One Cord To Rule Them All


I'm seeking advice for a power cord to go from the wall outlet to my PSA P10 power regenerator. It needs to be 1.5M / 5 ft. and have the ability to pass 600 watts for many hours per day. My current PC is a Pangea AC-9, and my budget is about $200 to $300. The candidates I have so far are: Pangea AC-9 SE Mk ll, Audio Envy Ocean 3, or a PS Audio AC10 (used for about $300). Any thoughts? ... Thanks
koestner

Showing 6 responses by mitch2

If your $5K "power regenerator" is going to regenerate the power anyway, and then you are going to run other power cords from the regenerator to the equipment you plug into it, then why not just use the largest gauge copper power cord that delivers current to the regenerator?  Your 9 awg Pangea AC-9 cord should be plenty large enough. I would be more worried about what is coming out of the wall.

I know some say it doesn't make any difference beyond a certain size but I have found otherwise after constructing power cords from 10 awg NOS WE wire and Furutech FI-11 connectors using 6 individual runs in a star-quad configuration - so an aggregate of 7 awg to each the load and neutral (and same to ground).  When run from dedicated 20A lines to my large monoblock amplifiers, the difference was a noticeable improvement over 10 awg Oyaide TUNAMI V2 power cables.  You can get basically the same cord from TRL as their Seven Plus - American Series, which is made from (you guessed it) pairs of NOS WE 10 awg wire.  I believe they braid rather than twist the wires (tomato-tomahto). 
He already has a well-made 9 awg power cable.
For $89, he could purchase a better made 7 awg power cable.
If he wants to spend a bit more, here is another 7 awg cable that should sound good powering his regenerator.
If he wants to spend more, a dedicated power line would be a good thing IME.
Well, it looks like there are 2 camps here. One says keep what I have because before the P10 "wire is wire" and the other half thinks it all matters.
And a third camp that also believes "it all matters" but need not be more than what is optimal for the job.   A 7 to 9 gauge power cable is likely larger than the romex in your wall and should deliver the current just fine.  Good connectors and shielding would be a plus.
Yes, for interconnects and speaker cables, but I believe solid core wire is not recommended for power cables due to the higher potential for breakage due to repeated bending.  There have been a couple of folks who have discussed that, in their opinion, Romex would actually sound pretty good as a power cord but is not recommended because of the safety issue.  I have never tried it.
Thanks for the article links @thyname 
I always enjoy opportunities to learn something from folks who actually research these things and build stuff.
Using larger 7awg power cords did make a noticable, audible difference/improvement when used to connect my 650 wpc monoblocks.  Each amp is connected to a 20A dedicated electrical line, wired with 10 awg romex.  As explained in one of the articles, power supplies pull current in pulses, not steady state.  Power cords that are better at allowing/transmitting larger instantaneous current pulls can conceivably perform better. 
@cleeds 
The only way to ascertain expertise on Agon is to judge a user’s posting history.
Mostly true but another way to help understand a poster's perspective is to take a look at their virtual system.  For example, I use inefficient speakers and big power amps so I am certainly not the person to listen to regarding high efficiency speakers and single-ended triode amplifiers, other than I have said I wish I had started out with more efficient speakers.  It is both interesting and informative to look at the virtual systems here, and fun too.  While I have no problem with people who do not post their virtual systems, when they do that information sometimes helps me understand where they are coming from.