power cords

I am a FIRM believer that Power Cords DO make a diff in the sound, and would have loved to contribute to this thread, to get a better insight relating construction to Sound Quality.

Unfortunately, I use only Commercial power cords, and some are pretty expensive, so I have not conducter a biopsy on their innards...

Sivat I recently tried a yamamura 5000 power chord.
it is unshielded but has a separate external cable which i believe is a grounding/shielding cable .

change has been in the reduction of background noise. there seems to be an increase in depth as well as a smoothness in sound and increased dynamics/clarity but not sure if these are all related to the decrease in noise itself

Hi Siva !

What is to write;
Experience it.

Simple.

Borrow power cords - plug them in & listen.

One of my cords is in Bangalore with KB;
Borrow it & listen to it.

I personally believe that PC's make a huge difference.
Needs to be heard - experienced to be 'accepted' !

bhagwan69 schrieb:

Hi Siva ! What is to write; Experience it. !

That i have Bhagwan...not your's ... but Shunyata, Murthy's, Harmonix, Audience, Chris's DIY, etc.,

Amp_Nut, I'll agree it makes a difference.

But i'm more intrested in knowing what kind of improvement it had on different setups. I'm sure you'll agree....there will be different observations. Something like what Arj has mentioned.

Regards
Siva.

Hi Sivat,

I like the idea of this thread and would certainly like to read posts, including from Manek who has made his own..

My First 'High End' Power Cord was the



'Cardas Golden Power Cord'. Very thick and impressive, it provided a huge improvement to the Computer IEC power cables I was then using.

The Cardas Golden Power provide a huge (then welcome) boost in Bass, as I was using 'book shelf' speakers - the Sonus Faber Extremas. there was improvement Accross the boeard./

The Change in sound was most apparent when used with the Source (CD player).

I still have the cable, and use it when I try out a 'Bass shy' CD player or pre in my system.

I must add that the Cardas Golden Power cord is currently NOT my reference Power Cord.

However, a LOT of thought has gone into this cable's construction and configuration. To some it may even seem the Pinacle of Mains Power cable Implementation, and surprisingly to me its not the Ultimate in Sound Quality, but its VERY good, if you need or can accomodate extra bass in your system.

I am reproducing some interesting snippets written about the Cable's construction... ( some rather verbose ! )


You could check this out at Revolution Power

Every detail in Cardas cables is at the leading edge. Pure Teflon® is used as a stabilizing wrap to firmly bind the conductors, while thin wall tubes provide an air dielectric to isolate the conductors from each other. Cardas defines the state of the art with a perfect joining of conductor to connector. All connectors are custom machined with rhodium over silver contact surfaces. Finally, to insure the quality of each cable, they are terminated by hand and individually inspected.

Though a March 2006 article in Stereophile unwarps the cable best :

But the Cardas Golden Reference power cord, which costs $561 for an 8' run and is now my favorite pricey tweak, isn't one of those. Like all Cardas cables, its design was motivated by George Cardas's belief in the relevance of the golden-section ratio to cable design; eg, ensuring that the mass of one strand in a bundle is precisely 1.618 times that of its nearest neighbor—just as the Almighty has ensured that the distance between the corners of Uma Thurman's mouth is precisely 1.618 times the distance between her lower lip and the tip of her nose, and that the distance from her toes to her navel is 1.618 times the distance from her navel to the top of her head. But beyond that, the configuration of conductors and insulators in the Golden Reference is specifically intended for domestic AC power applications. Consider just one conductor group in the Golden Reference cord: It contains 119 high-purity copper strands in all, arranged in eight layers, with the proportional mass differential coming from the fact that the discrete strands in each successive layer are wound longer than the ones in the preceding layer: That's done in the interest of damping or muffling out-of-band information—which is to say, the unwanted harmonics of 60Hz. At the core of the cable are three of those 119-strand bundles—one each for hot, neutral, and ground. Each is insulated with Teflon, then twisted together and wrapped with Teflon tape. Over this goes a braided copper shield—grounded at one end and floated at the other, per usual audio practice—that adds another round of physical damping. The whole thing is covered with a relatively flexible TPR jacket, but not before the ground conductor group has been fitted with a toroidal choke at one end. In all, it takes 33 passes through the winding machinery just to build up the cable portion of a single Golden Reference power cord. I mentioned my fondness for Cardas's top-of-the-line AC cable once before, in my "Follow-Up" on the ">Ayre Acoustics AX-7e integrated amplifier (Stereophile, January 2006). Before then, I'd never encountered a single aftermarket AC cord that made a damn bit of audible difference, save for the JPS Labs Digital AC. (But only when the JPS was used with a digital source; it didn't improve the performance of amplifiers or the like.) But when Ayre's Steve Silberman sent me an updated sample of the AX-7e, he included a few samples of this top-of-the-line Cardas power cable, and curiosity got the better of me. As I suggested, the Cardas Golden Reference made a consistently identifiable improvement in the sound of the relatively humble Ayre amp ($2950): Silences were silenter, sonic events were clearer, and the whole music-making shebang had an altogether more natural feel.

