Why I care about cables (or listening to low priced Power Cords & Interconnects)

Indeed. I knew Russ when he started out. he had a little basement hifi shop in Edinburghs New Town. I bought some nice kit from him. He had the gift of gab and was clearly going to get rich. But, he actually started out, selling proper hi-fi.

 

Great writeup. I had never bothered with power cords until recently when I got some components that didnt come with them. DIY power cords are quite easy to make and experiment with. If you dont care about it being pretty you can order a plug and IEC made with pure red copper from Japan and cryoed for $22 shipped from Sonarquest. Most $100+ sets of plug/iecs from the big name places wont get you copper and/or cryoed. Then just experiment with the wire in between. Once its stripped its really quick to switch wires on your plug set if you dont even want to spend an extra $22 for 2nd set of plugs. Since my cords only need to be 3 feet max its cheap for me to try the AC cable from DHLabs, Furutech, etc. I was also turned onto IceAge Audios cryoed copper cable thats $6/ft as well. Not at the point of putting up my results but for $60 you can make some fantastic AC cables although for $100 some fancy Furutech wire sounds quite good to me.

One thing I found interesting was talking to Chris of VHAudio for some pointers on making AC cables and even just the difference on what you tie the shield too. Most manufacturers tie the shield to the safety ground wire at the wall outlet end and and float it at the destination end. Furutechs premium cables float it at both ends. He personally likes it tied at the IEC end and floated at the outlet end against all convention but encourages experimenting even with that since all componenets are different.

 

This company? Transparent Cable
or do you mean nearly invisible

 

How does a cable fall apart? Ive read this a few times and I have NO IDEA how that happens or what you people are doing to the cables.

I have cables from the late 80's and early 90's that are sill perfectly fine and ive tossed them around and mishandled them.

So you "tried" 1 obviously poorly made over-priced cord that made no difference to You, and that was enough for you to determine that Power Cables make no difference for Everyone? That snot very scientific, is it?

Made note to Self: Never buy Russ Andrews cables.

 

Yes the company in Maine USA! I don't have anything fancy, just Musicwave and Musiclink.

 

I have found in my systems the power cored to the power amplifiers seem to matter the most compared. I settled on the Pangea 9SE which seems pretty good. There is also another AC power cable I bought from Mouser that was shielded for a lot less that was almost as good. I also plug in the power cords in a SurgeX filter and lightning protector, and that also made a difference. But I have a lot of RFI.

Next up was the interconnects between preamp and amp. Made a large difference. I am using XLR's since I have a long run to monoblocks. But they also seem to be pretty noise immune.

The rest had some minor differences to me, but those were the biggies and ended up spending the most attention.

 

I had some speaker cables and XLR's from then (I think the same series as you indicated) about 10 years ago. Nice stuff.

 

I know parsing the differences in sound between different brands is like splitting hairs. I've can fully strap up front to back with Transparent, AQ, Kimber and throw in some Mogami 3103 (which I pair with Tributaries). One thing I do recommend is trying a cable brand front to back rather than a hodgepodge of different stuff and trying to hear if one set of IC's is somehow better or worse.

 

Same here! Though I'm open to the improvement that a mega-buck power cable or other cables can make, I am also skeptical and think there must be a point of rapidly diminishing returns. Getting my system to sound as good as it can with fairly low priced cables is a good starting point to figure out if it even makes sense to spend any more on cables.

 

No doubt. Hearing that audio cables make NO difference whatsoever would just open up money that I can then spend on one of my other interests! That would be a win-win in my book.

The unfortunate truth is that I do hear a difference and those audible differences at the low end of the cable price spectrum are quite obvious and substantial.

 

That starts as soon as you pay for stuff, the best value is found in the rubbish bin but it is getting harder.

 

I've had similar experiences with Audioquest analog cables, too- was not very impressed with 'em. I had the golden gates.

still skeptical of the power cords making a detectable difference, I've yet to hear one do that myself.

 

I was actually really surprised that the Audioquest cables didn't sound better. The Golden Gate wasn't bad sounding and it did sound noticeably better than the Audioquest Evergreen interconnect before even comparing the two. But, I immediately could tell that the similarly-priced DH Labs White Lightning sounded better when I put it back into my system. Audioquest must be times bigger than a small company like DH Labs. You would think that they can get materials at far lower prices than smaller companies. Maybe they are focusing their cable spend on marketing? If so, that's too bad because I've actually quite enjoyed my AQ Dragonfly Red DAC and the AQ Jitterbug has also been a useful addition as well.

With respect to sound quality improvements from cables (not to mention audio equipment in general), I'm also skeptical unless I hear an improvement that's pretty evident and not one that I need to sit around for days to hear. I've read and heard enough marketing hype only to be disappointed when actually hearing the product in person.

 

I assume the bottom part is the shielded end?

