Y power cable for Monoblocks

Nick_sr

Yep.. were I you, that’s what I’d do as well.

Well, be that way if you want too. I was once myself a serious doubter of power cables and conditioners at large. Interconnects as well were more snake oil to me than anything else. Racks, coupling or decoupling speakers, isolation, even acoustics, all seemed arbitrary back handed attempts to grab money.

A friend urged me to at least try out some for myself instead of allowing my contempt prior to investigation to run the show. Just buy ‘em right, and if there’s no improvement, sell ‘em. Simple huh? “OK”, I said, and I did. Consequently I now say what I say due to personal experience in an effort to help others who are like I once was find out another way to help their system.

I sort of thought that was what folks did around here mostly… try to help others. I’m being entirely altruistic here.

On either side of the fence, yay or nay on this long lived debate, change does take place when adding better wires, power line filtering, equipment damping or isolation, and room acoustics. That is a fact. One can believe it or not.

The noteable thing is this: What sort of change occurs? I’ll quote my old eye doctor here, “Same, better, or worse”, as he’d ask during the examination while he switched in & out different lenses.

I’ve found as with equipment, on average, the more one spends the better things get to be. But it’s always a choice. We all make our own beds and so forth.

Personally, in this past time, I’m in it to win it. I mean by that if indeed something within my financial reach is said to afford one a gain if added to the system, I’m apt to check it out for myself once I’ve determined it a viable path for me to go into.

What really fascinates me is what or how, such innocuous, small, near nothing things can do to improve or change the sound of a system. specially so is what looking into the incoming power can yield. Power cords namely. It amazes me what that last 4-6ft. or $300 $1000 or more can do there. Absolutely remarkable things do happen. As well, with $200 $1000 passive power line filters.

. I’ve tried several of either item thru those price ranges and each time with an increase in the tab, the sound of my stereo was improved, or changed.

I say it over and over again, I can ill afford to throw away money and I’m a real cheap sort of guy when it comes to spending my own or others money. So what I own now is because it has made things better… not that it’s the best ever thing… but to this point, it’s my best assortment.

I keep looking for those $50 - $500 things to replace my more pricey junk with and I keep failing. A lot of times though there is change or difference…. Just not always betterment.

I also like the aspect of protecting my gear rather than getting it replaced by my home owners ins. Now and paying via raised premiums for it later. It can be a hassle too. so surge and low voltage protection are important to me.

Naturally if one has a or several issues with their homes elecetrical service an electrician should certinaly be brought in to address the problem (s). Absolutely.

Sparky won't address the dirt and grundge coming in on the power lines though.

But it's a choice... in fact next time you go to an electronics show or dealership to preview gear, take a peek and see if THEY use power line filtration, power cords etc.... and simply ask them to remove 'em all and listen again. I'm sure there'll be a change...

Good luck.

Hi Nick,

I think that most of the comments on protection that were in your last post make a lot of sense under your particular circumstances. But I want to point out, fwiw, that fuses in your equipment are very unlikely to provide meaningful protection in the event of a large surge caused by a nearby lightning strike.

First, they are far too slow. Second, they are easily bridged (jumped across) by a sufficiently large voltage spike. Third, they don't protect against what may be on the ac neutral wire or the ac safety ground wire. Basically, they are just in series with the ac hot wire.

The primary purpose of a fuse is to prevent damage internal to the component that may otherwise occur as a secondary effect of some other internal problem. An example being a power transformer overheating and being destroyed due to excessive current being drawn by an internal short circuit, or by a shorted component such as a capacitor.

Lots of people plug their power amps directly into the wall, while providing filtering and/or surge suppression for other components. And for many of them, I have no doubt that it provides better sonics than if they were to put the power amps through a protective device. But with that benefit comes a little bit of risk.

Best of luck!

-- Al

Nicksr...you have concluded well in my opinion. Get a dedicated line and be done with it. You can still use a y-cable IF your amps are low wattage. Give it a shot, you may be surprised. There is only one problem I see that cannot be avoided...your live in Canada! OK OK I'm joking for heavens sake. Cheers!

Power isn't signal. There's miles & miles of wire out there before wwe tap into it... a few more feet won't hurt there... as you're about to do.

Agreed, power isn't signal. However, following your logic, power cords should have no impact on the signal. In fact I should get an extra long power cord, for convenience. Say, I would like to listen to my amps at my neighbor’s place. After all there are 1300 km from my home to nearest Hydro Electric dam, what's an extra 100 feet.

RE: Protection
First the amps each have a fuse (2 amps). Isn’t surge protection, simply adding protection on-top of protection. It would be like buying a credit default swap, to protect against my insurance company going bankrupt.

