Power Cables

What are you trying to say, dlcockrum?
I thought we were discussing the electrical requirements of Home Audio Gear?
And do you actually believe that manufacturers of high-end audio gear are fitting substandard wiring to their products?

sisyphus51,

I was using a metaphor. According to Wikipedia: "A metaphor is a figure of speech that directly refers to one thing by mentioning another for rhetorical effect. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas."

Dave

Ouch!

Here’s the thing - Powerful transient signal demands - such as the crack of a side drum or the slam of a bass can draw significantly more power than the 5.21 amps sisyphus51 calculated BUT only for very brief moments in time. However, they do contribute to the reproduction of the realism of the music.

The standard power cable provided by the maunfacturer is not capable of responding to the immense demands of tranient signals. More advanced designs allow the conveyance of enough power in a timely manner such that an amp can perform up to its full potential and reproduce those transients more faithfully.

Monoblocks do assist in the dynamic reproduction of music because of their large transformers /power supplies, but it really depends on the amount of current actually drawn by the amp as to how effective a third party power cable might be.

Smaller components that have a smaller power supply will "generally" show more of an improvement in sound quality when a better quality power cord is employed

Components that employ Wal-wart power supplies will excell when their power supply is switched to something more substantial including a better power cord.

Also - the quality of the actual conductors used in a powercord will improve the speed of the reproduction of those transients - e.g. that drum will actually sound much crisper (faster) and the bass will have more texture and slam.

I prefer silver plated conductors because they are affordable and offer almost the same perofrmance as solid silver.

Then there is the geometry of the cable itself - this contributes to the overall clarity and imaging...
- The standard geometry of three wires side-by-side - perhaps with a slight twist - i.e. "The Norm" - is the worst possible geometry to use - it’s worst attribute is - it s noisy. To improve performance companies simply rely on conductor quality to achieve improvements in sound.

- Braided cables are less noisy and offer significantly better dynamic performance than the standard geometry and will show discernable improvements on components with smaller power suplies

- the best I have tried to date is a helix geometry - where the neutral and ground conductors are wound around the live condcutor - they have an extremely fast dynamic response with very low noise characteristics that results in the most realistic repeoduction of music.

So to sum up - that cable that comes in the box will do the job - but very poorly in comparison to other cables and especially a helix cable.

Many others besides myself have tried the helix design on a variety of systems (i.e. solid state and tube) and all agree they provide a significant improvement.

If you really want your system to soar to new heights - also employ IC’s and speaker cables that also use a helix geometry.

Unfortunately - the Helix Geometry is not available in power cables from third parties - it is currently only available to those that do not mind a DIY project. But if you can use a screwdriver and a variable speed electric drill take a look at...

http://image99.net/blog/files/category-002ahelix-power-cable.html

In answer to the question asked by the O.P. - the brand is imaterial - the geometry and other attributes of the cable is what makes for the best results

Hope that helps - Steve

I think that the following lengthy post that was provided by Atmasphere a few years ago, in a post dated 6-3-2014 in this thread, is worth quoting here in its entirety.  It reinforces some of the things that were said above by Steve (Williewonka), and by me earlier in this thread.

For those who may not know, Atmasphere (Ralph Karsten) is the owner and designer of Atma-Sphere Music Systems, which manufactures unique and very highly regarded audio amplifiers and preamplifiers.  He is also, IMO, one of this forum's most knowledgeable, experienced, helpful, sincere, and level-headed members.

With power cords its all about voltage drop across the cord. Some of that is at 60Hz, and some of that is much much higher- well above 30KHz-100KHz depending on the power supply in the unit with which it is being used.

I've seen a 2 1/2 volt drop rob an amplifier of about 30% of its output power. The cord was rated for 10 amps, and the draw was about 6 amps. This measurement was done with a simple 3 1/2 digit Digital Voltmeter.

The more insidious problem is high frequency bandwidth. The power supplies of most amplifiers have a power transformer, a set of rectifiers, and a set of filter capacitors. The rectifiers only conduct when the power transformer output is higher than that of the filter caps. So:

When the caps are fully charged the amp is able to play. As it does so, the caps are discharged until the AC line voltage waveform gets high enough again that the rectifiers in the power supply are able to conduct. Depending on the state of charge of the filter capacitors, this might only be for a few microseconds or it might be a few milliseconds. Either way, the charge is a spike which has very steep sides- and requires some bandwidth to make it happen.

If the power cord has poor high frequency response, it will current limit on these spikes. This can result is subtle modulations in the power supply or even a sagging power supply voltage.

Romex wiring found in many buildings actually works quite well. So it really becomes all about that last few feet and also how well the power cord is terminated- molded cords generally are not terminated very well. If the ends of your power cord get warm after a while, you know you have a problem!

This can be measured, its quantifiable and also audible as many audiophiles know. Anyone who tells you differently probably has not bothered to do any measurements- please refer them to this post.

I can go into more depth but this is it in a nutshell. Incidentally, Shunyata Research is refining an instrument that does a more in-depth analysis of what this is all about. At the link you will see that their tests essentially confirm what I have said here.

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/shunyata_visit_interview.htm

Regards,
-- Al