How Big of a Difference?

@oedstrom11 - your Schiit components are much better than most people realize - they just need very good cables!

The Amazon XLR are fine for now - so stick with them

I would start with speaker cables and then power cables

Take a look at Zavfino cables

• Try the NOVA OCC SPEAKER CABLE 12AWG - they should work very well
• the power cables start around $150 per cable
• if possible get the FINA OCC POWER CABLE 14AWG from $215
• or the LEGION OFHC 11AWG POWER CABLE from $288

Unfortunately this is the tip of the "cable iceberg", but for a "modest" investment the sound of your system will improve considerably.

Once you complete that upgrade you can try their ARCADIA OCC INTERCONNECT CABLE - granted it is single ended, but it will be a nice upgrade from the Amazon XLR cables

The Zavfino product range is one that stands out above the rest of the commercial brands just because of the wires//insulation/cable geometry they use - their cables are an advanced design and they are extremely well built - PLUS - they actually perform extremely well.

They are also very well suited to your audio components.

They also have some very good higher end products that really excel - when you feel the need to upgrade

There are better cables out there, but they are much more expensive and better suited to higher end components

I realize you may have reservations about cables, but I’ve been building cables for around 15 years and in that time I have installed cables on

• small mini systems costing around $350,
• bluetooth speakers
• my own modest 2 channel system system
• and systems up to $60,000
• each time - cables have provided the best bang for the buck upgrades I have ever implemented

e.g. The cables I had on my Bifrost cost more than double the price of the Bifrost, but it sounded excellent !

So try the Zavfino speaker cables above and then perhaps a power cable - I think you will be able to hear the difference

BTW - cables can get very complex and very expensive, but there are more affordable DIY alternatives out there and there are people that will build them for you

So If you have any questions just ask

Hope that helps - Steve

YES - The power cords are definitely worth upgrading !

Regards - Steve

@johnnycamp5 - I hope the following provides answers to your questions

I always wondered about the improvements from cables but never (not yet) went down that road.

My biggest unanswered questions are on “power cables” Are these more like a “device” than just the correct quake cable?

And what about the approx. 100’ of romex cable in between your service panel and Gigi rig?

 

Do the high end power cables somehow eliminate those cheap, solid core copper lines?
These are sincere questions …not trying to be a wise guy.…

First - that 100’ of romex is actually pretty good at conveying electricity

• It is solid core - not stranded cable. In power applications stranded cables cannot handle as much current as solid cables, so when those transient spikes hit, a stranded cable will not work as well as solid core
• The copper in Romex is actually pretty good quality, so don’t mistake the cheapness of romex for poor quality
• the line from the distribution panel to the outlet should be a continuous run without any breaks
• so a dedicated line is a better approach than perhaps other outlets that may be part of a spur that attaches to more than a single outlet

Please don’t shoot the messenger with this next comment, but this is how I interpreted the explanation given to me,

• where you have a connection point, (e.g. the wall outlet), the only "electrical attribute" present at that connection point is the VOLTAGE.- Current only comes into play once a load is connected
• So when you plug in a power cable, the current in THAT CABLE is impacted only by the cable’s electrical attributes (see below)
• so if you use a crappy power cable into your component, the result would be quite different than if you used a very good cable
• Even though everything else is EXACTLY the same
• What does carry forward to the component is noise, because noise is a fluctuation of voltage, which is present at every junction point

So if you consider the "construction" of a really great cable

• most use UP-OCC copper and the best use a solid core wire, which translates to faster response to transient current demands - so better dynamic performance
• most use advanced insulation types (e.g. foamed teflon) which has a lower dielectric constant value, which results in less noise being generated within the conductors - so improved clarity
  • Basically, each conductor acts like a capacitor and the charging/recharging of the insulation as the voltage swings through +ve and -ve cycles, creates noise within the conductor - crappy cables use wire with a higher dielectric constant and therefor produces more noise
• finally, the very best cables employ a cable geometry that either puts space (e.g. an air gap is best) between the individual conductors in order to prevent induced noise between conductors OR use a geometry that reduces the amount of parallel conductors in the cable. Braiding is an example of a more advanced cable geometry and it results in a lower noise floor

For other examples of cable geometries take a look at the following links

http://image99.net/blog/files/54c02c12532d31f960ee85a6ed674b01-83.html

https://www.in-akustik.de/en/cables-and-accessories/reference-air/power-cables/

I hope that provides some insight into the inner working of a good power cable

Regards - Steve

@holmz - lets start be looking at the process at different points in the audio system