Mighty complex construction !

Let's talk about the lady !I like her contruction better ! And now I know why ! I am sure its far more complex than any geometry cardas could throw at his cables.......

Back to cables...ho hum....
I have played with power cables in the past and what they did for midrange they didn't do as much for bass and highs. For me power cables are one of the ingredients to get the mids clearer.....I have also felt(not convinced completely) that they do better lifted especially with electrostats and good power cables are a must with electrostats.

I have also seen the effects of good power cables terminated on stabilizers ac input if one were to use em. Helps clean up the grundge.

Amps yes, more solid state. They mostly make the amps sound a bit more nimble footed.

Cdp's it sure does good for the mids.

These are generalizations but a majority of cord changes have revealed the above. Some I thought didn't do anything much.

Yours is the only place I heard more bass in a system due to a power cord otherise is just cleaner bass rather than more.


Two bits...


Manek

Manek

Can you err...share the secert recipe of your power cord..

:-)

Siva.

Siva....
Err...it won't be a secret if I share it, right ? :-)

If you search the forum, there are details of it around.

Manek

Only recently have I started exploring power cords seriously.
In the past I have tried a few but found that the differences are not much to care about. I had tried some of the Murthy's cables, Signal Cable and a few more.
The only time when I heard a good significant difference was when I tried Jochen's power cord and at that time some one brought in a Nordost "Bramha" power cord to compare. The Nordost was pretty expensive but interestingly, in my modest setup Jochen's power cord lost out to Nordost by only a small margin. I am sure, in a better setup the difference would have been more prominent. In general Jochen's power cord did two things to my Plinius Integrated:

1. Blacker background
2. More relaxed soundstage. The images went back couple of feets but without losing the impact.
Both these things were favourable to my listening habits and my relatively small room (13.5 X 13.6).
The same power cord did not do much to my Bluenote CD player which had an SMPS based power supply.
This was couple of years ago.

Now my setup has changed. Every component is more revealing of what is being fed to it. With the arrival of the ATC, the change in power cords is making a huge difference...as much as an IC or a speaker cable. Let me admit that the power at my place is not at all clean. There is a lot RFI and EMI floating around. Every little power related tweak is working in a significant way. Power cords is my first step towards addressing this issue. Here are some power cords that I have tried recently

1. Silencable Wizzard (Bhagwan69 had sent it for trial)
2. Einstein "The Shield"
3. VH Audio Flavour 2 and 4
4. Murthy's new power cords
5. Tara Labs Entry level (Arj had got it over)

Okay, here is a general observation after trying out all these cords into all my components:

1. The transport seems to benefit most from a well Shielded power cord. The Einstein power cord is a double shielded cord and it significantly worked in improving the tones (smooth, natural, less edgy and full bodied) and reducing the background noise when attached to the transport. The tones gained a more 3D like image.

2. The DAC loves thick power cords. The ones that you would normally attach to high powered amps. Non-current limiting heavy guage power cords have shown tremendous difference with my DAC. The sound takes on a new dimension, lot more flesh (not fat) on the bones, rich clean and weighty presentation with deep tight lows. It almost sounds as if you have a more powerful amp.
The Einstein cord did not do much in this regard. It just cleaned up some grunge. Whereas The Silencable and VH Audio Flavour 4 (both are thick and mean) added this extra life which I have just described to the DACs presentation. The VH Audio was a bit forward so I did not like it as much but the Silencable did everything without being heavy handed.


One thing, whenever I have tried using a thinner power cord, there was a very apparent compression in dynamics.


