What kind of power cord comes with expensive gear

A manufacturer of expensive gear may ship with a stock black cord. But that is not what they will use to demonstrated their gear at shows. Audio Research ships their reference Series with cheap stock cords but they use expensive Shunyata cables at shows and in their factory listening room.

>> And, yes, some component designers/manufacturers are clueless about cabling. <<

As are most audiophiles...

-RW-

I do not want a component maker to ship a component with an expensive cord and charge me for it! No, thank you!

I will select the cord which matches best and is complementary to my rig. It would be a mistake for these companies to supply a cord which may sound good on their voicing system(s) but may not in fact be a fantastic cord.

Component makers without expertise in cabling should do exactly as they are, supplying a basic cord. Of course, this doesn't give anywhere near the performance potential of the component, but it's a lot better than leaving selection of power cables up to people who have no idea what your rig is and what sounds good to you! If component makers supplied high end cables, depending upon the cables that could actually be a negative, paying for a device which would hinder performance.

And, yes, some component designers/manufacturers are clueless about cabling. :(

"If they come with run of the mill black rubber shielding cords i can convince myself to never buy an aftermarket power cable again."

Just think how much more $$$ will be in your retirement account! :>)

I second what the previous two members said, and add the following:

The best power cord for audiophile purposes will be the best conductor of low frequencies and the best impediment to high frequencies, without restricting dynamics. Stock power cables are not very good in either respect. Indeed, I don't know any stock power cord that features any sort of high frequency rejection or attenuation. High frequency attenuation is important simply because the high frequencies that travel along power cords into your gear are the most invasive of frequencies: they are perhaps the most limiting factor to system performance. So, even if expensive gear comes with a basic power cable, these other reasons exist—independently of whether expensive equipment comes with cheap power cords—to investigate the effectiveness of power cords.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but audiophiles generally accept that the quality of our gear's power supply has a significant impact on the end result of what we hear. For that reason alone, a serious music listener ought investigate the significance of the power cord. After all, as Robert Harley says (and others I'm sure), "from the gear's perspective, the power cord is the first six feet, not the last" (paraphrased). That is just to say that, despite it being at the end of hundreds of miles of electrical wiring, to the gear in question, the power cable is the most important wiring of it all.

Cheers,

Aaron

Onemug is correct. Expensive gear just comes with a regular stock cord. A company's $30,000 amp will come with the same cord as their $3,000 amp. Their thought process is just as Onemug described.

I've talked to a couple of designers, and it's not that they feel that power cords do not matter, but they know that their customers are probably not going to use their stock cord anyway. Since they don't know what each individual consumer will prefer, they just leave that decision up to the end user.

At least they still throw a power cord in the box, they don't bother putting interconnects in the box anymore.

It makes more sense for the expensive amp maker to include the cheap black one and NOT increase the cost of the amp then let the new owner spend whatever on whatever he wants IF they feel they make a difference.

Of the 2 camps:

The Believers will want to choose their own sound/flavor.

The Non-Believers will be glad they didn't have to pay extra for snake oil.

Win/Win.

You just hit the nail on the head...and that is all you need to power up that amp/pre that so many here just spent a small fortune on. If that expensive highend amp/pre needed an after market anaconda power cord to sound it's best? Then the designers of said gear never heard their design at it's best..does that make sense?

Quality power chords are required.

Ibought the REGA ISIS valve cdp and REGA OSIRIS integrated amp this past year. Each came bundled with a high-end power chord custom made for REGA by hi-end mfg. Klotz in Germany.

With the REGA kit, these bundled power cables actually outperform my other hi-end power chords terminated with either the top-of-the-line gold-plated FURUTECH or OYAIDE connectors.

The latter are crackin' good power chords by any standard (I've swapped them in and out with the REGAs)...it's just that the factory supplied REGAs work better with the REGA gear.