2. cables
  3. 168200-88

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 3 responses by calvinandhobbes

calvinandhobbes
273 posts
 
What if measurements don’t actually capture everything about how a cable sounds?

To the folks that say that you have miles of electrical cable that run to your outlet, what if a power cable has the effect of filtering out EMI/RFI?

I’ve had a limited amount of experience with power cables but even those sound different. One cable that clearly sounded better on one DAC sounded worse on another DAC. Can anyone explain how psychoacoustic factors would yield that result?

My contribution to this thread: Use the recommendations from others as a starting point only. I suggest trying whatever power cable you are considering in your own system. I would not underestimate the impact of system synergy on what cable works best with your existing components.
calvinandhobbes
273 posts
 
Here's what an electrical engineer who designs audio equipment for PS Audio has to say about why cables sound different. He's got better credentials than any of you. Commentary starts at 55 minutes into the podcast:

https://www.thehifipodcast.net/episodes/episode-54-shielding-grounding-draining-isolation
calvinandhobbes
273 posts
 
If you want to claim that the engineer in the podcast I’ve posted above doesn’t know about cables since he designs amplifiers, this series of articles might be more to your liking:

https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-1/
https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-2/
https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-time-is-of-the-essence-part-3/
https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-speaker-cable-design-part-1/
https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-speaker-cable-design-part-2/
https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-rca-interconnects/
https://www.psaudio.com/copper/article/cables-xlr-interconnect-design/
https://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/iconoclastintro.htm
https://www.iconoclastcable.com/story/
https://forum.psaudio.com/t/belden-iconoclast-interconnects-and-speaker-cabling/2038/3087

For those of you that think that "science" proves that cables can’t sound different, please review the podcast and these articles and report back with the ways in which these articles are wrong. THAT would be a post that I would be interested in reading.
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