3. The power amp had a very very similar requirements as the DAC in terms of Power cord. It likes Thick cords. The Silencable has been the best match. When I went from Jochen's cord to Silencable the sound became bigger (without being overwhelming), denser (without muffling) and effortless. Again you get a feeling as if your amp's power has been doubled without any negatives added. The tones freed up and dynamics were strain-less. Again you hear more flesh in the sound.

The Einstein cord was smoother than Jochen's cord but beyond that they were on par. The VH Audio Flavour 4 again brought the stage forward so it was instantly removed.

4. The tube preamp was a surprise package. It does not react much to power cords. It does sound somewhat different with different power cords but I can live with a Computer power cord without making it sound bad. The VH Audio Flavour 2 is specifically meant for low powered analog devices and it worked well with my preamp. The tones were cleaner and more natural. The background also had less grunge. The soundstage was relaxed yet no compression in dynamics. It was a very neutral cord which did things in right areas. But again it did not do much to the other components.

So that has been the summary of the last 3 months of research on power cords. To me it is very difficult to find the right cords for the right equipment. I have found Einstein "The Shield" to be a nice cable which works on most components to various degrees without degrading the sound. And its relatively more affordable so I may be sticking to them for sometime.

Thanks for the extensive Feedback Abhi. It is a very good read.

abhi.pani schrieb:

Only recently have I started exploring power cords seriously. In the past I have tried a few but found that the differences are not much to care about. I had tried some of the Murthy's cables, Signal Cable and a few more. The only time when I heard a good significant difference was when I tried Jochen's power cord and at that time some one brought in a Nordost "Bramha" power cord to compare. The Nordost was pretty expensive but interestingly, in my modest setup Jochen's power cord lost out to Nordost by only a small margin. I am sure, in a better setup the difference would have been more prominent. In general Jochen's power cord did two things to my Plinius Integrated: 1. Blacker background 2. More relaxed soundstage. The images went back couple of feets but without losing the impact. Both these things were favourable to my listening habits and my relatively small room (13.5 X 13.6). The same power cord did not do much to my Bluenote CD player which had an SMPS based power supply. This was couple of years ago. Now my setup has changed. Every component is more revealing of what is being fed to it. With the arrival of the ATC, the change in power cords is making a huge difference...as much as an IC or a speaker cable. Let me admit that the power at my place is not at all clean. There is a lot RFI and EMI floating around. Every little power related tweak is working in a significant way. Power cords is my first step towards addressing this issue. Here are some power cords that I have tried recently 1. Silencable Wizzard (Bhagwan69 had sent it for trial) 2. Einstein "The Shield" 3. VH Audio Flavour 2 and 4 4. Murthy's new power cords 5. Tara Labs Entry level (Arj had got it over) Okay, here is a general observation after trying out all these cords into all my components: 1. The transport seems to benefit most from a well Shielded power cord. The Einstein power cord is a double shielded cord and it significantly worked in improving the tones (smooth, natural, less edgy and full bodied) and reducing the background noise when attached to the transport. The tones gained a more 3D like image. 2. The DAC loves thick power cords. The ones that you would normally attach to high powered amps. Non-current limiting heavy guage power cords have shown tremendous difference with my DAC. The sound takes on a new dimension, lot more flesh (not fat) on the bones, rich clean and weighty presentation with deep tight lows. It almost sounds as if you have a more powerful amp. The Einstein cord did not do much in this regard. It just cleaned up some grunge. Whereas The Silencable and VH Audio Flavour 4 (both are thick and mean) added this extra life which I have just described to the DACs presentation. The VH Audio was a bit forward so I did not like it as much but the Silencable did everything without being heavy handed. One thing, whenever I have tried using a thinner power cord, there was a very apparent compression in dynamics. 3. The power amp had a very very similar requirements as the DAC in terms of Power cord. It likes Thick cords. The Silencable has been the best match. When I went from Jochen's cord to Silencable the sound became bigger (without being overwhelming), denser (without muffling) and effortless. Again you get a feeling as if your amp's power has been doubled without any negatives added. The tones freed up and dynamics were strain-less. Again you hear more flesh in the sound. The Einstein cord was smoother than Jochen's cord but beyond that they were on par. The VH Audio Flavour 4 again brought the stage forward so it was instantly removed. 4. The tube preamp was a surprise package. It does not react much to power cords. It does sound somewhat different with different power cords but I can live with a Computer power cord without making it sound bad. The VH Audio Flavour 2 is specifically meant for low powered analog devices and it worked well with my preamp. The tones were cleaner and more natural. The background also had less grunge. The soundstage was relaxed yet no compression in dynamics. It was a very neutral cord which did things in right areas. But again it did not do much to the other components. So that has been the summary of the last 3 months of research on power cords. To me it is very difficult to find the right cords for the right equipment. I have found Einstein "The Shield" to be a nice cable which works on most components to various degrees without degrading the sound. And its relatively more affordable so I may be sticking to them for sometime.

