Power cord choice?


Hoping to change (or upgrade) my current PC in use with my ARC CD3 Mk2. Currently I'm using a Locus Designs Polestar and setting a limit $600 max. I'd like to find a cord that can get more micro details from the ARC yet, I'd like to retain the smoothness but, try to open the sound stage and get a little more bottom in doing so. I listen to Alt rock (Sir Sly, The Killers, Gargage), rock, blues using Classe CAP 151 integrated and Apogee Slant 6s. I know this is subjective but, I'm also doing my best to work with my budget constraints and I'm not going to change if the improvement would just be slightly incremental. I'd like suggestions to consider, please.
rsjm80

Showing 9 responses by bigtwin

I'm sure I'll take some heat for this post but I'll say it anyway.  The power to your equipment travels miles from the source to your home.  Through your main panel and walls to the final outlet.  Your amp and/or power conditioners are designed to take the raw power, filter it, clean it, do all the other magic and then send the signal to your speakers.  How do we believe a 3 foot piece of cable, from the wall socket to the amp is going to change the sound coming out of the speakers?  I've been down this rabbit hole.  From the stock cable the amp came with, to a $300 dollar upgrade, to a $1500 Furutech with Carbon Fiber connectors.  Can hear no difference in the music between the three.  I believe confirmation bias accounts for the difference some people hear.  I believe it sounds different, therefore it sounds different.  Kraft must sponsor a lot of the advertising as this hobby drinks a lot of Kool-Aid.  This may only be my opinion, but that's the beauty of a discussion.  My opinion is just as valid as the next.  
@isochronism   Kudos to you sir for recognizing the reference of bigtwin.  So few do.  As I stated previously, your opinion is just as valid as mine.  I only state the facts of personal experience.  Upgrading cables has made little to no difference.  And clearly I am not alone in this camp any more that you are in yours.  We should all endeavor to persevere in the search for an improved Hi Fi experience.   
@thyname  I use a Furman P2400 IT conditioner, Hegel 590 integrated Amp, Acoustic Zen Crescendo Mark II (also Goldenear Triton Reference), Thorens turntable with MC cartridge, Vertere phono preamp XLO Signature 3 speaker cables.  Quality interconnects.  What I would call a decent system that scratches the surface of true high fidelity.  My first PC upgrade from the stock cable was from Gutwire.  Then I moved to the current Furutech.  Have no plans to try more cables in the future.  I agree that switching from a really cheap cable, that starves your amp of the current it needs, to a decent 12 gauge wire in the $100 - $300 range would probably benefit your system.  If nothing else, getting rid of the hum from an underpowered amp.  But past that I believe in the law of diminishing returns.  Reading about a PC where the manufacturer uses six9 copper, I get it, and then cryogenically freezes the wire?  Now I understand that copper may have different/better transmission properties at extremely low temps, but my air conditioner just doesn't get my sound room down to -175 degrees.  And I question if anys gains realized at those temps doesn't disappear when the wire returns to normal room temp?  And riddle me this one.  The finest made, $10,000 PC should claim to pass the current through it and add nothing to it?  I haven't read anywhere that the PC has filtering properties?  If this is the case, then any noise or interference that is inherent in the home power source should get passed right through the PC?  Common sense tells me to use a decent cable to deliver power to the conditioner.  My personal experience, and let me stress it's my experience, that upgrading the PC has not enhanced what comes out of my speakers.  Heck, I want to be a believer, I want to hear the magic, but that simply has not been the case.  If the holy grail of cables may in fact be out there, but my money will be spent on more tangible results.   
@turnbowm  My Furman power conditioner, weighing in at 100 pounds, has a huge storage of power to meet any demand from my amp.  It contains all the circuity to filter, balance and isolate every outlet to prevent ground loops. (I hope I'm using all the right terminology).  Not sure what the PC brings to the table.  As asked before, does any manufacturer of PCs claim their product "cleans" the power source?  If not, is the best PC in the world not simply passing through all the problems inherent the average home power supply?  
@raysmtb1  Thanks for that video link.  I actually watched the entire 30 minutes.  Although it pertained to audio signals being passed through various wires, I assume the results can be attached to PCs as well.  I recently took the plunge and bought a $500 custom coaxial cable.  In part based on all the postings on this site telling me there will be a big difference in sound, and partly on a long comparison of cables in Absolute Sound magazine.  The reviewer tested 50+ cables and made his top three recommendations.  In the review of the cable I choose, he claimed "the music danced like fire from the speakers".  Well I ask you, who doesn't want that kind of result when you change out a cable.  So off with the $25 coaxial and on with the $500 one.  The difference in sound?  Not a cintella of audible difference.  Switched the cables back and forth.  Identical results.  And not just to me.  To my wife and a few friends that have braved Covid to come over and listen.  I'm still using the expensive cable because maybe the fire is there and I just need time to hear it.  Sure that's it.  I'll hear it later.  It's only been a couple of months.  Maybe the cables not burned in yet. Yeah, that's the ticket.    
@cleeds   I agree that no one test can be held up as universally true.  However, that doesn't explain why there is no apparent difference in sound when the new high-end cable is put into service?  How can the improvement in sound not be obvious to everyone who listens?  I live with the belief that every upgrade I've made to my system has provided a "small" improvement, while being hard/impossible to discern on it's own, the accumulated impact of many changes is much better sound.  I have simply become accustomed to the results and so don't remember how lacking it was previously.  This stops me from opening a vein when I think of the $$$$$ I've spent chasing the dream.  Hmmmm, new Mercedes or a set of Legacy V speakers?  ha ha ha 
The 20 amp ratings relates to the total output your conditioner can supply.  Not to be confused with the individual output capacity of each plugin on the back of the unit.  As such, they recommend the conditioner be put on a 20 amp breaker.  It reality, most people use a 20 to 15 amp plug converter so you can use the existing household outlet.  Given that most systems, other than initial start-up, will only draw between 1 - 2 amp total, there is no problem running the "20 amp" conditioner on a 15 amp circuit.  
That is true, but the increase in current might spike your amp draw by half an amp?  You would have to be a massive amount of equipment to draw a total of 5 amps?  Just saying the 15 amp service in the average home is not likely to fail.  And even if it did, it would simply kick off the breaker on the main panel.  If someone on this forum has a system drawing that much power, I'd love to see it.