interconnects vs speaker cables vs power cords - which make the biggest difference?
I’ll add that I’ve been working on upgrading PC with the help of the Cable Company (highly recommended). They recommended that I start with my power conditioner cable (big difference), the DAC ( clear difference, but not as big), pre, and amps (I haven’t done yet)—so down the chain. I will also add, if you use digital, consider your inputs there. Going to a fiber system and good Ethernet cord definitely reduced glare (fiber did 90% of it for me). |
In my experience Power Cables and Digital Cables can make big differences while Interconnect and Speaker Cables make very small differences. I'm always shocked at just how easily differences can be perceived between power and digital cables. I find decay reproduction and low-end performance can vary significantly from cable to cable. On the other hand, I generally hear very little difference when comparing interconnects. I've tried many different RCA interconnects and always end up returning to my budget Wireworld cables because I never hear enough difference in interconnects to justify the cost. I once took part in a blind speaker cable test. A set of very expensive speakers cables was compared to a pair of car battery jumper cables. There was no consensus in the room as to which one was preferred. |
@ccandte Six years late, but here’s my experience as well as first time delving into a subjective mater on audigon. here we go! I would say based on my experience and conclusions aftermarket power cables SOMETIMES matter, whereas interconnects and speaker cables ALWAYS matter, so determine your power situation before finalizing your ranking. Here’s the logic behind this sweeping statement. 1. I have NEVER heard a difference between aftermarket power cables and the stock cables that came with the McIntosh amp nor the McIntosh preamp/DAC in the setup in my home.
2. Contrary to my experience with after-market power cables, EVERY speaker cable I have auditioned made a sonic difference. Some a lot, some a little, but they all changed the quality of the sound. 3. Likewise, EVERY interconnect I have ever auditioned has made a difference. I’m not sure I could rank the impact speaker cables and interconnects though even in absolute terms much less factoring for price.
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I’ll revive a pretty important topic for us and for those we try to help. I say get everything with your power done right, including very stable grounding. Then, Ii you don’t think power cables are the right ’first upgrade’ to buy then, wait, and buy one eventually. Once you buy a power cable you want, then go AB them next to some reference Nordost. Maybe not even that high up their line. What I’m getting at, is that you’re going to think you just put in a $2k capacitor and top transformers with that one power cable alone. A good one can do that kind of work for your system. There is a reason cables (power, and others) are highly considered in the hospital field tech. work. Yes, some is for spark safety, others have nothing to do with audio, others have a lot to do with EMF/RF. For instance, do you want noise in your system? Neither do the doctors doing a kidney removal on a cancer patient. Then find some RCA cables, better yet, then get a tool you can work with that will pick up any EMF/RF on your RCA cables. You’ll be more concerned with EMF rather than RF at this point. RF can be simply treated by moving your system from any and all mobile devices. EMF more important because it comes from bad grounding (mentioned earlier) bad electric work by the internet tech or any tech using that tech in your robot home. I’m simply going wireless because I have more trust in how to do it right than the audio companies who continue to push Ethernet as they don’t want to drop some R&D cash on WI-FI for their next product. So they simply go with what the audio engineers think they know of Wi-Fi (nothing). Ask Paul (the PS Audio guy about WI-FI), but he’ll tell you to use the connection on his DAC, (USB probably piped from WIFI) See where I'm going with all this power trip stuff? A LOT of place, too many. Power is everything. Consider it well. Then be happy and do jumping jacks with your RCAs Dang, did not mean to ramble. Tired and moved all day. But you get my idea. If you disagree, please let me know, I’m still learning and wanting to learn about this topic. |
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The "pecking" order for my small 2-channel system is.... 1. Speaker Cables 2. Interconnects 3. Power Cables If I had a large power-hungry amp, power cables might prove to be more important but my Bryston Integrated Amp doesn't seem to care what I feed it with. I do, however, replace OEM 18AWG PCs with generic UL-listed 14AWG ones because they're inexpensive and provide (in theory) better power delivery. |