Second, I live in Canada, were the season for electrical storms is 3 month out of the year. Moreover I generally unplug my gear from the wall during storms.

Third, I do have surge protection for my digital components, TV, dvd etc…

Forth my spinning gear (I assume you mean turn-table) is Technics SL1200 which is driven by a DC servo motor with a quartz lock. So variations in voltage do not affect their performance as far I know.

Finally, I do have some issues with my power, as Al is aware. But a surge protector is putting a band-aid on much more serious problem that affects my home as a whole. I rather pay a qualified electrician $200 to resolve the root cause of the problem.

Watch the power cord guage sometimes they are 16 or 18 guage. Basically you want 12 guage. As far as conditioners you need to try them and see if how they effect the sound sometimes it good sometimes bad. Panamax makes some cheap one $50-100 used I had luck with saved my equipnment once it also will provide basic filtertion and surge protection. But I would just use a good power strip or a power conditioner.

Oh...let me mention this,

I am currently using a y-power cord to run my VTL tiny triodes. Low wattage little brutes. The power cord comes from Dell servers (rack mount) that have redundant power supplies (hence the y-power cord). Typical power cord gauge. Honestly, for these amps, I prefer this setup. Not only does it keep the power cord mess to a minimum (obviously), but allows for a one-source origin of power. Dedicated line of course. I don't hear a difference between this and the normal setup. Realistically, I would not use this setup for more powerful amps (monos). Cheers.

"I believe in keeping it simple, i.e.: the shortest signal path with the least amount of components."

Power isn't signal. There's miles & miles of wire out there before wwe tap into it... a few more feet won't hurt there... as you're about to do.

Re filtration.
Attaching a passive power line filter to the front end components with something like a PS Audio Duet or the like for 200 or less, equates to $50 for each attached item with it's four outlets. Keep one for just two years and it's costing you $2 a month. One lightening strike will make it worth it to most folks. In the meantime, the usually improved sound satisfys others.

you'll sure hear less of what you're not hearing now... and spinning gear especially will sure benefit from one, not to mention the added safety they provide for under & over current issues too.

I think one would be a step up for your system adding sonic benefits, and safety in the bargain you don't have now. you owe it to yourself to try one or two at least. They're popular little gizmos and if no benefit is descerned, it''ll sell... so you don't lose and may well like em.

Not knowing, however is simply not knowing, and that's not always beneficial.

Regardless, good luck.

Al,

I am glad I can depend on you for answers to all my electrical questions :o). The Hammond power strip looks great I checked it out on the net. The price seems right too. The local Hammond distributor is located right next door to the audio shop where I bought my amps from.

In response to the other, I want to avoid the power filters/conditioners because it is my understanding that unless you go into the very high-end these devices limit voltage and can affect the performance of the amps. At this point I am not willing to spend as much for a power conditioner as I did on my amps.

I believe in keeping it simple, i.e.: the shortest signal path with the least amount of components.

Thanks to all of you for your input, it is greatly appreciated.

I just bought a 10 gauge 6' cable with a Hubbell fourplex box on the end for around $100.00 shipped from Zebra cables. I was going to do it myself, but the parts alone cost almost as much as having it done by a pro. I bought it for the same reason. Not enough outlets. Looks a lot better than if I would have done it.

Never heard of a "Y" power cable.

When I worked in construction we would make our own power strips (only they were square). We would cut off and discard the female end of a heavy-duty extension cord and then connect the remaining wire to two duplex outlets inside a metal work box with a metal cover.

For audio you could go as fancy or cheap as you want on whatever power cord and duplex outlet(s) you choose.

That is just another option. Personally, I would use a good power conditioner or strip.

There are adapters which will allow for one IEC pc to feed two others. it has the male IEC end, with two female NEMA (wall outlet) ends. $10.

Personally, unless that power strip of your's is a real doozy, I'd buy me a nice power filter/conditioner like Audio Magic, PS Audio, or Running Springs, etc., and plug my front end items into it, Use the strip then to feed the amps.

or... if it's your wall/home, turn the single duplex outlet into a double duplex outlet, and in the doing, step up the outlets. I'd also advise you use perhaps, two ckts. A different one for front end stuff and another for amps & preamps..

However, if everything runs ok as is... or if it's a dedicated ckt to begin with, simply cutting the wall opening to a bit larger one, adding/replacing the outlet box, adding one more duplex receptacle and a foot or so of Romex for a pigtail which will feed both outlets, should run around $10 and take about an hour or less to do.

Now you do know getting an electrician will be best and I've got recommend it here... but I was once and have done this with my eyes almost completely closed. it ain't that hard. it all comes down to how much draw these new amps will have plus what's on the ckt already.

Hi Nick,

Get a Hammond power strip. See this thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?htech&1250444924

Best,
-- Al