 

Makes sense. I've already had experience with a Synergistic Research UEF Black power cord that sounded great on a Denafrips Ares II DAC, but didn't work as well as a cheaper power cord on the Denafrips Pontus II DAC.

What I've learned about cables and sound quality is that the topic is complicated and can be seemingly illogical at time.

 

Power cables have the potential for greater influence than any other cables. My latest switch was pricey, but it was equal to a component change in my system. No other cable or tweek has impacted the sound as much.

 

I also had a wonderful experience with the Audioquest Colorado interconnect and it has a rectangular black box attached by a thin wire at one end. A voodoo box since I don’t fully understand in an intellectual way but my ears did and to me that is what counted. Far from their top of the line but certainly not entry. Top of my budget though and worth every penny.

 

I believe cable companies 'voice' their cables in a way THEY like, so maybe the Audioquest voicing is just not to your liking. I had the same experience with another brand. One of my dealers swears by it. I heard one of his systems set up to his liking (including self made speakers) and I hated the sound. But it made me realise why he swears by those cables, because they give him the sound that HE likes.

 

>Excellent post. Yes I think it goes without saying that power cables can improve. Even some pro reviewers such as those at Stereophile have said much the same thing: namely, that just getting the lower-end specialty cables improves A LOT over stock power cords. I had a JPS Labs powering my amp for many years. But another of my cords was still "stock".
So I bought the AQ NRG3 seeing it in the Stereophile "Recomended Component" section. I figured that it could not be worse than the stock, and only cost $100 for 2 meters. So far, in my initial listening I have not been disappointed. Although it's not 'night and day', it seems to mark that subtle improvement that just makes the sound more musical and enjoyable and after all isn't that what it's all about? Perhaps will incrementally improve even more with time. But the main thing is that you can improve with just the first-tier cords, as you suggested, without needing to go all Valhalla. Thanks.

 

Whilst it's very easy to poke fun at some of their claims, I used to receive their bi-monthly new letter and would give it to my electrical engineer friend who would do a spoof new letter, which was a hilarious because it was very close to the original text.

Having said that the products, which I've tried do work, the latest, the X Block is probably a better option than a buying a superior power cord for a number of components.

The X Block comes without a cable and I found that using a better cable to the socket made a significant improvement.

Here's a interesting interview with Russ, which talk about his engineering and retail/design background.
Interview With Russ Andrews - audiopolitan

 

Russ Andrews cables are not poorly made - I have used them in the past and still have a mains block that has been used, abused and mishandled for over 20 years and shows no sign whatsoever of 'falling apart' or anything at all deleterious.

 

If you read my previous post we obviously disagree about the merit of their products also I nor any of my friends have experienced their products falling apart

This sounds like a urban myth.

 

Suppose for a moment that in fact cables (say power cables) are meaningfully "voiced" by the manufacturer. And that it made a big difference. Why are the manufacturers not also providing recommendations for users on the kinds of systems they should try pairing the cable with?

I have never seen recommendations like - "The Everest" should be paired with amplifiers capable of >200W output... "The Fuji" is meant for ~100W amps. Then you can try "The Mitchell" for low-power <10W amps.

Obviously doesn't need to be correlated with power output. Maybe something else like Class A, A/B, D, digital source component, analogue source, etc... Or maybe length of wire you might need.

Point being, if there is something rational about this and the manufacturers are indeed tweaking something worthwhile instead of just providing "luxury" products that might be meant to look good with fancy claims like geometry and conductor material, wouldn't it be good for consumers to be aware and make informed choices in line with the tweaking?

Otherwise, it's just about price tags, appearance, and trial-and-error with the eyes/ears of faith.

So Russ Andrews in his interview (linked above), there's a picture of him with an oscilloscope "measuring a cable's performance". Wouldn't it have been nice for the interviewer to have just asked him "So Andrew, what are you measuring there so I can explain this to my readers?" I think the answer would have been way more interesting and useful than knowing that he sold "55,000" power cables or that he likes rock climbing.

He quotes Feynman: "If you can't explain something on one side of a sheet of paper so that your grandmother can understand it - you don't really understand it yourself." I'd like to see him try explaining how his power cables can make a big difference based on this claim - like that SuperKord with the wooden thingies.

One more thing - "My 10% rule is that you should spend 10% of your budget on the electronics and 90% on the infrastructure to get the very best out of it!" What's that supposed to me? If it's spending 90% to buy a house with a good sound room, maybe that's OK. I certainly hope it doesn't mean we're supposed to hand 90% over to him for some unsubstantiated "infrastructure" power cords?! Seems more than a little... unwise...

Guys, IMO, these are not serious "journalists" writing articles, nor are these serious manufacturers with actual products based on "sound" R&D.

 

When it comes to electrical equipment, if doesn't have safety certification from labs like UL or CSA, I won't allow it in my home. Do I even need to explain why attaching flammable blocks of wood to a power cord is a bad idea?