Hi Abhi,

Thank you for your review. For further explanation I want to add that "my" power cord is actually identical with Einstein's "The Power Cord". "The Shield" can be considered as a triple shielded cord because the multi-strand construction and it's twisting pattern protects against external noise also http://www.einsteinaudio.de/english/products/PowerCord_eng.html

Regards,
Jochen

All of the materials i read about power cords talk about EMI. What other scientific advantage that a power cord provides apart from Noise reduction.

I know it cannot be Noise reduction alone, that makes power cords to make such drastic changes to the tonal qualities of a setup.

Any other good write-up about power cords ?

Here is my point of contention

I have 50 meters of regular finolex wire running in my home, before it reaches the power plug. And the last one meter of power cable, changes the sound so much ?

The change is true...no doubt.

But what is the scientific reason, i'm sure it is more than noise reduction.

The power that comes to your house / room has traveled through hundreds if not thousands of kilometers before it got to you. Besides so many transformers etc.
Basically, it is very very 'foul' & needs to be cleaned.
Now the 'best' thing to do is to 're-generate' it. Pure Power or PS Audio [re-generator]. If you do not want to do that, than a good power cord is like a water purifier in the house. Either you do a pure distillation [re-generation] or purification [power cord]...

Please do understand that the 1st component your audio system 'sees' is power & that is delivered from the wall socket !!

sivat schrieb:

I know it cannot be Noise reduction alone, that makes power cords to make such drastic changes to the tonal qualities of a setup. Any other good write-up about power cords ?

Sir, if I knew, I would make my own power cords & sell to the world.
I have no answer, hence I 'spend' all that money to get the sound to 'improve' & 'rub some snake oil' on my ears !!

couple of pointers as per what I have read (there is too much of stuff !!)
1. quality of power varies a lot. the "foul" which bhagwan mentions is due to the highly fluctuating impedance loads in industries which actually chops most sinewaves into barely recognizable forms
2. the house itself has components like Dimmers (in fans) and active electrical loads like Microwaves/refrigerators and washing machines

3. digital sources generate their own "back currents" which are fed back into other components via any common power line

4. EMI/RFI etc etc which generally have a wild time in most systems .

Power chords can definitely control 4) and can to some extent influence 3) but others are all very much uncontrolled gremlins.

1 and 2 can be be partially cleared off (harmonics/Grunge) by filters but to get a sine wave you need a good regenerator. 3 can be well controlled by good filters


Among them PS audio, APS purepower, APC etc work on the principle of converting AC to DC and then use an Amplifier ot amplify a small pure sine wave input into an AC output to their rated power/voltage. and then use some filters. both APC and APS have battery backup while PSaudio does not

ExactPower filters actually works on some other principle of "Waveshaping" an input into a pure sinewave.

APS and APC are both very good technically but the main difference between them seems to be the quality of the amplifier inside them. the APS seems to be audiophile grade while the APC is more industrial grade..based in their applications (hence APS is 3X times the price... the power of the word "Audiophile" !).
But since the signal to be amplified is a single frequency wave..i do not think it needs to be so complex an amplifier

i could hazard a guess that the APC + a good conditioner = APS ..but that is still theory.

I would think a starting kit if the digital equipment is isolated electrically so as not to pollute the main power and has some kind of electrical shielding, the benefit should be good.

But now I do have a Basic Doubt.

The AC signal is rectified to DC in all equipment..then why does the quality of the power make so much of a difference ? ie if the PSU of the component is good enough, should it not generate Pure DC of constant voltage from any AC input ?

Sorry to be so long winded, but the topic is fascination/mystical

Nice writing Arj.

Bhagwan, Let us keep power conditioners/isolation transformers/power regenerators out of our discussion, as they serve a very obvisous reason.

Let us keep the power cord only as a focus...