Why are we all trying to reinvent the wheel or beat a dead horse , allot of this has been done already in the 12V car audio world. If your into 12V audio you know the big three upgrade is done along with any decent subwoofer install , big three is upgrading your positive wire from your alternator to your batt, ground from alt to chassis , neg from bat to chassis basically a charging system upgrade cause stock sucks, Power cables are like doing a big three in your house it allows your expensive stereo to pull more power from your outlet it does help if you have a conditioner , run a blender in your kitchen and see if it doesn't show up on your tv in some way , these expensive power cables also do a good job of keeping interference out because they are in effect just antennas and need to be shielded along with being able to conduct electricity better that's number 1 , 2 why on earth would you have an inferior speaker cable if you spent all this good money on nice towers , and 3 interconnect spend as much as you can afford without not being able to buy diapers audio quest Forest is good enough allot of the tech can be found in the even higher end cinnamon line there splitting hairs i think and is just an opportunity to rake more money out of you cause i can't tell a diff . power to stereo is most important , its also nice to upgrade the TV power cable but is not needed , Also Dudes get your apps thru your TV there is no HDMI for video except for the hdmi to your receiver for sound and let your TV networking cable go into your modem for Fast ethernet connection opposed to getting your content on a coax network Comcast verizon.... you have a bottleneck on coax and then have to come out of your verizon box on HDMI go to the stereo and then on to the TV . If you have a netflix app on your TV its immediate no loss no HDMI cable for video , i would say its still better having a blue ray 4k . nicholas.giordano@att.net love to hear your thoughts , please dont put to much thought into it. |
My two cents: Power cord....you must get the RFI/EFI right from the start otherwise noise will affect the chain of components to never return. I use Stage lll with a wonderful affect. Power supplies via manufacturer vary to a great degree so YMMV. Try on your TV to find out noise cancellation. The picture won't lie. Interconnects.....source to preamp. next preamp. to amp. Speaker Cable.....all to a varying degree but the least in my experience if the front end is taken care of. Everything lost in the chain will never return so it all matters. Gwalt |
In my experience, it’s the power cable. I’ve had expensive cables ever since 1986. Started out with MIT, then when I became an audio writer, changed to Transparent. Also had XLO. Dropped out of audio for a while and came back in 2003. Saw a new name in the power cord/speaker cable field, Shunyata and was curious. Read a few reviews and thought, 'this sounds like something I'd like,' so I bought the speaker cable (Andromeda Constellations Series) and then the Aries interconnects, as well as Nordost Quattro Fils. Everything sounded nice, but not quite...what I was used to. (Turned out to be the Marsh amp. Too ’polite.’) Then I saw that Shunyata had power cords, read up on them and bought the Black Mamba (2003 version), Python and then The King Cobra V2 (2003 vintage, their first line of power cords). When I inserted the King Cobra into the system and placed it on my ASL Hurricanes, the system came alive in a rather spectacular way. Dynamic as hell, extremely strong mid-bass, imaged like nobody’s business. So, I’d say the power cords - with a caveat. If you insert a speaker cable that is a better model than the power cords you have - and they are from the same manufacturer - the speaker cable will appear to be the most important. So, for example if you have Nordost Purple Flare power cords and have been using Red Dawn speaker cable - and then insert Frey 2 speaker cable, it will appear that the speaker cable was the big improvement. But lets say that you then (keeping the Frey 2 speaker cable in your system) then purchase a Nordost Try2 or Valhalla2 power cord, you might think the power cord suddenly "out-powered" the Frey 2 as the bigger improvement. That said, I’ve found that all items in one’s system need to be equally good, but the power cord, given that it filter out impurities in the electricity in your system, will push the system higher. I have found, over the years, that, in some manufacturer’s lines, one component compensates for the other. In the old Goldmund components, circa 1986, the Goldmund front end components ( The Goldmund Studio, for example) were just slightly dark (yin), but then, when they introduced a line of electronics (such as the Goldmund Mimesis 9, which I owned), the electronics were beautifully clear and transparent - and it was like you had inserted a 150 watt bulb in a lamp after living with a 75 watt bulb for so long, to the point of the sound being very close to Spectral electronics (slightly "yang" - sounding) speaking strictly of tonality here. But Put the turntable together with the amp (I was using a Convergent preamp, also of 1988 vintage, which is itself slightly "yang") and it was a match made in heaven. However, if you used the Goldmund electronics with other manufacturer’s components, you might well wonder what the fuss was about. |
