2. cables
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Cable differences -- power, interconnect, digital, and in what order?

A friend of mine has been a real connoisseur of interconnects and speaker cables; he hears very subtle differences between them, mixes and matches them with different results, and experiments with upgrades (and reselling!). 

One thing he's never done much with is power cords or power conditioners. 

This raised a question for me -- to what degree have people found differences in source and interconnect cables vs. power cables? Are they all important to an equal degree for you? Where is the greatest impact for you?

And if you do find power cables to be an important factor, where have you started making changes in your system? Wall to amp? With source? 

Thanks for any thoughts. 

128x128hilde45
decooney
1,992 posts
 

@audphile1 is the power cable on RG of equal or better quality than the power cables on your source and preamp?

Interesting question. Similar quality, not one too much greater than the other. This is another reason I may step up and try a potentially better PC for source or preamp, or at least a demo/test down the road. I don't have 5 dedicated outlets in my current room, and chose the path of RG for now, instead. Works pretty good.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,940 posts
 

After I ran two dedicated lines, I actually prefer the sound of my Pass XP22 preamp when connected direct to outlet. It wasn’t the case prior to implementing the dedicated circuits. 

kennyc
1,472 posts
 

I researched this a couple of years ago and the somewhat rough general answer was:

  1. Power
  2. Speaker
  3. Interconnects

Iconoclast has (power cables excluded):

  1. Speaker
  2. analog xlr
  3. analog rca
  4. digital

 

hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 

@kennyc Thanks for your list. Because I have an Audience conditioner in the wall protecting my gear -- and it plugs in directly -- I have not yet been able to do an experiment with power cables at the wall. In my new room (which is done but I have not moved in there yet) I will try it. I will also try @audphile1 suggestion to plug in directly to my dedicated outlets.

I spent most of my time and money on the interconnects so far. That was largely because I did not really have good ones and I needed to get some. Also, I don't know how bad (or good) my power is, so I figured I would try improving the signal path first.

hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 

@kennyc Thanks for your list. Because I have an Audience conditioner in the wall protecting my gear -- and it plugs in directly -- I have not yet been able to do an experiment with power cables at the wall. In my new room (which is done but I have not moved in there yet) I will try it. I will also try @audphile1 suggestion to plug in directly to my dedicated outlets.

I spent most of my time and money on the interconnects so far. That was largely because I did not really have good ones and I needed to get some. Also, I don't know how bad (or good) my power is, so I figured I would try improving the signal path first.

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