Advice needed on power cables, wall warts, conditioning, electrical outlet


Hi everyone,

I would appreciate any advice on power cables, wall warts, power conditioning, better electrical outlet,  etc. 

If I have a power conditioner, with all of my equipment plugged into it with their stock cables, would upgrading the individual components’ power cable, wall wart etc. really help to improve the sound quality?  If yes, in what order of priority would you suggest?  Looking to make some low/moderate cost "tweaks" where it makes sense.

FWIW, here’s my setup:

  • 15 amp dedicated electrical circuit with standard home grade grounded electrical outlet.
  • Furman PL Plus-C power conditioner (repurposed from my music equipment studio rack) plugged into this AC outlet.  (Furman has a hardwired power cable, so I cannot easily swap it out)
  • All of my audio equipment plugs into the Furman: e.g. integrated tube amp, DAC, Sound Expander, ethernet to optical converter, Sonore Optical Rendu (feeds the DAC via USB), and Small Green Computer Roon server.
  • All components have their respective manufacturers’ standard issue power cord or wall wart.  (Sonore Optical Rendu with their Small Green Computer standard LPS).
  • TrendNet ethernet switch, not on the conditioner and uses wall wart.  CAT 8 to upstairs to my Asus router also wall wart and not on conditioner.
  • Asus router to Verizon FIOS ONT via CAT 8 ethernet.

Any advice and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

bogbeat

i would first start with having dedicated outlets installed.....and then see if the power conditioner is really needed or not.   from there, you can experiment with power cords to see if they make a difference or not.

  1. Make sure your electrical system is grounded well. Install additional grounding on your home... assuming you own a home. 
  2. Think of power like water... dirty water.... 
  3. Think of power cables like water filters.... pour in the dirty water, clean water comes out.
  4. Good power supply, cables, etc. 'clean' the power.... lowers the 'noise floor'. Doesn't 'add' to anything.
  5. Put a good quality power cable on your preamp... put in your best source music, listen at low volume and close your eyes. It feels like you are melting into the music. (I assume you have a system that is capable of this if you are considering spending several hundreds of dollars on power cables).
  6. Disregard if you are a 'YouTube cable hater'.

I would replace the wall outlet first with a hospital grade outlet because that will likely grip your electrical plug very tightly. The sequence I went was wall outlet then power cord from that outlet to my power conditioner

@tuberist , +1. Even cheepo hospital grade outlets are better than stock.

As far as changing out power cables, start with Source components first and work your way down.- Advice from John Rutan (Audioconnection).

Bob