15A or 20A Power Cord


I have just purchased new system and I have not purchased power cords for equipment. I would really like to buy power cables either used or on sale to save a little $$. I have looked at Shunyata and I actually have Hydra 8 for my downstairs tv home theater set up. I see the same power cable offered in 15A and 20A but I do not know which one I need. My systems consists of DCS Puccini, Ayre K5xe, Ayre MX-R , Watt Puppy 8.

I appreciate any help.
bjbcab
Looks like the 15 20 amp power cord is settled, now we are into fuses.

By the way I have a Hydra 2 that uses a DIY Furutech power cord, and the Rhodium 20 amp furutech plugs.

Sounds better to my ears than the other DIY power cord with cheaper parts, so kepping with the topic,the quality of the 15 or 20 amp power cords matters,at least to me.

Now fuses.

Thirty years ago I read in my trusted Audio Critic mag that speaker protection fuses degrade the sound wherever they are used.

Simple enough to try for myself.
Don't need a degree in electrical engineering to try this .
So I replaced the fuses with simple copper jumpers of various coinstruction.Solid core copper(bits of Romex) and old speaker wire(mostly staranded copper).
Not only did I discover that the fuse imposed a sound , so did what it was made up of.

Skip ahead thirty years (never any fires or damaged gear), I kept up the practise of bypassing speaker protection fuses.But around this time I read about IsoClean fuses.

They weren't going to put me in the poor house to try a couple so I did,and yes they did sound better than the stock cheap fuses.

Then a few gear changes , and now comes the HiFi Supremes, which I bought for my amp(DecWare Zen select) and
phono pre(Manley Steelhead).

The HiFi supremes aren't adding anything more to the sound than the stock fuse were.
They are adding less.

There is more clarity now than there was running stock.

But would I have noticed the improvemnt if I were running cheap stock power cords?
I use the Shunyata Anaconda's on my Ayre C5Mp cd player , KXR preamp and Levinson power amp also have one on the Shunyada V-Ray . Iv'e owed and tried many expensive power cords over the years before I fell for these . The 20 ampers are a solider fit .
Lenny_zwik,

Did you change the fuses in your Nagra PL-L? Are there any fuses inside? I have not checked it out.
Quanmer,

Sorry but I did not see your post until today. Hopefully you have purchased the hi-fi tuning fuses by now, if not, I echo Lenny_zwik's observations. I have the gold plate fuses. They sound great. I do not have any experience with the other more expensive lines. I will tell that I heard that the Silver Star can corrode but I do not know if this is true.

I would email the manufacturer about what fuses are needed and how many. If you cannot decide what line of fuses to get I would isolate a particular component, I would recommend the Ayre MX-R if you have that, and do a comparison. There are several fuses in each mx-r and it would be a bit of a pain to change everything out but this would be the only way I know to do a comparison.

Good luck!
If you contact the mfgs. they can give you the specs for the fuses for their equipment. I know that dCS and Ayre are very responsive.
Lenny_zwik, thank for reply, I just don't know which spec to order? Size and Amp figure.

Since their fuses are Cyro'd, so there is direction, somebody measure the resistance of their fuses, and find out one end is smaller than the other end, But the mark doesn't show any direction indicator, you have to try by your own ear.

Also I heard the latest Supreme is much better than Gold Plate or Silver Star.
Gold Plate. Not sure what you mean by "which Spec"? Directional, highly doubt it, but have never experimented. I'm an electrical engineer and to be honest, had it not been for what my ears told me, I'd have never believed that a fuse could make a difference.
Lenny_zwik, Could you more specify which Hifi Tuning fuse you are using, they have three models : Gold Plate, Silver Star and the most recent Supreme,

And which Spec you use?

Friends told that Hifi Tuning fuses are directional, have you found that, too?
Hi,
I have almost the same exact system except for Nagra PL-L and W/P 7. I got Hydras and Anaconda AX / VX everywhere as applicable. The Ayres have a Hydra 2 between them and the wall. The front end components plug into a Hydra 8.

Quanmer: I have replaced all the fuses in my MX-Rs with the HiFi Tunes. A greater sense of ease and openness resulted. It's definitely worth the $400 bucks or so. There are 5 fuses in each amp.
Bjbcab, have you replaced all fuses in MX-R with Hifi Tune fuses? If yes, can you describe the differences, thanks!
Easy . Look at the back of your equipment specifically at the iec power connection . If the blades are all running horizontal its a 20 amp plug (-_-). If they run vertical they are 15 amp plugs (i'i). Cheers