The importance of power cables

The power cord influence is shocking in my setup.

3 Likes

You’re probably after the Burn In period , Enjoy!!!

Totally agree! I experienced a change from a power cable (granted, an almost $4K PC) much larger than the change from upgrading my speaker cable.

Can’t help myself making one more comment on burn-in, even though you said it’s a different topic. My experience with burn-in for Synergistic Research components, not sure whether particularly to SR, whether their fuses or cables, the burn-ins were not linear, ie., they did not improve in a linear fashion, sounded good when new, after some hours, they didn’t sound good at all, even deteriorated to the point I doubted my purchase, then getting better, after 100+ hrs, started to sound better. Just my experience. Promise, I won’t mention burn-in again here :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

Fair enough. I have 2 of the 15A AC9SE MKII Pangeas going to my RELs that have been well burned in at this point, so I will try swapping that into the main line going to the PP20 and see if a lack of “burn in” was causing the shrill highs.

Zheng, I got around to trying my burned in set of Pangeas AC9SE MKIIs that I had hooked up to my RELs for a month.

While the mid upper compression was less pronounced, the compaction of the sound stage was still there and voices were more up front with a narrower stage. Less stereophonic/holographic and more stereo, if that makes any sense. Songs where instruments had distinct position, distance and depth sounded huddled closer together and lost dimensionality.

So ends my experiment with Pangeas as a mains cord. They remain on the Oppo, BHK Pre and DSD for the moment.

I just put an order in for the BAV 10AWG… Let’s see how that one sounds.

I suspect you’ll be happy!

1 Like

Try Synergistic Research power cables, Black UEF PC and above. They are more expansive, but you can find used ones once in a while. If you are looking for an open, highly resolving, balanced, 3D sound, these attributes are SR’s specialty. In my system, better power cables made bigger SQ improvement than interconnects and speaker cables. Happy listening.

2 Likes

I switched to audioquest (storm series) this week.
What a relief.
Couldn’t believe this was possible.

2 Likes

I’ve owned and demo’d a modest number of moderate/high-end power cables in my decades long journey. For low current devices I’ve not found anything that beats these for my system. I bought 5 (min order) direct from US maker, NA201 shielded with FerroCom. They seem to stop noise in both directions, to the device and perhaps more importantly from the device.

I believe some years ago someone was/is selling these as ‘audiophile’ cables at a significant margin only adding tech flex over the stock cable. Good for them if they can sell lots but they are vastly less expensive from the manufacturer in their natural ‘data center’ grade aesthetic. I use them on everything but my PowerPlant and BHK 250 amp where I overkill with awg custom made NRG from Nawaz in Ontario, CAN.

Specs: https://emceupen.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/NA201.pdf

1 Like

Well look at that. A power cord with a proper spec sheet.

1 Like

I know, crazy right.

This is most relatable/meaningful to my non-degreed engineers mind.

2 Likes

Since you mentioned low-current devices and what’s required from a power cable for them…
I just bought a SignalCable Digital Reference cord, designed mainly for digital devices. Well-insulated, etc…
Let’s see what magic it offers for my DAC, been waiting over a month (USPS to EU is the epitome of slow)

Anyone here using SignalCable?

EDIT: YES, the DAC really became a lot more defined with the Digital Reference cord. Not subtly at all.

Many non-technical people don’t realize most “free” Ethernet cables coming with cable boxes, etc is actually cat 5 or less. Your bandwidth only operates as fast as the category of cable available. Routers and switches detect the transmission rates of cables and down-scales appropriately. Last year I upgraded my house wiring to Cat6e gigabit Ethernet.

The extra capacity impact on audio really depends on other traffic on the network and amount of packet collisions causing retransmissions.

1 Like

If the coax cable coming from my provider (Xfinity/Comcast) is PPC Perfect Flex 6 18AWG cable are there still benefits to be had from using Cat 7 or Cat 8 Ethernet cables going from the Xfinity X1 router to audio equipment. Thanks.

A switched network is all point to point connections and eliminates packet collisions by design. If retransmissions are occurring its indicative of a cable or hardware problem. Collisions are normal in a hub centric network topology, but I haven’t seen one of them over a decade.

2 Likes

This is similar to the question I once asked about the value of a high end power cords, when the ones feeding receptacles are average at best. Trial proved they do add value.

Instead of Cat6, my ISP uses fiberoptic. I used Cat 7 from switch to Roon Nucleus, server, and streamer. The improvement was subtle, and the cables took months to burn-in and give that subtle result. But I can still call it an improvement. I use Melco cables, and they’re not crazy expensive like other brands.

1 Like

I was reading the Grimm MU1 manual tonight and they recommend using good computer cables and avoiding Audiophile cables. Ooops. I am using an Audiophile Ethernet cable. Hmmmmm.

2 Likes

I use Melco cables, a subsidiary of Buffalo - Buffalo Technology (buffalo-technology.com), would that count as computer cables? :joy:

Yes, they are a fine example of computer cables I would say. Possibly a fine step up.

1 Like