Arj schrieb:

But now I do have a Basic Doubt. The AC signal is rectified to DC in all equipment..then why does the quality of the power make so much of a difference ? ie if the PSU of the component is good enough, should it not generate Pure DC of constant voltage from any AC input ?

The rectifier is driven by AC signal from the transformer. A bad waveform input to rectification stage, will only generate another bad waveform (only a transformation of a incoming signal), with the only difference being that it is DC after rectification.

The power cords remains a mystery...and i'm hoping someone is going to explain it to us...

I got the following link from a fellow friend

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/powercords.html

...but not all explanations are very convincing. Some are philosophical answers to scientific questions

The speaker does say that - there are factors beyond capacitance that affect the performance of a power cord...but does seem to indicate what those factors are ?

[quote="sivat"

Let us keep the power cord only as a focus... [/quote]
Yessir !

OK if we look at a powerchord, can we isolate it into the following "parameters" (excluding stuff like connectors,quality of materials, length and price )

Conductor Layout (including braining etc)
Conductor Type/material
Conductor Size/ Cross section
Insulation type/material
Shielding

anything else one can think of that can ipact the sound

Arj,

These are solutions....let us find out what really is the problem that the power cord is supposed to solve ?

We know atleast two problems that the power cord is supposed to solve..

1) EMI - lower the interference
2) Keep the capacitance/inductance lower (for the last 1 meter ?)

Are there more...

Unless we know the problem, how can we solve it


Regards
Siva.

http://bmicable.com/oceanic_statement

Maybe this person knows a bit about 'power cords' !!
God knows, it surely is the most expensive power cord I have ever come across. Wonder what goes into 15/- K US $'s ?

The link i posted i earlier does talk about a very valid point - transient noise due to switching of rectifier, which seems a very valid reasoning.

So some "mystery" materials reduce this noise ? ...that i find it difficult to believe

sivat schrieb:

Are there more... .

Siva, this is really the biggest problem we have in our Hobby ie doe we know enough about it to be sure of what we are someasuring and solving ?
manufacturers themselved do not help. I would really love it if someone tests and brings about an impedance curve fo cables to see how they react.

Ideally if ones power is a pure sinewave at one frequency all decently done powerchords should sound the same....and "tuned " powerchords should distort the sound.

sivat schrieb:

The link i posted i earlier does talk about a very valid point - transient noise due to switching of rectifier, which seems a very valid reasoning. So some "mystery" materials reduce this noise ? ...that i find it difficult to believe ;)

siva, I remember posting this link a couple of years ago but i seem to have understood it better this time around !
1 importat point is definitely the rectifier causing noise

But to me the qestion of what the power chord is is most important.. would you agree with the below? this may be the one point which can define the "problem"

"The power cord is NOT the last 6 feet as stated in #1 and the local current and electromagnetic effects directly affect the sonic performance of the component. The power cord is not the last 6 feet, it is the first 6 feet from the perspective of the component" Some power cords use capacitors, inductors, or ferrites in an attempt to control the electromagnetic fields around the audio component. The success of such an approach is completely dependent upon the specific design and the reactance of the power supply of the component to which the power cable is attached.”

In my experience, the amount of difference a power cord makes depends totally on the quality of power being fed into it and ambient RF/EMI present.

Siltechs argument is that a good power cable does not pollute other signal cables in the vicinity. From their website:

"Q: Why use an expensive power cable if cheap and unshielded installation cable is used throughout most houses?"

"A: If you look at this situation from the 'perspective' of the audio system, the power cord is not the last but the first meter of cable. These first meters are very important because these meters are near your signal cables (interconnects). Power cords radiate 100Hz or 120c/s pulses that are picked up by your interconnects and therefore directly pollute the signal containing the played music.

These pulses are double the main frequency; i.e. 100Hz or 120c/s. Cause is the rectifier together with the always charged electrolytic capacitors; the current needed to fill up those capacitors only flows in the top of the sine wave during a very short period. So instead of an average current consumption from the mains, the current peaks at twice the cycle sending out magnetic fields ranging from 100c/s to about 5000c/s.

A well-designed shielded power cable neutralizes this distortion, preventing it from interfering with the audio signal resulting in a finer resolution of low-level details. So, what kind of installation wire is used is of much lesser importance than how good your power cords are."

sivat said:

Here is my point of contention I have 50 meters of regular finolex wire running in my home, before it reaches the power plug. And the last one meter of power cable, changes the sound so much ?

