Mercury Magnetics Power cord - Hype?

[cjlectronics]

Is this hype or can it really be true. I have a hard time believing it and think it is a clever marketing scheme. What do you guys think?

Mercury Magnetics

[big_teee]

If you have a low AC Voltage condition, I can maybe see the bigger cord.
At My location my AC is always at least 125 Volts AC.
I am pretty sure that a 16 Gauge Cable at 125V AC will be sufficient for a 2 Amp feed to a 50 Watt Marshall.
B_T

[g1]

They mention 60% less resistance per foot. From the data here: Resistance of Wire (Wire Resistance Calculator) that would work out to about .024 extra ohms total over a 6ft. long power cord. If my math is right, that means you would lose .25 watt input power for each amp of current through the cable (I'm ingnoring temperature effects).
Not very significant, but I can't argue that you are better off maintaining the same gauge as your house wiring all the way through to your PT.
But isn't a lot of house wiring 12 gauge now? And if you plug your amp into a power bar what gauge is it's cable?
Price seems reasonable but personally I doubt I would ever hear the difference.

[big_teee]

They mention 60% less resistance per foot. From the data here: Resistance of Wire (Wire Resistance Calculator) that would work out to about .024 extra ohms total over a 6ft. long power cord. If my math is right, that means you would lose .25 watt input power for each amp of current through the cable (I'm ingnoring temperature effects).
Not very significant, but I can't argue that you are better off maintaining the same gauge as your house wiring all the way through to your PT.
But isn't a lot of house wiring 12 gauge now? And if you plug your amp into a power bar what gauge is it's cable?
Price seems reasonable but personally I doubt I would ever hear the difference.

Keep in mind the 2 Amp fuse at the US high voltage levels.
A wall receptacle is rated at 15Amps, with 14 Gauge wire.
If your Amp consumed 15 Amps, then you would need the bigger wire.
For a less than 2 Amp Circuit at the High US voltage, Your just IMHO Wasting your money!
T

[g1]

Totally agree. I was just trying to find any reason for it whatsoever, and the only thing I could think was, why go down from 14 gauge at the outlet through an 18 gauge to your amp. (They use 18guage as their comparison, not the 16 gauge you mentioned). Even at 4 amps (100 watt head on the verge of blowing the fuse), you are only losing 1watt of input wattage "headroom" which is .2 % of the available 500Watts @125VAC.
Now that makes it sound even more insignificant . But all that being said, for the introductory price of 10 bucks, why not? It's probably more heavy duty than a computer cable. For durability I can see it (at that price), sound wise I'll hear none of it .

[Tom Phillips]

It's total hype.
Very disappointing to see them stoop to this level but not surprising to me since their website is full of marketing hype.

[Chuck H]

+1
I know MM is selling hype anyway. But they do make good transformers (from what I read. Never actually used or heard one). Considering their semi educated demographic I would think that stooping to the same mojo hype as the hi fi cork sniffers would cheapen their reputation. At least that's the first feeling I got seeing this.

I didn't buy MM iron before because it was overpriced. Now I won't buy it because I know they're willing to sell what amounts to sheer hype. So who knows what kind of transformer they'll make and put into a box. As long as it's not grossley bad it would stand up to most scrutiny. What with "tone" being such a subjective issue. If MM will market based on false premise I have NO confidence in their remaining genuine when it comes to a critical component like an output transformer. And I don't think this is too harsh.

I used to THINK they were just slick. Now I KNOW they're just greasy.

[Zozobra]

I have a MM bassman 135 PT (I was given it, dull story) and the spec sheet it came with doesnt include any sort of useful ratings, just the voltages and no indication of the current rating or a VA. I emailed them and they didnt bother replying. Its a $370 transformer!

[cjlectronics]

I do like the red colored cable jacket. I'd be interested in a florescent color but then I'd have to figure a way to run the cable in front of the amp so you could see it.

[R.G.]

Sigh.

This reminds me of a couple of ads I've seen. The most pertinent was "Bachelor Chow! Now with FLAVOR!"

The pseudo-technical hyperbole of advertising irrelevant technical details as massive improvements (and implying that you're uninformed or stupid if you don't see how good the [whatever] is for you) actually amounts to a kind of voluntary tax on the naive or technical wannabees.

Even if there is some change in operation as a result of the [whatever], which is not always the case, did no one ever hear of the law of diminishing returns? What's next? Water-jacketed speaker cables were sold. Maybe we ought to have water-jacketed AC power cables. Oh, wait! Water jacketed AC power lines ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE POWER STATION!!

Sigh.

[Gtr_tech]

Here we go with the audiophool mentality creeping into the musical instrument world again. How about some C37 lacquer to coat the board in yer amp?

I Am As Mad As Hell - Find Out Why

[g1]

My computer's been getting slow, sounds like this should help

[tedmich]

Is it just me or is MM iron almost completely devoid of DATA? You have this amp? You need this iron! No impedance's no nothing...kinda like how Eurotubes makes a big show about getting you tubes for your precise amp but never tells you why these tubes are special...Gerald Weberesque smoke and mirrors...

MM should sell 12AWG cords and claim they have "Black Snake Moan Mojo"

[Chuck H]

"Black Snake Moan Mojo"

Hmmm... bsmm... Could that be an acronym with the first two letters being the usual meaning for "bs" and the second two applicable to the subject of this post???

[jmaf]

As for "marketing hype", we all know there is no tolerance for such bullshit ads in this business so let's go ahead and bash MM for running a simple page promoting their better power cable.

Man, just look at the latest distortion pedal Steve Vai is wearing on his forehead. Now, let's talk about Marshall.