed in lead shielded conduit because of the stray remote signals bouncing around the theater raises havoc with your projectors karma.


5. When watching a movie always ware clothing made of natural fibers. Polyester and nylon have much higher dielectric properties and your body will generate electric interference that spoils any gains made with the pyramid.


4. If movie viewer insist on eating popcorn during a movie be sure the popcorn bucket is magnetically shielded and is grounded at all times.


3. Serve only non-carbonated beverages. The escaping carbon dioxide from the carbonated beverages will upset the oxygen balance and cause pre-mature fungus on the face of your CRT.


2. Flush your audio system once per week by playing your favorite Pink Floyd album.


1. Never ever allow anyone to watch a movie starring both Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. This could cause permanent un-repairable damage to your projector.


Mike