The same can be said of Interconnects in a studio, and on stage at a live show...

Sivat, I know that you are NOT a non-believer in power cords, but more curious to know what the mechanism is. I share your curiosity, and I suspect that most don't know, and the few that DO know are not speaking

My 2 cents is that Power cords need to address and minimise :

1. Cable Inductance

2. Cable Capacitance

3. Cable Resistance

4. Cable Radiation

5. Establish Good electrical contact at the terminations.

I think that engineers have nopt quite got a handle on which measurements / parameters of power cords are closely linked to SQ.

However, since just 1 meter of the stuff just before the amp makes a diff, I would speculate that a power Cord simply acts as a "Filter", providing enhansed performance despite the zillion Kms of other wire in series with it.

In the above, I am using 'Filter" in the broeadest sense, ie it removes something undesirable....

Amp_Nut,

But the changes you hear with different "audiophile" power cords are so different that, you tend to think it is beyond the LCR or RMI factor...

Many times chaning power cords have almost as dramatic a change as chaning speaker cable. Atleast in speaker cable, we know impedance is the most key factor which directly affects the frequency response and other aspects of audio reproduction.

I'm sure there is some other effect that affects the rectification stage and PSU stages beyond...

Regards
Siva.

This is an interesting topic. I do notice an improvement especially when using a power conditioner. Murthy's version of it made me a firm believer.
The APC H15 power conditioner i use is quite nice for the price i paid.

I currently have arrived at my perfect headphone rig and have close to 4500$ invested in it.

I am however using generic RCA interconnects from monoprice.com which cost a pittance at 1.50$ a pair and am using traditional computer IEC power cords. I do believe this is the next area into which i need to look into. Mainly for my maxxed out Assemblage DAC 2.7 (comes with the uber rare PMD200 digital filter). I am researching the Analysis Plus cables right now but at the same time don't want to go over the top on cables.


Any suggestions for modestly priced power and interconnects would be appreciated. I have thought about having Jochen send me a pair of his power cables, which seem attractive at about 20$.

Abhi which nosdost cable are you talking about that bettered this and how much does it cost?

Arj schrieb:

sivat schrieb: Some power cords use capacitors, inductors, or ferrites in an attempt to control the electromagnetic fields around the audio component.

Aren't there claims that ferrites magnetize over time losing their effectiveness? or is this unfounded?

Savyasaachi schrieb:

Any suggestions for modestly priced power and interconnects would be appreciated. I have thought about having Jochen send me a pair of his power cables, which seem attractive at about 20$. Abhi which nosdost cable are you talking about that bettered this and how much does it cost?

I will send you a PM on this.

Peers please guide me..

I'm a newcomer, amateur and as confused as a toddler in a topless bar..

abhi.pani schrieb:

Savyasaachi schrieb: Any suggestions for modestly priced power and interconnects would be appreciated. I have thought about having Jochen send me a pair of his power cables, which seem attractive at about 20$. Abhi which nosdost cable are you talking about that bettered this and how much does it cost? I will send you a PM on this.

Thanks for the info Abhi.

Jochen, you've got mail.

Sheilding is a step, but not the answer;
Way back - when I used to use Bryston mono amps - I had tried to get / make power cords with the help of lead foil [banned item] & they were better than stock cords, but no way close to what a modern day - top quality power cord will do for a set up - TA PLMM for example.
Lead will block 'all' [I mean all] EMI / RF etc. [it is used in nuclear waste transportation]

The question is - if I get all the ingredients of a great meal - as is prepared in a Michelin Star Restaurant, will be in a position to prepare a 'culinery' extravaganza ??

There may be snake oil here - no 2 ways about it - but the damn cords - expensive ones - sure make a 'huge' diff !!

SUB_BOSS1 schrieb:

Peers please guide me.. I'm a newcomer, amateur and as confused as a toddler in a topless bar.. :hail

Sure dear;
What guidance do you seek ?
Ask & we shall offer our services to you !!

Bhagwan 69 said :

Sheilding is a step, but not the answer

I SO agree with you.

I have made a power cable using Trishielded Coax cable which is charaterised to 2000 MHz. Sounded lively but Hard !

Thried Shielded Mic Cable ( each conductor individually shielded ) with foam dielectric.

NOTHING special at all.

IMHO, shield is not a huge contributer by itself..

