Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Well, there is way more to power cords than meets the eye that's for sure. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many companies out there peddling this stuff.

Since my last post I have experienced a lot of "discovery"

But to cut a very long story down to a more digestible post here's the coles notes version.

I started looking at different cable architectures and figured there had to be one that a reasonably competent DIYer like myself could use.

All of the designs that appeared to get great reviews appeared to have an architecture that avoided parallel conductors.

The problem is parallel conductors...
- passing an electrical current through one conductor will induce electrical noise in the adjacent conductors
- inducing noise into the neutral side of an electrical circuit has a negative impact on that circuits performance

So I set out to see what effect simply braiding the conductors would have.

I went to a hardware store and purchased a 12 gauge extension cord and cut a length of about 6 ft.
- I then stripped the outer sleeve from the entire length to expose the three conductors.
- I then braided the three conductors and installed quality silver plated copper IEC and Mains connectors.

To my complete amazement this very inexpensive power cable outperformed my DIY cable that used high quality Furutech bulk power cable, which also had the exact same IEC/Mains connectors.

A fellow poster on this forum has tried this and also found it's performance to be significantly better compared to one of a very popular brand he had in his system.

Next I stripped the outer sleeve and screening from the Furutech and braided it's internal connectors. The very high quality copper in the Furutech cable combined with good connectors and braided cable architecture makes a power cable that provide an extremely high level of performance.

I have compared the braided Furutech to cables costing many times it's price and found its performance to be very comparable.

This is now my standard power cable on every piece of equipment in my system.
- 10 gauge for the amp and power distribution panel
- 13 gauge for the sources.

The braiding also works to deter RFI

So - are power cords snake oil?

Pretty much, any after market cord will perform better than stock cables.

However, sometimes cables like those supplied with the Sophia Electric Baby amp posted by Cbozdog may well have been designed to provide the best performance.

Using cables made from better quality copper or some fancy alloy will provide some benefit, but the architecture is more important

Cables that are designed such that the conductors are not parallel to each other will perform better than others.

I'm not saying braiding is the best architecture out there - it is the easiest for a DIYer like myself to implement and provides a significant improvement over standard bulk cable alternatives.

If you are not into DIY, then look at the architecture of the cable before you purchase third party products - there are some very good ones out there.

For the DIYers out there - if you want a more affordable cable to Furutech then try DH Labs Power Plus and Encore.
- For about 1/3rd the cost of Furutech you get very close to it's performance ability.

I use Sonar Quest Silver plated copper IEC/Mains connectors from Ebay
- if you want a more affordable alternative try the Vanguard gold plated copper connectors from Ebay

Improvements include faster dynamics, larger image more micro details and deeper bass.

Hope you find it useful

No snake oil - good ones make a difference - here's why...

NOTE: For brevity I am going to bypass the power requirements of the electronic circuits and the many factors that influence circuit design etc.....mainly because I don't recall them from 40 years ago when I did have some understanding of them :-)))

So looking at the back-end of the amplifier - i.e. Speaker terminals...

The signal "sent" to a loudspeaker consists of a varying VOLTAGE (i.e. at the musical frequencies and various volume levels of instruments) - a very dynamic and complex signal

The "impedance" of the speaker governs the amount of CURRENT that is "drawn from the amp"
- impedance is like resistance, except...
- you have to factor in inductive and capacitive elements
- those vary with frequency - so impedance too is very dynamic!
- Current Drawn = voltage(which is dynamic) / impedance (which is very dynamic)
- net result - the frequencies in the music causes very dynamic variations in current "drawn from the amp"
- if you could see a waveform of the current delivered to the speaker it would resemble the musical waveform - sort of :-))
- So - POWER CONSUMED = CURRENT x VOLTS - all of which are directly related to the musical waveform and very dynamic

Now - at the wall outlet end of the amp -

The mains supply to all components is constant at 120v ac (I'm not debating power fluctuations here OK!)

Basically remembering that "POWER IN = POWER OUT"
- if POWER = CURRENT x VOLTS and the volts are constant @ 120v
- then CURRENT = POWER/120v
- if the power at the speaker terminals is dynamic (from above)
- then the CURRENT required from the mains supply will be dynamic also
- WHY? - because the voltage at the outlet is constant!

So, providing your house supply is sufficient, you can see that the mains supply current requirements are directly related to the musical frequencies and very dynamic and will have all the same requirements as interconnects and speaker cables - it needs good quality copper.

So what happens if the component cannot get the instantaneous current levels required?
- the component experiences an internal instantaneous voltage drop
- this seriously impacts the performance of the component across the board!

