Power Cables and Wall Sockets
Without knowing for certain, it seems to me that power cables can only be as good as the in-home wiring coming to the wall socket. Is it possible that those who use expensive cables have improved the wiring to the socket? Or is the power from most wall sockets normally excellent, but is limited by conventional power cables?
Absolutely not. You are much more likely to mess that up than you are to use the bare wire as God intended. I do however feel using the rear entry (not backstabbed) slots with the clamp plates is the most secure method. |
I finally installed a dedicated line to my listening room. I used quality solid core 11ga wire from a new sub-panel to make the main run short as possible, installed a quality outlet and have very good power cord. The change was like a new component and improved everything across the board especially the big class A SS amp I have. Everything took a while to break-in but this was a worthwhile improvement. I only wished I had done it sooner. |
Thank you, everyone, for your responses today. It has made me really start digging in to a series of improvements that I think can be done. @erik_squires aka "bare wire as God intended" (love that) Thank you for linking your articles, they were very helpful, especially since I was being led to consider power strips as well. I haven't really focused at all on the power side of the equation, so I have quite a bit of "low hanging fruit", in other words relatively inexpensive improvements that I can definitely make to gauge the incremental sound improvement. If the improvement is noticeable, I may not stop...sound familiar? 😎 |
@builder3 rereading your post I'm not sure we disagree. All the homes I've seen in CA have 14 gauge wire for 15 amp outlets. I just installed a new circuit for my stereo using 10 awg. The old one was 14 ga/15a. I've never come across a 12 gauge wire for 15 amp service but you can do it. In my home, all the 12 gauge circuits have a 20 amp breaker. I know because I replaced my breaker panel and breakers. --Jerry
Jerry, I agree. My reply was meant for Artemus who said he hadn't seen 14 gauge used for outlets. I did an awful job of trying to quote his post. And yes, you can use 12 gauge with a 15A breaker, but it's pointless. Take care, |
@imaninatural - I don't know what experience you have had personally with power cables, so I'll share my very limited experience and make a recommendation. I had been curious about the possibility of power cords making an audible difference and ran across a recommendation for W Audio power cords that are available on Amazon for about $50. I figured that this was a relatively inexpensive opportunity to satisfy my curiosity so I picked up a pair of them. I put one on my Pathos Classic One MkIII (hooked to a power conditioner) and the other on my Maverick Audio DAC. The sound of my system changed significantly and I realized that I was using my SACD player as the source so the only difference was the power cord on my amplifier. I can't say that I have noticed a definitive difference with the other two power cords in my system (i.e. DAC and Power Conditioner), but it absolutely improved the sound of my amplifier. The improvement was significant enough that it caused me to try some Audioquest interconnects that also surprised me which led to me trying an Audioquest digital cable that I can't say did anything in my system. If you have not played around with power cords at all, spend $50 on a W Audio power cable that you can have in a couple of days and see what happens. If you're an audiophile $50 isn't a lot to satisfy your curiosity. I can't definitely say that if a W Audio cable doesn't yield a change in your system that another "better" cord won't, but it's a place to start. |
