What powercords do you use? Stock, middle budget aftermarket, best you can afford?

Im not a dink, i repair hifi and television for a living, Just use a power conditioner unit.

 

Woops, sorry. I am not advocating anarchy.

 

What is a dink?

 

I use a power conditioning unit, yet different cords between it and components give different results.

Regarding the OP's original question, I aim for reasonable cost, usually less than a few hundred dollars, and buy used when possible. I find the changes cord impart often more difficult to discern, so I worry less about it.

John K.

 

Stock. Have been curious about if power cords and conditioners would be worth looking at.

 

Wireworld and Signal for me, I'm happy with them.

 

Unfortunately, they do make a difference. Yet another rabbit hole to contend with...........

 

I have a dedicated 20a circuit for my gear. What difference do you think they make?

 

I run Isotek Premium EVO's to my amp and cd player. Got em both for the price of one.
Haven't done any critical listening by swaping them with the stock ones. With casual listening so far, no real 'ah-aaa' moments.

Regards

 

D5

 

I think that makes a difference. Just 5 amps drawn on a 20 amp circuit can cause a voltage drop, but not consequential to performance at that point. However I do question 10 amps, such as a 350 watt per channel amp would draw, maybe higher peaks, which could cause audible sponginess. I wouldn't be listening at that level for very long anyway, just me personally.

Having a light dim slightly with a vacuum cleaner running doesn't matter much, and minimal calculated inefficiency of the vacuum cleaner, (all within safe limits of the typical branch circuit) but audio does matter.

You'd be surprised how the length of branch circuits cause a voltage drop under load, any more than 25 feet (about 6 meters) we will have a voltage drop under medium to heavy load. Most runs are 50 to 75 feet or more, and also feed thru outlets.

A dedicated 20 amp circuit IMO, will do more for your gear than any exotic power cable would.
For 350 watts per channel or more, I'd say go with 30 amps/ 10 gauge. Go with the next gauge up for longer runs greater than 50 feet.

The 16 gauge power cord on a high power amp is just fine, because it is short! We need larger gauges for long runs.
For Euro 220v mains we can halve the amperage requirement.

 

I never believed in power cords.

I run a Lampizator dac , audio note amp and trenner & friedl speakers, it never sounded to my ears as good as it should have, I had isotek cords, I tried some absolute transmission cables , and to say I was blown away is an understatement.

My system sounds unbelievable now.

Don't discount what good power cords do, I did for years , and was very wrong, I don't post much ,but had to on the subject.

If you spend a lot of money on your system, do your self a favour and find out what they do, I don't think I need to upgrade anything now, so happy , and I didn't know the price of them either, no placebo.

 

Here the mains is 240v, so the power cord requirement is low, 18awg is fine normally. What is still good is of course to have a dedicated line for audio. I think it´s good concentrating on things that matter.

 

7 separate lines with 7 amp20
Marohei power cord
Cardas power cord
Wire world power cord
Furutech power cord
For digital I use also power conditioner Clean Streem2

 

I would say less noise, allowing one to hear more of the signal unmasked.

Having a dedicated circuit as you have done really makes a big difference. I think the differences that power cords & conditioners make can be more subtle, and depend on the condition of the grid in your area plus environmental RFI & EMI. My home shares the outside transformer with two other homes. That's not an ideal set up.

Some components seem more sensitive to power cord changes than others. I think this depends on the quality of their power supply. In my own system, preamps tended to show the differences between power cords more readily than power amps.

For power conditioners I use a Chang Lightspeed, as it filters without limiting current and cost less than other power conditioners using similar methods.

Having a modest income, I truly wish that I could not hear the differences, but I can. I try to find value, and avoid those who wish to make a killing instead of a living.

 

I'm not much of a believer in boutique cables, but I give the benefit of the doubt that a beefier cable on the power amp could make a difference with spikes and surges. I made a DIY power cord for my 300-watt NAD, plugged into a hospital-grade duplex outlet in my listening room. I used 12AWG Coleman Royal SJOOW cable, and basic Wattgate plugs (total cost, under $50), and constructed it as short as possible.

Douglas Connection DIY Cables and connectors for Audio and Home Theater

 

Stock

 

You know, a pud.

 

Have your wife swap them a few times while you are out of the room ... see if you are still blown away.

 

I dont know about americas safety policy but here in England we use fuses in our mains plugs, so it makes no difference how much you spend on a power cable, the current gets squeezed through a fuse for safety before being sent to the amps transformer, chances are there will be another current limiting mains fuse in the amplifier itself to protect it from overload which consists of a thin filament of wire, equipment only draws the power it needs. Every piece of equipment has a cable rating for power safety, adding more cable wont do a thing. But a power smoothing circuit will. For good sound quality i would be more concerned about replacing low quality capacitors inside the amplifier to proper nichicon audio grade, here you will get the most benefit.

 

I thought this was only commonly used in northern New England.

 

I never thought power cables could make a difference until I paid many hundreds for.....oh who am I kidding? Power cables? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!