So we spend a lot of money on the best quality copper for speaker cables and interconnects, having low resistance/inductance/capacitance and quality connectors to get better transmission

- then a component manufacturer sticks a crappy 18 gauge mains cable in the box and we use it !
- but first we toss the crappy interconnect (that is about the same quality) - because that's not good enough!
- GO FIGURE!

SO - Doesn't the component also deserve a Mains Cable of similar quality as ALL other cables in our system?
- probably more so.

Only with good power cords can we hear the real differences further down the line!

So snake oil? - some cables market a lot of hype, when in fact it is pretty simple - look for...
- good quality copper
- some form of noise cancelling geometries or shielding
- good quality plugs/connectors

Yes - the supply fluctuates - cables won't help that
Yes - some amps may benefit from a cable that has some smoothing properties (verdict still out on this one)
Yes - silver cables are probably better than copper (verdict still out on this one)
And a million other claims.

Bottom line - a good cable like a Furutech (that's what I know works on my system) will provide sonic improvements

If it doesn't then the power cord is not your problem - look elsewhere!

Lacee - don't forget that the differences they may fail to detect also depends on the other cables in their systems which may or may not allow them to hear a difference.

If either the speaker cables or interconnects are not of sufficient quality or gauge, they will not hear any improvement.

I have very good 10 gauge speaker cables and phono interconnects with balanced conductors and directional screens. They make a huge difference to the complete sound and allowed me to hear improvements

But you are correct in that people listen for different things - e.g. I listen to the musical phrasing, not the actual words.

The internal wiring is generally a reasonable quality and its solid, which does make a difference

I did try braided Rome and it performed very well - but not quite as good as my Furutech cables.

I did find one power cord where the manufacturer stipulated a minimum of 1.5 meters.

But that could just be a sales ploy:-)

At $7300 - I would hope it would change peoples minds - at least in a positive direction.

There's also the TOTL - Odin Supreme Reference from Nordost @ $7000 (I believe that's the price)

Now back to the real world...

So since my first append above I have added a DH Labs Power Plus PC to my system at a very reasonable $49 for 7 ft of cable+ $40 for connectors.

Replacing the 10 awg furutech cable on my amp made no difference to the sound!
- but then it didn't get any worse :-)
- the furutech cost $250 to build myself

Replacing 15 awg Furutech DIY cable on the power conditioner however did result in a significant improvement across the board...
- improved detail across the complete frequency range
- more spacious 3D stage
- smoother highs
- deeper bass
- more dynamic

all in all - a nice little upgrade :-)

The Furutech seems to have "industrial" written all over it and would be right at home in harsh chemical environments.

The DH labs cable is not of the same build quality as the Furutech, But then it doesn't need to be because it's designed for audio use only and has great quality copper, which is the important thing here.

AND - if you search AG forums there are many references to DH Labs and their very respectable performance levels.

If you are thinking about upgrading PC's - give DH Labs Power Plus a whirl

If you live in a harsh environment - or just want a cable built like a TANK! - try the Furutech

Why did I decide to try DH Labs over other cables like Pangea? - well, their whole design philosophy made a lot of sense and they laid their designs out on the web for everyone to see, just like Furutech and Van Den Hul does.

Seeing it helps me believe it :-)

Companies that just tell me "it will sound better!"
- well that's just asking me to rub on the snake oil :-)

OK, so since my last posting I've had a chance to revamp a few parts of my system and the following is what transpired...

I looked at the bottlenecks in my power supply components and in the power supply to the phono stage and the DAC the fuses seemed the weakest link. I replaced them with push button breakers, which allowed the attached sources to really improve their performance.

I also replaced the power conditioner with a DIY power distribution centre that utilized Pass and Seymour outlets and a push button breaker for safety.

I then tried some different power cord combinations and found that the Furutech outperformed the DH Labs Encore cable - not by a lot, but it was discernible.

The DH Labs Power Plus cable is still a top performer, capable of satisfying the most dynamic power demands.

So, my new benchmark power cables are the Furutech.

But if your budget will not stretch to their price point, the DH Labs power cables are very respectable options at a much more affordable cost.

Cost conscious readers should also take a look at the Vanguard line of connectors on eBay, which are gold on copper and very affordable at $23 for a mains plug and an IEC connector.

Enjoy:-)

Stewie - the length of the cord would make little difference - within reason

Quality power cables are only a few ohms/km - so difference between 1/2 meter and 6 meters would be negligeable.

What does make a difference is the quality of the connectors

Regards