Do I need upgraded power cables?


Hello and Good Day

I'm wondering about power conditioners and power cords. Here's my equipment:

Cronus Magnum lll Integrated Tube Amp / Focal Aria 948 DW Speakers / Kimber Kable 8TC Speaker Cables / 2 SVS SB2000 Pro A Subwoofers with SVS Sound Path Subwoofer Cables / Grado Sonata Cartridge / Pro-Ject 2 Xperience SB DC Turntable using the included interconnects / Denon DCD 1700NE CD Player using Kimber Sliver Streak Interconnect / Panamax MR4300 Power Line conditioner and surge protection 

Upgrade the Panamax?  - is it providing anything besides surge protection? Upgrade the power cords for which component? Or do nothing? Maybe my components aren't audiophile enough to justify purchasing upgraded power cords. 

Any advise or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thank you

Bill

 

bzawa

Showing 3 responses by signaforce

Based upon the recommendations from @erik_squires (very knowledgeable), I recently purchased a Furman P-2400 AR (the 20A version of his above recommendation) and the Furman PSD 8D, with very good results. 

The 2400 provides voltage regulation, conditioning, surge protection & isolated banks for analog & digital (6 each). I use it for my main components & is full. 

The 8D does everything except voltage regulation, with 4 each isolated banks. I use it for my secondary components (6 of 8 outlets). 
I purchased both for less than $1,000 ($3,800 retail). Highly recommended. 

On upgraded PC’s, never A/B’d, but just bought them… Audioquest NRG Z3 for amp, Y3 for remaining components. Reasonably priced & look good. Don’t know if they improved SQ, but did once buy a Pangea PC that actually degraded sound, so reasonable to assume one would see improvement with the right PC’s. 

One more thing, IMHO isolated banks for your analog & digital components is critical, unless you run two dedicated power lines & 2 separate power conditioners.
When installing my 2400, I accidentally plugged my turntable into the bank I was using for digital, and a digital component into the analog side. It sounded terrible, so I can personally attest to the recommendation to separate analog & digital.

OP, many recommended plugging your amp directly into the wall to not starve the amps draw when using a shared conditioner. Two things:

1. Most are high power amps, tubes and/or mono blocks.
2. Most have installed whole house surge protection, eliminating the need for your conditioner’s surge protection.
I have a lower powered amp (Moon 330A), no whole house surge protection & never play my system loud (sounds great at lower volumes). I have my amp plugged into my 2400 & feel I am loosing nothing while adding protection. YMMV