Looking For 18awg Audiophile Power Cable Options


Hi Friends,

I'm trying to find some 18awg audiophile power cables and am looking for recommendations. It seems the only ones I can find are of the AudioQuest variety, but I don't like the sound of AudioQuest cables, as they sound too sterile to me (or something, it's hard for me to describe).

I have a music production system and while I use expensive Triode Wire Labs Digital American cables on the DAC, ADC, and production computer/DAW with fantastic and stable results, I've had problems with my other components running on any thicker-gauged cables (powered KRK monitors, microphone power supply, and preamps).

I've tried several different cables on these other components, but I find any cable with a gauge thicker than 18awg results in issues of sound stability. The system needs to run for 12, sometimes 18 hours at a time, and I find that thicker-gauge cables, after about 8 hours, start to render the sound compressed, maybe slightly overloaded, and not as open, which is problematic for mixing and recording.

I started using some 18awg cables with hospital-grade plugs, and while they're definitely a big step up from the stock cables, and the stability of the sound is great, I'm just wondering if there's any 18awg audiophile-type cables out there that would give me improved performance, smoother top end, etc., just from better noise/RFI rejection. The sibilants were smoother when I used the audiophile cables, I think from better shielding, but the stability of the sound of system and vocal chain is of the upmost importance.

It's weird but I guess it has something to do with the digital components handling the thicker gauged cables better for some reason, compared to the analog components.

Any ideas/recs appreciated, thanks for your time!

 

128x128acar83

Showing 2 responses by dekay

Try some of the inexpensive hospital grade cords on Amazon.

Many are of the "iron lung jelly fish" variety (Google "iljf" + "power cord" if not already familiar with them.

I would try them in the 14-18 gauge range and not just limit it to 18 (they are cheap).

One example (18gauge).

DeKay

acar83:

 

I'm not recommending this, but your query reminded me of a discussion here @ A'Gon (20+ years ago) regarding making power cords out of 47 Labs OTA cable (26 gauge solid core copper in a thick polyvinyl insulation).

If you search OTA + power cord some of the posts will come up (most are contained in this thread - one which I took part in).

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/sakura-systems-ota-cable-kit

DeKay