The Truth About Power Cords and there "Real" Price to Performance

@blumartini - unfortunately, your original post failed to identify price vs. performance by component.

I have investigated cables for many years and power cable improvement  seems differ with the component to which they are attached.
- components with "less-capable" power supplies tend to exhibit more of an improvement
- compared to the same cable when used on amps with massive power supplies, which tend to exhibit less of an improvement

e.g. my Schiit Bifrost DAC sounded much better with a Signal Power Cable, which made no improvement when connected to my NAIM amp

So what may appear to a "good" power cable when used on a source component may not be so good for a Power Amp.

Sorry to complicate matters, but Power cables can be pretty fickle

The only commercially available power cable that I believe has the best price/performance ratio is Nordost, because I have heard them make noticeable improvements in a system and they have models at various price points better suited to the different components.

I now make my own, so I stopped looking at the vast amount of offerings now commercially available.

Unfortunately, some companies out there offer products that are not much better than a piece of bulk furutech/oyaide cable with a couple of good connectors attached. These make it difficult for anyone trying to buy a cable that is significantly better

Regards  Steve

@turnbowm - which Bryston do you have?
- I have the B135 integrated - great value and quality.

I find your approach is very sound (’scuse the pun)...

So, I purchased one of the better performing (and more expensive) cords for my Ayre and another inexpensive cord for the LTA, saving myself several hundred dollars in the process."

And for components of the quality level of Bryston and LTA, one would need the very best power cables to achieve discernible improvements and that equates to $$$

My experience has been that (most) all components will benefit from a better power cable.

Since I make my own cables that use a Helix cable geometry (i.e. I do not simply add connectors to bulk cable) and I use them on all my components, so I did not even try the stock power cable that came with my Bryston.
- But it looked pretty standard, so I do believe it would impact the overall sound - to some extent.

Selection of "the right cable" is the challenge and most of the brands out there are not up to this task.

One brand I do regard as "worthy" for amps of this quality is Nordost. - Even so, I would probably select one of their higher end models.

As always, it all depends on how much one is willing to spend on this insane hobby.

Happy Listening - Steve

WRT:

the amp + speaker combination will affect the sound as the cable capacitance gradually changes. It’s not something that happens abruptly, like a 90 degree cliff.

Well, there is always the exception to "the Norm" - I know a guy that fried his Ayre amp and then fried a Gryphon integrated amp loaned to him - almost as soon as he turned each of them on.

The first failure he put down to simple component failure, but when the second amp fried very quickly after power on he suspected something else was the cause - I believed it to be his TOTL Cardas speaker cables which had a very high capacitance.

Since his system had worked prior to this event, we looked at what had changed.
He had just upgraded the power cable on the amp, so we believed the Ayre had probably been teetering on the brink of severe oscillation for a long time - then he upgraded the power cable and Ka-Boooom!

I believe the Gryphon fried almost as soon as he turned it on using the same cables.

We surmised the "improved performance" of that power cable was likely "the last straw" for both amps.

When we got the Gryphon back I loaned him some low capacitance speaker cables and all was well - but what surprised me is, the technician had never heard of this issue.

High capacitance cables are only an issue with some high current solid state designs - I am told by many sources that tube amps DO NOT suffer the same problem.

I have heard high capacitance cables might be preferable with certain amp/speaker combinations, but I have no experience of that.

But this is something audiophiles with solid state amps should be aware of.

I avoid high capacitance speaker cables for use with all my amps - just to be safe :-)

Regards - Steve