Upgrading power cord.. proven upgrade? or crap?

Over the past few years I have been experimenting with building my own power cables...
- not simply adding high quality (high priced) connectors to high priced bulk cable (but I started with this approach)
- I now actually hand wind the conductors into different geometries/architectures.

What I have observed...

#1 - high priced bulk cables with high quality connectors attached provide the least improvement - but are still better than stock power cables

#2 - Braiding the conductors is significantly better than bulk cable - even when made from household romex - NOTE: romex will break is bent a few times, so don’t use this - I used romex just to test a theory.

#3 - winding the neutral and ground conductors around the live conductor in a tight helix geometry provided the biggest improvement.

#4 - for #2 and #3 their conductor geometry rejects EMI and RFI and therefore shielding is not required unless you are in a very noisy environment like a recording studio with cables all over the floor

Other observations common across all geometries...

- for the live conductor - use the best quality wire you can afford, I use conductors from a piece of Furutech bulk cable

- for the neutral conductor - reasonable quality copper conductor seems to be as effective as high quality Furutech - I use silver plated copper conductors

- for the ground conductor - Home Depot’s best multi strand house wire is good enough

- crimped spades worked better than clamping bare conductors in the connectors

- components actually run cooler using helix design cables

As for the "science" it all boils down to the inductance of noise across in internal conductors of the power cable...

For further info please read...
http://www.image99.net/blog/files/be8de0c383c5434907610d6b55049e69-75.html

Also Read...
http://www.buellinspections.com/what-is-phantom-voltage-induced-voltage/

Inducing noise into the neutral line effects the performance of the connected component(s) by increasing distortion levels - A good power cable will reduce, maybe even eliminate that effect.

I now use helix design PC’s and IC’s across the entire system and it has never sounded so good.

Hope that helps :-)

P.S. if you are wondering what commercial cables might use these geometries...

Anti Cables has braided power cables and they also sell helix IC’s

I believe the Shunyata Venom uses a spaced helix geometry

Neotech has a very complicated helix geometry in at least one of their high end cables

Those are just some that I know of 😊

Regards

limniscate - when it comes to PC’s, I’ve personally found that the better/larger the transformer is in a component, the less likely you are to notice improvements, however, with a better power supply in a component the improvements tend to become more "refined".

e.g. my DAC has a relatively lightweight transformer compared to my phono stage
- the improvement in DAC performance was more noticeable
>>>> deeper bass, better bass control, better imaging , faster dynamics

- my Phono stage has a quality toroid transformer - improvements were less noticeable but definitely more refined
>>>> the venue acoustics (echoes) were more detailed and more of them, the high end was much smoother, the image had gained height, I became enveloped in the whole image (no more walls)

The improvements achieved by attaching a better power cable to my amp, having the largest transformer, were much less noticeable, but definitely the most refined. It took a lot more listening for the refinements to be noticed, but when I did notice them they made for a much more realistic presentation

Take any one of my cables (PC, SC or IC) out of my system and I would not hear the refined improvements at all. Together, they provide a performance that is greater than the sum of their parts

another example, I replaced the power cable on my Yamaha mini-system - it has no IC’s and the SC’s are very short and made from high quality copper cable. The improvement in performance was staggering.

Perhaps your power cables are not your problem - perhaps it is one of the other cables - IC or SC, or even a component, that is preventing you from hearing a discernible improvement with the introduction of a new power cable?

Also, I would recommend using quality PC’s on all components - changing the PC on one component will likely do little to yield improvements

As for your amp - it has a massive power supply, so you would require a PC of the highest order to notice any difference.

As for the statement about audiophile PC’s are a HOAX? - it’s one opinion that I choose to disagree with - simply because of my own experiences.

It’s really easy to simply announce audiophile PC’s are a hoax - there are lots of people that will support that stance.

Most high end component manufacturers will tell you the same thing, WHY? - perhaps they don’t want it getting out that their component can actually sound better with a better power cable than the one they supply.

After all spending upwards of $5k on an amp - it should be Bl***Y perfect out of the box ! - shouldn't it ?

Just some thoughts :-)