Power Cord brands mixing. "Your Opinions"

regarding 558's implied question as to the consequences of mixing power cable brands, can anyone offer a logical reason why mixing or not mixing makes a difference, intrinsically ?

Since very few systems contain electronics made by one manufacturer, I see no valid reason to use cables from one manufacturer.

Agree with Elizabeth. Adding a subpanel, dedicated lines, and Porter Port cryo'd AC outlets made a HUGE improvement in my system. Much larger than the difference various cords yeilded. Plus the lights don't dim in the room when I crank it up anymore.

From a technical standpoint, the comment by Bill (Audiofeil) makes complete sense, IMO, because I would expect the sonic effects of a power cord to be highly dependent on the design of the component it is connected to. Many technical reasons could be cited for that.

Just to cite three examples:

1)A Class A power amplifier draws essentially constant current all the time, while other amplifier classes do not. Therefore constraints that may be imposed by the power cord on sudden surges in demand for current, as a result of inductance or other characteristics of the cord, will be far more relevant with Class D or Class AB amplifiers than with Class A amplifiers. Those constraints will also be mostly irrelevant with preamplifiers and other line level components, which in most cases also draw essentially constant current.

2)Voltage loss due to resistance in the cord will vary depending on how much current is drawn by the component, and a given amount of voltage loss will certainly have differing effects depending on the function and the design of the specific component.

3)The significance of differences in shielding effectiveness among different power cords will depend on the amplitude and frequency spectrum of rfi that may be fed back from the component into the power cord, and also on the rfi sensitivity of other parts of the system, and on rfi that may be picked up from other parts of the system.

12-23-11: Mrtennis
Can anyone offer a logical reason why mixing or not mixing makes a difference, intrinsically?

From a technical standpoint, I certainly can't envision any.

IMO. Other opinions will certainly differ in some cases.

Regards,
-- Al

Using all cables from one brand does not at all guarantee synergy. Synergy is what is often referred to as the bandaid process to use one product's weakness to offset another product's weakness. If you use only one brand, unless it is perfect (yeah right), you will only get additive flaws with each additional product from that one company, whether it is less and less resolution, clarity, frequency extreme coverage, etc. You need to try numerous products in each link in the chain to find what works "best" for you. And then when you "upgrade" a link, you often need to repeat this process for some or many other links.