At the speaker

• the power required to satisfy the volume level selected has two components - voltage, and the current drawn, which is a product of the speaker impedance

The amplifier circuit

• so the amp circuit attempts to build a voltage signal that will operate the speaker at the required volume and the speaker places a current draw on circuit which must be satisfied (ultimately) by the power supply
• if there is enough energy reserves in the power supply, the signal is created as it should be, with the required voltage and current to move the speaker cone to its required displacement
• if there is not enough energy reserves to provide the required current then the peak voltage is not achieved - and performance suffers
• and ALL of this has to be achieved in the blink of an eye

The power supply

• is always replenishing it’s power reserves via the power cable
• the faster the power cable is at conveying electrical energy, the faster the power supply can replenish energy reserves and satisfy the demand of the amplified signal
• But on the mains supply side of the power supply, the voltage is simply 120v flip flopping at 50 (or 60) Hz as you pointed out
• However, if you could plot the current draw on the mains side, it too varies in a similar fashion to the musical signal, so when the bass guitar slaps or the bass drum beats, the transient spike is in the form of current drawn and not voltage.

So those mono-blocks with the massive power supplies are more able to handle transient spikes in the signal.

However with smaller components, the power supply tends to be less capable, so connecting a quality power cable to a source component will appear to provide more of a benefit than connecting that same power cable to an amp

For best performance

• amps require the very best power cables in order to observe noticeable improvements
• source components will provide more of an improvement with a power cables that is perhaps a little less capable than those selected for Power Amps

So, when selecting power cables for any component I look for those that use UP-OCC copper, because it will provide excellent dynamic response. Silver is better, but a lot more expensive.

But, bear in mind that all of this is all happening at lightening fast speeds, so even in the best mono-blocks - good power cables will improve their performance.

Hope that helps - Steve

@holmz re:

All I know for sure is that the specs which are rated in terms of “per foot” or “per meter”, seem to favour using monoblocks close to the speaker.

That is certainly correct for cables that use more commonly adopted cable geometries and insulations

• because the amount of noise created within the cable itself is lowest when the speaker cables are short

However - with speaker cables that use cable geometries and insulations that mitigate noise - e.g.In-Akustik

• the length of a speaker cables becomes much less of an issue

Regards - Steve

@holmz let’s start with

About 11-12% of the time the mains voltage is too low to pulse any current into the power supply (Assuming that the rail is at ~28V).

The only point in time where electrical energy does NOT flow is at that point in time when the voltage passes from the +ve cycle to the -ve cycle - the rest of the time there is energy transfer

If it all happened in the blink of an eye, then how is it the tube monoblocks ran for many seconds (!10 Seconds) when the power switch was shut off?

My guess would be that tube monoblocks "store" a LOT of energy in the form of

• electrical energy in the large transformers and capacitors used in tube designs
• residual heat energy in the heaters of the tubes allowing sound to be heard even after the power was turned off

The resistance of copper and silver is pretty close to zero, and the speed of the electric field is pretty fast.

It’s not about resistance - it’s all about Valence electrons and the speed at which the valence electrons in a metal react in order to transfer electrical energy

Valence electrons in Silver move much more freely than they do in copper - this is conductivity

It take far less energy to make the valence electrons move between atoms and therefore the dynamic performance of silver wire is faster than copper.

then how does 3 feet of silver result in anything more dynamic happening?

As I said in a previous post - at each "connection point" (i.e. a plug) the only electrical attribute present is Voltage.so the energy that "flows" through an attached cable is dependent on the properties of the cable that the energy is about to flow through

• conductivity of the metal (e,g, silver) used in the conductors allows the valence electrons to react more quickly resulting in a cable that is able to provide better dynamic perofrmance.

If the power cord is doing some other stuff like filtering noise, then I could understand that as a goal.

A good power cable

• does NOT interfere with (or filter) the transfer of the electrical energy,
• it also does not introduce noise into that cables by using
  • a geometry that mitigates the creation of induced noise between conductors
  • an insulation that that has a low dielectric constant
    • which reduces the amount of noise created in the cables due to the charging and recharging of the insulation surrounding each condcutor.

Here are three sites that may explain things better.

https://www.psaudio.com/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-1/
https://www.psaudio.com/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-2/
https://www.psaudio.com/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-3/

Hope that helps - Steve