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.
No poking here, I’ll tell ya what I’ve got. A smaller town, 5km from Electrical substation, a Single transformer post from a mainline with me being the only destination. I have a pony panel with 100 amp service with four outlet hospital grade boxes side-by-side each wired with 12 gauge and individual 20 amp breakers. That wiring Is directly wired into the panel which is a 10 foot trip. The panel is Obviously inside my sound room exiting through the wall then 200 feet to the transformer service pole. Power is remarkably clean with enough current to service several systems. I do feel privileged.
Regarding getting back to enjoying the music…. I’m actually at the point where I am enjoying considering how to improve my system, as opposed to stressing over certain aspects of my system that sounded bad to me, and not knowing how to resolve those issues. But as I am conducting critical listening analysis now, and going through blind A/B tests (with family participation - they don’t actually care but they think it’s fun when they are otherwise bored), I am finding more often now that all of a sudden I’m sucked back into the music. That happened the other night and I stayed up all night re-discovering the back catalogues of some of my favourite artists, which entirely due to my 10 AWG wire, @1971gto455ho, are now presented in an entirely different light…. ;)
Absolutely no ideal power cord length! You want a cord long enough to connect everything easily, that’s it. Typically the shortest is best for high current devices like conditioners and amplifiers.
I have not done the study. But recently, when I asked my dealer (when he was at my house) to order me a one meter Audio Quest Hurricane power cord… he responded with, “two meters will give you more conditioning”. I was shocked… I never thought of it that way. But I respect his opinion.
I am currently running ARC REF 160m monoblocks, one with a 1 meter AudioQuest Hurricane and one with a 2 meter Audio Quest Hurricane. Well, guess what, I can’t tell the difference. But unless it was enormous, I can’t imagine being able to.
I really respect my dealers opinion… which seems to be… the longer they are the more they sound like they sound.
I honestly don't know what the hell to think. I buy the best quality I can afford. I run a longer cable from the outlet to the power regeneclean power box of choice. That way i can move it around as i like. My system is not so high end that I would hear a difference. He'll my ears are old. Get what works that doesn't run you broke. Do buy quality. Just don't remortgage to do it. Stop listening to your gear and listen to the music.
The world record for snakes is over 20 feet 🦶, I owned a Audiostore for 10 years
personally I use between 4 and 6 feet and cannot hear any difference
what truly counts are the end connection points , here purity copper with gold,silver or rhodium over the copper , with ,not brass which is bright and no where good of a conductor. , make sure if bought commercially , make your own using top Furutech wire ,and connectors to save $$.
I definitely hear perfection, mostly due to my 10AWG wire I am certain ;)
10AWG wire over 14AWG costs an extreme, totally outlandish premium of $150 extra, for my lower resistance and greater access to instantaneous peak current. Sounds fantastic!
Simple, pure heavy gauge copper at shorter distance equals less resistance, that’s a fact. As to changing the tones or Quality there of, A huge imagination coupled with a light wallet..you know you’re gonna hear perfection. Lol
Well, the results were done with a blind test, so not so subjective actually!
You can try the test as well, if you are interested. You may very well not have the same results as me, given differences in systems. Had I started out upgrading cables before my amp and speaker upgrades, I highly doubt I’d notice the difference in power cables or USB cable lengths. Part of the journey when you realize it makes a difference, objectively through blind tests. Some will never get there and that’s okay.
There’s one thread on here where a dude was going on with all the usual arguments - what about all the wire leading up to your house, and the non-audiophile approved wire in your wall (actually I do have audiophile approved 10AWG twisted wire in my walls, lol)… Anyways everyone challenged him to try a demo at his local dealer going between power cords, and to his credit, he actually did, he said “I don’t know how it makes a difference, but it does.” And impressively, he said “I was wrong.” Again, not everyone will get there.
This subject is like religious fundamentalism, and it’s highly amusing how worked up people get.
I'd be more worried about the 5 m of non audiophile approved wire between the wall plug and the main electrical panel, and then the 70 km of who knows what kind of wire between my panel and the power pole......
The odd DIY cable sounded better than a $200+ Illuminate (Kimber?) and another popular/budget digital cable of the time that was an unusual purple/mauve color (forget the name).
Sounds like an Apogee Wyde Eye. Of course I just ordered a 1m PC yesterday for my soon-to-arrive DDC before I saw this thread. That’s how my luck’s been running of late. Oh well, should still at least be better than the stock cord I guess/hope. Ugh.
I tried different DIY digital cable lengths (single ended RCA non-coaxial types) years ago with a Bel Canto DAC 1 and ended up preferring a 90" (total length of both wire runs combined).
It was made as follows ("" below are copied from a 20 year old post I made @ AA) with 47 Labs OTA 26 gauge wire and in addition the 60" run was "loosely" looped around the 30" run.
"With digital IC's I preferred 1.5 over 1.0 and .5. I eventually made a cable 90" long with the hot lead being 30" and the neutral lead being 60" (this sounded much better to me than the equal length leads in the 1.5, 1.0 and .5, so go figure)."
The design was given to my by Richard of Vantage Audio in the UK and I used 47 RCA connectors on the cable (their RCA's contain zero metal and the wire itself make the necessary electrical contacts).
The odd DIY cable sounded better than a $200+ Illuminate (Kimber?) and another popular/budget digital cable of the time that was an unusual purple/mauve color (forget the name).
I don't recall the length(s) of the 2 commercial cables noted above, but they were @ least 1 meter in length (the purple one may have been 1.5 - but not certain).
I later read that the length of the digital cable (making a difference) also had to do with the design of the DAC itself (some applied - like the Bel Canto and others did not, but I did not understand the explanations).
My power cords are 5' BMI's and Absolute's that I think are around 9' (both sound good to me, though I prefer the heavier gauge BMI's on source gear - so once again - go figure).
I realize the subjective nature of our hobby but this is the kind of BS that gives bad wrap to audiophiles. Just think about it, why would a cable manufacturer supply a 1M length if it sounds terrible compared to 1.5M, 2.0M and so on?
"the cables shorter than 1.5m sounded TERRIBLE by comparison."
I realize the subjective nature of our hobby but this is the kind of BS that gives bad wrap to audiophiles. Just think about it, why would a cable manufacturer supply a 1M length if it sounds terrible compared to 1.5M, 2.0M and so on?
Long enough to stretch from the outlet to the component is ideal. Shorter than this improves noise level—system would be dead quiet—but, I find the system will also sound lifeless.
If you're tuning your sound with power cords expect your results to vary with blood alcohol. Make sure your power cord is beefy enough not to limit your amp. To that end, the shorter the better. I'm guessing the 2M length recommendation has it's roots in someone selling 2M power cords.
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