Aftermarket Power Cords

[maxspl]

Hi everyone! does anyone use aftermarket power cords on their amps or any other equipment? I was wondering if this made any difference. I am using a parasound halo A21 amp, Roksan kandy cd player, B&K pro 5 pre, Monster cable sigma speaker cable for the panels and cardas quadlink for bass. I have the ML Quests

 

[Joey_V]

Look for David Matz... he's big into these things.

 

[Jeff Zaret]

maxspl,

This is a tough call. After market power cords, like speaker cables and interconnects, are a hot topic. Do they make a difference yes and no. If you very clean power in to your home without any noise maybe the after market cords would not be a good choice. In reality, if you are like the rest of us, it is not perfect and there will be some kind of interference whether it is from the line itself or from something within your house.

I would suggest getting a few different makes within your price range to try. Find dealer who let you take one home for a few days. This is the only way you will really know. I have them on various pieces of equipment and for me it did make a difference.

Good Luck
Let us know how it works out

Jeff

 

[Gordon Gray]

If your system is "tweaked out" (everything at its optimum) and sufficiently articulate, after market power cords will be totally audible and will improve the overall sound of your system. Improvements include better soundstaging, imaging, dimensionality, and speed. Recommended order of installation; source component(s), preamp, and then amp.

Having heard the effect, it's not vodoo but I have no idea why they can make such a difference.

There's been alot of previous posts on this subject.

My advice, try one on your CD player from a source that will allow you a 30 day money back guarantee, such as Audio Advisors, Elusive Disc, or Music Direct.

Good luck.

GG

 

[David Matz]

As mentioned above, after market power cords do make a difference. It is hard to judge how much, because of different power supply designs by the manufacturers. Some power supplies do a better job filtering than others. For example, I noticed a HUGE improvement with my Bryston power amp when slapping on a cord - it sounded like a brand new amp. The difference was much larger than when I slapped it on the Ayre CD player or an Ayre preamp, which have excellent power conditioning built in. With the speakers themselves, I found a noticeable difference having my Ascents and Vantages plugged into an ESP power conditioner.

In fact, I would recommend buying a good power conditioner and plugging all of your stuff into that. That way all of your components will have clean power. You can later add power cords from the individual units to the power conditioner to further enhance the dark background and beautifully flowing detail to your music.

 

[nsgarch]

a short(?) primer

With power cords, the name of the game is Energy Transfer. Think of the house wiring, even if it's a smaller AWG size than your PC, as a reservoir of energy just sitting there. If you stick a big pipe in it, you get a big flow, until the reservoir runs dry (overload) which isn't likely Cords can have other attributes for sure (real or imagined) but E.T. is the big one.

FIRST** -- make sure your PC's, for at least your amp and DAC (or CDP), are minimum 10AWG. Everything else minimum of 12AWG. (14AWG is fine for low power stuff under 40Watts.)
SECOND -- make sure any cords used on digital gear (ANY digital gear, meaning anything with even just a digital display) DO have a floating shield (a shield connected only at the AC plug end.) This prevents the gear from TRANSMITTING digital hash (RFI) into the air.
THIRD -- Make sure that the cords on any source equipment that processes an ANALOG signal (preamps, tuners, etc.) ALSO have shielded PC's to prevent them from RECEIVING any kind of RFI from the air.
FOURTH -- There are some excellent reasons why more money buys a better power cord; but stick with conventional designs (avoid weird weaves or fancy spirals ;-) from reputable manufacturers. However, if you satisfy the three principals above, even with the cheapest models or DIY materials, you'll still be at least 80% there.

A word about OEM cords (the ones that came with your gear): Mostly they're pretty good quality, especially because they have WELDED air-tight terminations! IMO, they're usually one AWG size too small for the gear they come with, but why not transfer them to a smaller piece of gear and so on down the line?

OEM PC's have two problems: One is fixable and one isn't. If they are shielded, it will say 'shielded' printed or embossed on the cord. Unfortunately, for manufacturers to get UL approval on their gear, the shield on an OEM PC must be connected to ground at BOTH ENDS! This WILL keep the cord from broadcasting digital RFI, but it also creates a ground loop , very susceptable to hum pick up. But, don't throw it away! Cut off the IEC plug and fit a new IEC plug, but without connecting the shield to the ground pin of the new IEC plug. Voila! Floating shield! You can't improve the unshielded kind. It is what it is.

** Why do DAC's (or CDP's) and amplifiers both require PC's with large conductor sizes you might ask? They're such different animals. For amps it's (somewhat) obvious, though it's not just because of their larger power draw (good power supplies can store reserve power for a very short time.) Rather it has to do with the fact that even modest amps can (if they're allowed) draw amperage far in excess of the 20A wall power for just a fraction of a single (60) cycle. If the power cord doesn't restrict this, you get better dynamics (more 'headroom'.) That's why 90% of 'conditioners' are not good with amps. The other 10% are so expensive you might as well buy a power regenerator and have the whole enchilada!
As for DAC's (or anything containing digital processing chips/circuits) cords with large conductors consistently seem to produce better sound (no one seems to know exactly why, yet!) but I have noticed the difference when using a very clean source of power in the first place. Otherwise it doesn't seem to matter.

 

[C.A.P]

they are shielded, it will say 'shielded' printed or embossed on the cord. Unfortunately, for manufacturers to get UL approval on their gear, the shield on an OEM PC must be connected to ground at BOTH ENDS! This WILL keep the cord from broadcasting digital RFI, but it also creates a ground loop , very susceptable to hum pick up. But, don't throw it away! Cut off the IEC plug and fit a new IEC plug, but without connecting the shield to the ground pin of the new IEC plug. Voila! Floating shield! You can't improve the unshielded kind. It is what it is.

So in a nut shell just knock the ground prong off the male end , Wouldn't that do the same thing ?

 

[nsgarch]

Other way around

So in a nut shell just knock the ground prong off the male end , Wouldn't that do the same thing ?

You don't want to do that! Then you'd lose the ground connection to the equipment itself. The IEC plug is the square-ish female one on the equipment end of the cord.