Here is an experiment that you could try: String a WalMart or Home Depot extension cord from your wall outlet; also do the same thing with a sub $10 power strip/extension cord. Plug in your after market power cord to the female end or power strip. Then plug your after market power cord into your component(s). |
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An advice from my heart: If you take the chance to audition the following, then you know. Physic Harmonic "eco" power cables & speaker cables http://cablesilk.simplesite.com/432375948 handmade by Andreas Pollakis He gives 30 day money back unconditionally if you don’t like them. You can reach him on Facebook, or by his email : vmixael@yahoo.com The price is a joke! Tell him George Charopoulos sent you. Happy Listening |
I agree that ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL (ie all wires being of the same basic design/quality) the ic between the source and preamp is the one most likely to make the greatest impact on the sound of a system. EVERY cable (I've used top of the line Kimber, AQ, Stealth,Shunyata, M.I.T.,Tara and Nordost and mid level High Fidelity cables--off the top of my head) has different qualities which may or may not shine in a particular system. Oh yes, and what may shine for one listener, may not for another. |
Everything is a tone control. Cables, capacitors, plugs, preamps, amps, speakers, sources, etc., etc., etc. I have noted many times in the last couple of decades that a system component change may very well require some cable/cord changes. No one seems to deny that cables/cords are system synergy and personal taste related. However, many talk about not using cables as tone controls. LOL! These same folks have no idea that their speakers are tone controls. They pick the ________ that sounds best to them, hence, it is a tone control. Some choose to tune their system using cables, some choose to tune their system using components. Whatever floats your boat. |
I normally do not reply to such topics, but I’ll live on the wild side a little. I have never had any major improvements from power cords, but I still buy aftermarket PC’s because I want my gear supported properly due to all the money invested. My Dude preamp (up for sale) never responds to power cables. It does not care. I agree with the Transparent designer - the most critical cable is from source to the preamp. I’ll get back to that. With speaker cables I have experienced very nice results and today truly enjoy my Cerious SC’s that I cannot fathom ever taking them out. So a little real-time info for you, since my Dude is for sale I have been bringing in other preamps of the passive style and have found one that is highly rated but the sound became bright and edgy immediately upon inserting it into the system. My present IC’s are Audio Magic Trinniums which are a hybrid ribbon cable and with the Dude were pretty darn good even though I knew from past experience that something a little more full-bodied should eventually be tested. So I grabbed a pair of older Audioquest copper IC’s and changed out the preamp to source cable with this low priced parts-bin cable and immediately lost the brightness and added some bass because the cable shifted the frequency range by rolling off the top end, etc. which a non-silver content ribbon can do. So I proved to myself that I could perhaps live with this preamp but that really means I need to find a compatible IC. Is this tone control? Don’t really care cuz I trust my ears. So I have a pair of Cerious graphene IC’s and a pair of Morrow MA-5’s coming to see how they do since that are about as far from a silver-infused ribbon cable you can get. I have owned Morrows before so have some familiarity. So stayed tuned. This is the first time where I have deliberately selected cables to change the sound in order to keep a piece of electronics - or to put it another way, the preamp may be so revealing a "bright" cable is the wrong choice. In about a week I will know. |
It makes no sense to me, but power cables have made the most difference in my system. Easily. Inner connects next, then speaker cables. This is the exact opposite of what I would expect, but there you are. And, power cables made much more difference I n my sources and preamp than in my amps themselves. This could be because I have class d mono blocks (bel canto). When I had other solid state amps, I never changed power cables because I couldn't imagine it would make any difference. Wrong. |
