High current power cables


Hello,

How come some manufacturers offer high current power cables for use with amplifiers and some don't? Is this to say that the companies who don't offer one have designed their power cables to work in any application? 

128x128blue_collar_audio_guy

@williewonka 

 

I could provide you a thousand links the earth is flat, and I am sure 100's of thousands more that support things that are wrong.

I provided a decisive explanation for why your belief was wrong and how you misinterpreted a technical website to reach the same conclusion.

Stranded wire is the primary method by which skin effect is reduced. At low frequency and DC solid has a marginal advantage due to slightly larger conductive cross section. At upper audio frequency's stranded wire will carry more current and heat up less due to reduced skin effect. These are well known and we'll established causes and effects.

In terms of noise for audio, that is made up with no supporting evidence. I can't refute made up any more than you can provide evidence to support it.

In terms of corrosion this seems valid for bare copper but once a connection is soldered or properly attached to a connector this would go away. There are also wire coatings that don't tarnish.

Your key points for cable design all sound important but they are akin to witches brew. There is no basis in them. The helical construction is an inductor. I would not be surprised if adding an inductor to the signal path didn't change the sound. That's not a mystery.

More space between the conductors (Live, Neutral and ground) the lower the noise floor

Radiated or induced electrical noise is proportional to area between wires,  To lower electrical noise pickup Live and Neutral should be as close as possible.  Twisting wires reduces noise pickup further by exposing both wires equally to electric or magnetic fields,  it also reduces inductance further. It might seem unimportant for power cables, but LPS current is  not a sinewave but short spikes of high amplitude. When amplifier demands 5A - spikes might be in order of 25A or more.   Average will be still low, but higher voltage drop during spikes can reduce dynamics. These spikes also produce much higher losses in power transformer - losses in windings (higher rms/average ratio) as well as in core for eddy currents and hysteresis (higher frequency content). Because of that LPS transformers have to be oversized. Of course using 10ga cable will make little difference if home is wired with 12 avg.

Kijanki is right. Consider also, other, reasons why good power cables are beneficial for audio. Lower (contact) resistance for example, quicker rise times when pulling current from the net, less cross-contamination (EMI & RFI) by shielding or by geometry type between components. Sometimes changing one cable can make a difference for another cable in your system. Separation (less noise pickup) can have an effect, don't use sharp bends, cross at 90 degrees. I can also endorse Willie's observations. 

10ga solid core is my minimum

 

@kijanki that is a good point. I am normally dealing on much smaller scales, so don't naturally think of these things. From a pure extracted parasitics view, spacing out the conductors will cause the inductance to go up which will soften power peaks. That may be beneficial for noise. Having an air dielectric will slightly reduce capacitance, but for a power cable, that would be a detriment. The claimed benefit appears to be around reduced dielectric absorption which would be an irrelevant parameter for a power cable, or speaker cable.  Back of envelope suggests it would be irrelevant for any cable in audio due to the comparatively low source or load impedances. It has criticality in some electronics, where very high impedances are used.