DIY power cord / cords - really good

How to make a phenomenal change in the musicality of your system, with the equipment you currently have!

The obvious changes will include; quieter/darker background (less noise), richer harmonic structure (closer to the live instruments), much more detail without harshness or a “thinning” of the sound, better hall ambience (when present), lots of things hidden in the mix (creaking chairs, droning air conditioner, musicians’ hands on an instrument, or page turning, etc.) become noticeable, better dynamics, an easier to listen to system.

But….. with all the above mentioned audiophile changes you will have trouble (at least I do) listening for all the changes. You will become involved in the music and when you get to the end of the performance you will realize you “forgot” to listen for that specific event or nuance that you usually listen to, to evaluate. You may have to play the cut 2, or more, times and work hard on concentrating to keep your audiophile hat on, otherwise you will keep getting lost in the music. Don’t you just hate when that happens?

Disclaimer: Please be aware. I am not intimating that you or I can produce a DIY power cord that is equal in build quality and/or sonics of any specifically available retail product. I am, however, saying, quite strongly, that with a little bit of $$ and a lot of labor you can scare yourself at how truly good your system can sound.

DIY power cords using “dynamic filtering” techniques – Dynamic filtering is a term/phrase coined by one well know manufacturer and copied by at least one other, I believe. I/we owe a great debt of gratitude to this manufacture for sharing with the audio community, and therefore me too, some of their technologies and assembly techniques.

As one goes up in a particular retail power cord line there are a number of additions. I have either not yet include, or don’t currently have a way to include, like cryogenic cable cooking; AVM damping, special contact treatment.

So far I have built 6 different power cords using the dynamic filtering, and the single conductor approach.

A company (that shall remain unnamed, you may contact me directly for more details if you wish; through Audiogon ) has graciously included a three part video on their website and YouTube on how to build their entry level power cord. They challenge the DIY’er to build two cords and compare them.

I took their CEO at his word and just went for the final cord, with a few changes. His entry level cord is a three conductor 14 awg solid core (single conductor per wire) cord. Because I have a “star ground” system, only one component grounded, and all the rest of the system grounded through it, I did not need 3 conductors in the first cord I built.

Because the four best cords in my system were Element Basic (about $60 to $70) 10 awg cords, which had bested 3 other PC’s in the under $100.00 price range and a $300 pc, in my system, I decided to start with 10 awg

Cord #1) Ungrounded, two wire
IEC = cheap in the range from $2 to $5, designed for 14 awg or less
Two 10-awg, single strand, slipped straight through outer sheath
1” od, ¾” id nylon reinforced vinyl tubing/outer sheath
Very fine steel shot used for metal polishing
Sturdy three prong plug end.
Placed on preamp. Big improvement in the directions mentioned above.

Cord #2) Ungrounded, two wire
IEC = same as above
Three 12 awg, single strand, braided, ground not connected at either end
1” od, ¾” id nylon reinforced vinyl tubing
Very fine steel shot used for metal polishing
Sturdy thre prong plug end.
Not as good as the 10 awg, although still quite good.

Cord #3) Grounded, three wire (for use on the grounded component)
IEC – same as above ($2)
Three 10 awg, single strand, grounded
3 runs of 5/8” od, 3/8” id nylon reinforced vinyl tubing
Very fine steel shot used for metal polishing
Sturdy three prong plug end.
Two ½” brass pipe nipples cut in half along the long dimension and clamped with hose clamp on the load and neutral tubing legs.
Better than cord#1.

Cord #4) Grounded, three wire
IEC = Marinco 320 much heavier brass and easier to work with at 4 to 10 times the cost.
Three 6 awg single strand, grounded. The wire was ground wire from Home Depot, I wrapped it in
Teflon plumber’s tape and then heat shrink (this wire is too big for the cheap IEC)
Three runs of ¾”od, ½” id nylon reinforced vinyl tubing.
Very fine steel shot used for metal polishing
Home depot, Hubbel Valise knock off plug $7.
Best cord so far, by far. I am sure the 6 awg makes a difference.

Cord #5) Ungrounded, two wire
IEC – same 320 type
Two 6 awg treated as above but entire length cleaned with Brasso before assembly
Two runs of ¾”od, ½” id nylon reinforced vinyl tubing.
Relatively fine BRASS shavings from metal finishing (not nearly as much mass)
Home depot, Hubbel Valise knock off plug.
#5 was not as good as #4. I believe because the brass was shavings and therefore contained quite a bit more air/less mass than the steel shot and the “dynamic filter”ing was not as effective.

Cord#6) Identical to #5 but with steel shot So much better than #5 that no A’ B’ comparison was necessary. I will take the brass out of #5 and refill it with steel shot. I am giving power cord #2 to an audiophile/engineer friend who has donated countless hours of his labor to my system, at no charge.

DAC, an AC conditioner, and preamp now all have 6 awg pc. Both amps have 10 awg, waiting for me to build some additional 6 awg for them.

So, at least for now, I have reached the end of my DIY power cord development. For about $5 per foot for a two leg power cord or possibly $7.50 a foot for a grounded power cord, plus the cost of IEC and plug ends and two to three hours of work per cord you can have a power cord that will most likely compete in the $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 range.

It is very simple to assemble. Special tools, other than a glue gun, are not necessary, but do make the job easier, (ie Dremel for polishing the brass and copper, heat gun for shrinking the heat shrink). If you don’t especially like DIY projects or earn more than $400 to $600 per hour than this might not be the project for you. You can buy retail, save a lot of time, potentially have better part quality, and an even better result.

However, if you don’t fall into either of the two above categories, for in the range of $45 to $60 for each power cord (don’t forget all the labor), you can make a sonic improvement in your system that will be hard for most to imagine.

Oh, and don’t forget YMMV.
Have fun,
Bruce
P.S. My current virtual system http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vevol&1200440547&view