2. cables
  3. 179333-125055

Ideal power cord lengths?

A quick Google search suggests there is consensus that the ideal power cord length is 2m.  1m cords sound “harsher” and 3m cords sound “smoother”, with 2m being the sweet spot.  The PS Audio dude suggests that the reason is that the reason is that all cords have an impact on the power, and the greater the length, the greater the impact, good or bad.

I know many will say there is no difference between a 1m cord and a 3m cord.  But my question is, who here has tried like model power cords of different lengths, and what were the differences?  
 

Second question:  How does length factor into the equation when you have a cord feeding a conditioner, then other cords feeding components?  If 2m cords are in fact the ideal, would 1m cords be ideal when using conditioners?

I tend to believe those that say that power cord lengths matter.  While I’ve not been able to do this test myself, I’ve had these two experiences:

  • Testing Audioquest Diamond and Nordost Valhalla 2 USB cables, the cables shorter than 1.5m sounded TERRIBLE by comparison.  Especially the .75m Audioquest Diamond vs the 1.5m version.  But the 1m Valhalla 2 also sounded awful in comparison to the 2m version.  In general this opened my eyes to how much cable length matters, and counterintuitively in the case of digital cables. 
  • I have a 2019 2m AudioQuest Hurricane Source cable from back when AQ braided their cables, and I also have the newer non-braided Hurricane Source, but 3m in length.  The new Hurricane sounds vastly superior to my old 2m Hurricane.  In comparison the older cord compresses the soundstage depth.  I don’t know if the differences are due to the differences in length, or if it’s due to a design change by Audioquest.

Very interested in learning of others experiences with power cord lengths.

 

 

nyev

Showing 3 responses by vthokie83

vthokie83
1,010 posts
 

Wow, never considered cable length to factor in; dumb luck that most of my power cables are 2 meters long. More noticeable than comparing different cables, was getting dedicated power to the equipment. This was an immediate and noticeable change. 

(1) I have a dedicated 20AMP circuit to a PS Audio PowerPort plug, with Pangea Audio AC9 SE MkII (Cardas copper) cable driving a Denafrips Thallo amplifier.

(2) I have the same set up feeding a Panamax M5300-PM conditioner, and Pangea Audio AC14 SE MkII (Cardas copper) cables feeding the low current devices.....only exception is a Cullen Cable C7 cable feeding a BlueSound Node 130

At some point will get around to swapping in various recepticles and power cables

vthokie83
1,010 posts
 

Nyev, Soix, CurtDR, and all of you are correct. Of course there are ALWAYS differing opinions when discussing power cords, or interconnects, or HDMI/Ethernet/USB/I2S cables, or balanced vs unbalanced, or clean power, or separates vs integrated, or room treatment, or price of a system, or whatever it is that gets us going.

I am on a different journey from most of you, I have a budget that I am comfortable with, I prefer a different "sound"  from my system, I listen to different music, and maybe even different volume levels, and there are things about this hobby that bring me pleasure.....like tube rolling in my VTA ST-120 amp, or cable rolling, or trying to extract just that little bit more quality from the system that I can afford.

Truth be told I am jealous of those of you who can afford $15,000 speakers/amps/pre-amps/DACs and wildly expensive cables.....I am positve that you can extract better sound than I can out of my $15,000 total cost system. But that is a cap based on my particular financial reality.....and my  wife's patience. And frankly, it has taken a ton of time and research (many suggestions gathered here) to find reasonably affordable products to give me the best sound (for my ears)

Yes of course I know that a better pair of speakers will have a greater sonic improvement than a Audioquest Vodka HDMI I2S cable, and KrellAudio Research/Wilson products will outperform my Denafrips stack and Buchardt S400 MkII speakers. But I have a damn fine system for my needs and sounds amazing at low, mid, and loud listening levels, and I'll continue to find each little tweak I can afford to improve it.....and I will be getting some GIK products for room treatment, so that's another rabbit hole

vthokie83
1,010 posts
 

Anyone wanting to try the cable lifter idea on the cheap (I have yet to install them), I have read that lots of people started out with Tinker Toys.....I believe Danny Ritchie at GR-Research recommends them to start out (believe he may still use them?)  Heck I bought two starter sets for $28 that will be enough for my whole system

 

More to discover