I’ve come across a few inquiries here on cable brand recommendations or where to put the “better cables,” but I think my question is a little different. Does anyone, or would they recommend using the same beefier cable across the board, for all components?
I’m looking to upgrade the cables to my GCD, PST and M700s. My gut tells me the biggest draw is from the amps themselves, but I know sufficient juice to all parties involved can’t be overlooked. So if my inclination would be to acquire, say, AQ Monsoons for the 700s, would it be ideal to also get them for the GCD and PST?
I’m a cable sceptic, which is not the same as cable agnostic. My dealer gave me some Shunyata Delta NR on home loan and the noise reduction was significant compared to the Audioquest NRG that was packaged with my amplifier. I bought three of them and later a Hydra Alpha conditioner.
I am still sceptical abut some cables. I have a 40m long 32A power cable that connects my 7kw car charger. The cable cost me $400. I’ve seen thicker cables used in audio and I doubt there are many components that draw 1kw, let alone 7kw. A typical digital component like my Innuos Zen Mk3 server draws 15w in operation, not much more than a single LED light bulb. So for Class D and digital components my emphasis had been on cables resulting in noise reduction.
I’m using Audience AU24SX power cables. They strongly recommend their medium gauge for everything but high current amps.
I tried both the high and the medium on all of my components and the mediums definitely sound better on everything but my amp and P20.
As usual, it’s design dependent.
Based on my time in the forums, these appear to be very highly-regarded brands mentioned. As you can probably tell by the components I’ve listed, that it would be most practical to remain in a space where I can see the greatest return on my investment. In my brief research I’ve noticed that comparable cables can vary by hundreds of dollars in price, which in and of itself is not a dealbreaker. To the best of your knowledge, however, are the brands you’ve had the best experience with relatively consistent throughout the range of offerings?
I haven’t gone thru Audience’s line of cables.
But I can tell you that Iconoclast sell Belden power cables with improved terminations. And folks seem to like them a lot, including me. I’m using them on my guitar amps and they sound much better than the stock courtesy cables. The last one I bought was $170. for 5ft. They have different gauges available.
My view of power cords is be sane. By that I mean I’ve yet in decades of experience playing with after market power cords encountered the ‘equivalent to a component upgrade’ improvement some have gushed about. The change is typically subtle and, btw, not always beneficial. I use all triode wire labs power cords in my system. They’re relatively modestly priced, make a slight positive difference with analog electronics and they’re highly flexible rather than being so stiff they’d be practically unusable behind my rack. Pete offers his cords, same design, in different gauges and I do use the heaviest gauge model for my power amp. He offers 3 different gauges for specific applications. Makes a ton of sense to me. All of the above is just my personal opinion of what has worked for me over the years. I’m way past the $1000+ plus a pop power cord phase. Lots of higher system upgrade priorities for the same money invested.
I have tried these four highly regarded power cords with reasonable costs :
Anticables level 3, Audio Envy, Cullen, and Beldon on both P15 and BHK preamp. I did not try on my mono blocks because I did not have two PC on some above mentioned.
I personally like Cullen Crossover2 more on P15, so they should work well with your M700. Anticables sounded a bit bright while Audio Envy seemed to emphasize mid range too much. Beldon is very natural and good, but Cullen Crossover2 just did everything a bit better. The owner used to work as a cable designer for PSA if I am not mistaken.
I’ve pondered the point you’re making about the power cords equivalence to a component upgrade. I have so little to go on, as the only actual cord I’ve upgraded on my system was a pair of AQ Rocket 44s. Compared to the 30 year old, 14 gauge Monster Cable they replaced, as you can imagine there is a night-and-day departure.
While I would never intentionally overextend myself in selecting parts to my system, as it is beneficial to keep things relative, I must also state that cutting too many corners can often do more harm than good. This will take a great deal of experimentation on my part.
i’ve been tempted to put nice terminations on romex directly. I wonder how that would compare with more esoteric cable. I mean, it’s the same as what’s running through the house, so it seems like there might be some harmony there!
In my previous house (moved 6 years ago) I had 2 dedicated 20 amp lines: one for my Krell FPB-200 amp, and one for my PowerPlant (that powered my preamp, DAC, and Martinlogan speakers). The location of my equipment didn’t lend itself well to running power cables to outlets, and since I had an easily accessed crawl space under my house, I simply ran the 10/2 Romex through a small hole in the floor, terminated it with an IEC connector, and plugged it in to the respective gear. No outlets or power cables required…
I can’t provide a comparison between that method vs. any level of traditional power cables, because I never ran it any other way, but I got fantastic performance out of that rig. I’m sure that an electrical inspector would have had a heart attack if he saw it, but since I owned the house, it was perfectly OK for me to do it like that, and it was also perfectly safe.
Oh boy, just reading this gives me flashbacks of my car audio enthusiast days. I had a friend mention the crazy theory of hooking up an amplifier directly to the alternator. Why fool around with the battery and fuse blocks? I’m not now, nor have I ever been an automotive or electrical engineer, but this didn’t sound completely irrational. It’s just that the little part of me that knows I don’t know something that remained skeptical. I’m not sure if he ever put that into practice, but had it been some great breakthrough, he most certainly wouldn’t have been the one to discover it.
I sense that in this case, there is a degree of preparation or process that normally takes place isn’t happening here. What might sound great upfront could potentially be shortening the life of components, maybe? But sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I’m sure there is an electrical engineer somewhere in our midst who wouldn’t mind opining.
