Best Power Cable Component Hierarchy


Greetings,

A popular consensus is that your best power cable should be from the wall to the power conditioner. After that placement, what components are most affected by power cabling (Amp, Preamp, Dac)? Moreso, in what order should successive cabling be placed?

 

128x128jeffreyw

Your results will vary depending on components and synergy however in my systems I have usually found the following: (Dac, Transport, CDP), Preamp, Amp.

+1 mwh777 & marco1

@jeffreyw as some have pointed out it can be component dependent

  1. power conditioners and amps tend to have a beefy power supply so they need a very good power cable made from UP-OCC copper wire
  2. source components requires less power, so the gauge of the PC can be lighter, but still made of very high quality wire like silver wire

Take a look at Zavfino cables - great value

Regards - Steve

I would go ’upstream’ with cables, like power cords. Distributor, source, dac, pre amp, power amp. But every component reacts differently on power cords due to the quality of the power supplies and the influence shielding has on components and nearby cables. Sometimes components perform better just because there is less cross contamination. But source first gives the most satisfaction IMO.

I agree to use your best cable to the power conditioner / distributor.  As previous posters have said, it is best to experiment since the response is component dependent.  And as suggested above, use smaller gage cables on low power components and larger gage for high power components such as amps.