Best bang? New power cord or power conditioner?

Shindo Labs does. Their stock power cords look cheap and flimsy in comparison to some of the big dollar PCs, but the gear sounds much better with them, mostly because they were designed to work together. Add their Mr. T power liner conditioner and you'll really see some synergy.

 

Maybe I'm just deaf, but I can't hear any difference with my Rotel RLC-1040 power conditioner, but it does look very cool and matches my amp.

 

Hi!

Let me tell you my own experience:

First and foremost. I didn't know anything in particular about power cables until I first tried a dedicated one. It was a hand-made by a friend.

It DID make difference
At that point I've only tried interconnects and speakers cables. I was even a bit afraid of changing a power cord because I thought there might be problems with my amplifier or something!

Several months later, and after changing 2 times power cords my friend (the same one who first introduced me to power cords) brought a PS Audio Duet.
WOW! it did even MORE difference than the power cord

So, IMHO, try a power conditioner first. And then save a bit of money and go with a cool power cord

 

I have 220 and 120 ACV dedicated lines run to my listening room.
That, and tight fitting sockets with quality power cords to the conditioner provide as much as I'll ever need.

I don't see buying cords for my gear.


Steve

 

Any thoughts on APC?

I know these are less costly, but APC have a good rep in the tech world. I know a lot of people who say these are competent, but mostly from a AV/Theatre perspective. Are these worthy of consideration for $300 if that's all that's in your budget?I'm mainly interested on conditioning.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4197031&CatId=4715

 

Not my choice.

 

Been there, tried that.... about on par with Monster for sound quality.

 

I have the Monster HTS5000 and it is pretty good but the Shunyata gear is in a whole new league when I have tried it.

 

buy a good power cord

 

My journey led me to PS Audio's power regeneration products and then their power cords. Getting my Torii Mk III amp in the system led to my exploring getting the very best out of this marvelous amp, and this was where that journey took me, and when I got there I found I could feed the system with better front-ends and really reap benefits.

I just shocked myself yesterday by moving a few power cords around and putting a PS Audio Perfectwave AC-12 in place of the AC-10 on my phono preamp. The excellent sound I had became even better, better tonal definition, better dynamics, and better "pace." Not a huge difference, but I can hear subtle differences in this system easily now. I was surprised because why wouldn't the AC-10 be an ultimate cord for the PS Audio GCPH? I want to get a few more used AC-12s into my system over the next year; using these in my system along with the PS Audio Power Plant Premier has been the icing on the cake for the system and my listening enjoyment. I wouldn't have predicted this was where I was going to be, but luckily I've been able to get there.

So I guess my answer is that both power conditioning and power cords have taken me into hours and hours of sonic happiness. A big expense to get here, so I'm going to sit tight.

 

Depends what you need it to do - if it's "will it make my gear sound significantly better", then I'd suggest that money goes towards something that really will make a noticeable difference. If your power from your mains is a problem, then maybe a conditioner, if it's an issue when you playback.

Ultimately, I know of guys that use £3 HDMI cables with £3000-worth of active speakers (and more) and that gear is as revealing as you'll get (AVI ADM40), so you pays your money....

 

I don't want to argue, but my experience has been that take care of cleaning up the power and replace those 3 pound sterling cords with the best match for those components and even more revealing sonic delight will ensue. It's all a matter of what you want to pay and how much sonic goodness you can afford to have. And if that sort of playing about is fun for you. In my opinion, based on a few years experience playing about with these types of components.

 

Sorry Lon, but you're talking about guys who've gone from spending big bucks on interconnects and hardware. Not arguing the point here anymore, but you can drop by the AVI Forum and see how you get on there.

My experience with a wide range of interconnects suggests to me subtle differences at best (if you don't take silver vs. copper into it, but keep it at like-for-like) and the cheap optical works as well as the pricey one. YMMV.

 

LawnMower Cable is very Fashionable over here
Plenty of Copper,good colours and lengths.
Especially when its been used in an East/West Garden
This alignes the molecules with the Earths Magnetic Field
Cables fromWimbledon Courts are especially valued because of seed mix used.
Roller mower cable best for vinyl
Mulchers for digital.
Thank You.

 

Okay, then I'll just conclude that we hear things differently and/or have different hearing BR. I'm not going to believe what you tell me I ought to hear when I've heard what I've heard. I trust my own senses, especially impressions made with them over time. And I'm talking from actual experiences here of using power treatment and cabling on excellent components and improving their sound.

The AVI forum. . . sorry, that place is just not somewhere I enjoy being. They have their experience and opinion, I have mine.

 

I say spend the $1000 bucks you were going to spend on a power cord and work on the room first. Then it will be easier to hear the diff between power cords.

 

No argument from me there.

 

That's as it should be - not that I recall suggesting such a thing to you or anyone else. That would be the "YMMV" I mentioned earlier.

 

The only time I've seen a difference with power conditioners was when I lived in an old house with dodgy wiring. A monster set up made a dramatic improvement in the picture quality of my TV in that situation. It was not subtle. Once I moved to a new house, and upgraded my audio system to a combination of rega gear and Oppo 105 blue ray player, I tried upgrading power cords (no discernable difference), and different power conditioning systems. If there was a difference, it was too subtle to hear through my PSB t2 speakers. I'd say if you already have clean power, you probably get bigger bang for the buck elsewhere.

 

Give the good folks at The Cable Company a call and you can audition both a power cord and conditioner in your system at no risk to see which has the most benefit in your system.

 

Good advice.

 

The biggest improvement I've had was with power cords. Line conditioners were noticeable but just not so much.

 

I personally would start with the power condition thinking that unless you upgraded power cords for each of your components that a power conditioner would benefit all of your components and provide the organization you need. I would recommend trying to find a new or used PS Audio Quintet which I think is an excellent sub-$400 option (new). The Shunyata Venom series of cables can be had for under $125 and they come in versions for sources and other for your amps.

 

Forgive me, but what is a power conditioner?

 

Is it OK to ask for at least a slightly plausible scientific explanation of why a power cord would have any beneficial effect on the sound quality of a component, over another cord with the same electrical characteristics?