2. cables
  3. 193245-191767

Are upgraded power cables for subwoofers worth it?

I recently have been filling in all of the holes in my secondary system.  Recently picked up a shunyata power conditioner, upgraded speaker cables, and power cable for my amplifier.

My question is, is it worth running higher end audiophile power cables with subwoofers, considering distortion is not as apparent to the human ear in the sub bass range?  I use a high end receiver for my DAC in this system with a normal power cable as well.  Would I get better performance increase from upgrading sub cables or my DAC(receiver w pre outs) power cable?

Any specific suggestions for sub power cables, or DAC power cables that are inexpensive (sub 200 or even $100)

Thanks for your time!

jrareform

Showing 1 response by docknow

docknow
320 posts
 

I have a Martin Logan BalancedForce 210 which has a 850-watt class-D switching amplifier. I was feeding it with a power cable from Signal Cable, when I read a reviewer on PosFeed dicuss what an improvement an aftermarket power cable made to his sub, in the bass, but also in the midrange.  I value good midrange and have ML CLXs, which are pretty revealing.  So I bought a Sunyata Alpha NR for the sub (I have multiple Alphas and Sigmas in my system).  Shockingly, it had a dramatic effect on cleaning up my midrange, and the impact on the bass was positive, but not to the same extent.  I hypothesize that this is happening from the NR power cord suppressing any "back flow" of switching noise from the class-D sub amp from getting back into my system's "grid" and hence the other components.  But, who knows?  I just know that I would not go back.

Then I decided to upgrade my cables from my ARC REFSE to the sub from average grade to sub specific (and balanced).  I was shocked again ... they hardly made a difference.  Not sure they made any improvement.

I am a n of 1, but that's my data point ...

-docknow

 

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