I guess we still have not answered the Main (Pun !) question which Siva has asked.. ie
What exactly does a power chord do other than
1. Getting power from one place to the other with minimum losses
2. Shielding it from EMI/RFI

Arj

I think ampnut did...he said it acts as some sort of filter.....an inline filter ??? to the device it connects to.

Manek

Savyasaachi said:

I currently have arrived at my perfect headphone rig and have close to 4500$ invested in it. I am however using generic RCA interconnects from monoprice.com which cost a pittance at 1.50$ a pair and am using traditional computer IEC power cords. I do believe this is the next area into which i need to look into. Mainly for my maxxed out Assemblage DAC 2.7 (comes with the uber rare PMD200 digital filter). I am researching the Analysis Plus cables right now but at the same time don't want to go over the top on cables. Any suggestions for modestly priced power and interconnects would be appreciated. I have thought about having Jochen send me a pair of his power cables, which seem attractive at about 20$.

Many many moons ago I read a recommendation to spend 10% of your Hardware cost in Cables. I then thought that it was EXTRAVAGANT.

Today, I believe that you are doing your system and yourself a DIS-SERVICE if you don't allocate that 10% budget to cables.

You have invested a fair amount in Headphone listening, and believe me, stay with the US $ 1.5 interconnects till you are ready to spend ATLEAST US $ 100 on interconnects... or AT LEAST take a demo of interconnects in the US $ 100 to US $ 300 price range.

Without good cables... you Have Not Yet Heard Your System, and in fact have 'wasted' more than 10% of the US $ 4500 spent, by not hearing it.

I know this is a strongly worded message, but do give Good Cables a listen...

Aye amp-nutji..for power cords going with jochen's, one each for my two amps and source.
For the interconnects I am debating between soldering my DIY canare star quads with neutrik pro-fis directly or a pair of VDH interconnects.

There seems to be a sale on the Asylum pwoer cords on audiogon..Impressions arewelcome. . I am considering ordering one.

They usually go for 125$ on www.diycable.com

Edit: well i just ordered one

IMHO, Try before You Buy is a MUST for Power cords, Interconnects and speaker cables.

They ALL lend a tonal character to the system, and therefore system synergy is VERY important.

As an illustrative (probably unfair) generalisation... I Find Van Del Hul Sound more like 'Bland n Dull.' This may be what the doctor orders to tame a fierce and aggressive system sound... not a poor choice for an already warm and placid system.

( Sorry VDH fans... )

Amp_Nut schrieb:

( Sorry VDH fans... )

Manek will be getting his flamethrower ready

Will take your advice and go down to the local stereo shop and ask them to let me try out some of the cables they have.

Currently using Bluejeanscable for the Digital interconnects with BNC terminations.

Keep hearing about the John Risch's diy belden 82259 RCA interconnects..going to give it a try with some neutrik pro-fis..

For cheapo Digital cables..I have found Canare 75ohm digital cable simply AMAZING!!!
Arj lent it to me as an make shift arrangement till I get my digital cable from US and I am shocked at how good a $40 digital cable can sound. It has its limitation...but it genuinely sounds like $200 interconnect with very little compromises in sound...

But why are we discussing digital interconnects on a Power cord thread...

Sachi

My flamethrower is tanked up and ready.

My green light saber(I am the good guy) is charged

My pre-war "words of wisdom" conversation with Yoda is complete

My tommy gun has been loaded

My big bertha has been test fired

My x-wing figther is ready to take off

I am suited up for warfare !

Regards

Manek

Never new Manek to be a flame-thrower !

But taking NO Chances ...

haha..

well confirmed with Jochen for 3 power cords sans the wall plug. Probably going to get some marinco or wattgates on my end for those and terminate them. Soniccraft and Pcx are both having a 20% sale right now..

Arj, a little birdie told me you have a pair of musiclink plus ICs you might be willing to part with ..shoot me a PM if you want to take it further

sivat schrieb:

Arj, These are solutions....let us find out what really is the problem that the power cord is supposed to solve ? We know atleast two problems that the power cord is supposed to solve.. 1) EMI - lower the interference 2) Keep the capacitance/inductance lower (for the last 1 meter ?) Are there more... Unless we know the problem, how can we solve it Regards Siva.

here is, what I believe, a nice article on the matter. maybe this is info you already know Sivat but I thought I'd share it all-the-same. FWIW.
http://www.midi-classics.com/p3519.htm