The PC was from a Sony high end TV...does everything right and doesn't screw up the frequency balance or roll anything off!! Had lots of Transparent including Gen 5 Reference. Results were, how do I put this nicely...lackluster. Their best stuff was the XL TECHNOLOGY...open and spacious with crazy detail and liquidity. |
it is notable advice from a guy who sells cables if a double blind test shows significant differences from interconnects then somebody really effed up the design of your components if a double blind test shows significant improvements from speaker cables then you most likely have a speaker with unusual impedance match requirements ("not that there is anything wrong with that") if you like your speaker cables then you can keep your speaker cables |
@dave_b Sure, it's the stock cord that came with your Krell. Everyone, I heard an interesting presentation recently from Josh Clark -Lead Product Designer at Transparent Cable. An attendee asked "If I can't afford to add your cables to all my system at once, where is the first place in my system to invest?" The reply was the interconnect between source and preamp. I thought that was notable advice from an articulate and well informed source. Cheers, Spencer |
I agree all make differences.good cables design to make the system to perform at its best potential, bad cables tend to change/ manipulate the sound.synergy betweens cables is very important and have to be choose carefully. Not always the expensive cables are better than the cheaper ones , demo is a must! |
Before you mess with all that, make sure you’ve sorted out room treatment and speaker placement. I’ve had a-ha! moments with power cords, interconnects and speaker cables. But the biggest a-ha! was better speaker placement and decent room treatment. For me, it was more significant than any of the cable changes. Also, before you dick around with power cables, do you have a dedicated line for your listening room? That can make more of a difference than any power cable.. |
Here is what LFD offers: http://lfd4u.com/2016/11/29/lfd-phono-stage-upgrade-the-power-cord-first-or-the-interconnect/ LFD AUDIO: Phono stage; upgrade the power cord first or the interconnect? Posted on 29th November 2016 by Howard Popeck Hi Howard I just received the Power Cord as ordered plugged in to wall outlet already definite improvement over shunyata cord ,I was wondering if another Power Cord would benefit my lfd phonostage ? or should I look to upgrade my Interconnect from the Spirolink to the grainless first thanks again for your help. You pose an interesting question. It depends in which direction you want to travel next. In superficial terms, if there is a desire for greater bass 'heft' and 'slam' then the Power Cord is your next move. If more detail, less sibilance on female vocals and a greater sense of 'sweetness' then the Grainless is the way to go. |
WRT to Power cables - I have observed that the components in my system with the "lowest quality" power supplies tend to benefit more from a power cable upgrade than components having a higher quality power supply e.g. - my Bifrost DAC performed noticeably better with a good power cord. - whereas my NAIM amp, although it improved, the improvements were more subtle. - my Simaudio Moon Phono stage was somewhere between the two. Also, If you have components with Wall-wart power supplies - find a quality replacement. with a quality power cable - It makes a huge difference If I had to start again, I would start by upgrading the power cables first, because these allow the components to operate to their best abilities. Then followed by IC's and then speaker cables. Regards... |
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Factors that tend to increase the criticality of speaker cables: -- Low speaker impedance. -- Long cable length. Factors that tend to increase the criticality of line-level analog interconnect cables: -- High output impedance of the component driving the cable. -- Use of unbalanced interconnections. -- Long cable length. Factors that tend to increase the criticality of power cords: -- The component being powered has an unregulated power supply and draws large amounts of current that fluctuate widely. Namely most power amplifiers and integrated amplifiers. -- The component being powered tends to generate significant amounts of electrical noise, that may couple via the power cord to other components. Namely power amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, and digital sources. -- AC line voltage at the particular location that is lower than nominal. ("Nominal" being 120 volts in the USA). Phono cables and digital interconnect cables involve complex issues that I won’t address in this post, but their criticality will vary widely depending on the specific equipment that is involved. Regards, -- Al |
