good discussion on power cords

I just finshed 2 DIY power cords, Pure copper ends with Home Depot 12 gague copper strand wire. AWESOME!!. can be seen in my latest YT upload. 
Type in SEAS Thos.
I made 2, one for the big Jadis, 1 for the 220 V cayin cdp, and have another set of ends comming from china, 2-3 months ship time. 
a  spool of 12 gague strand costs $15/50 feet.
Just really super cord. Feeds the Jadis and cayin all the juice either can drink up.
the basic 50 cent cord that comes with any unit you purchase (I bet Jadis's $100K JA800, comes with,,yep a  Fifty cent power cord, cut any one open on your system, its either 18 or 22,22 gague wire,,,a  few hair thin strands. 
Go ahead, try it, you will see.
Go to youtube type in SEAS Thor, my latest vid will pop up. Beats any power cord on the market. 
Copper wire in my wall, copper ends, copper 12 gague stranded, = pure raw unfiltered 100%  juice.

Not to offend, but IMO - If you have a $10K amp. properly matched with your pre amp and speakers and it takes a $2K power cord to make it sound good, - I'd ditch that sucker and buy an amp with a decent power supply and save yourself a couple of grand......Jim


oh yeah I agree, ~~$2K power cord~~~ I mean power is power, 
grant it the 50 cent power cords that come with every amp you purchase (Even Jadis' JA800 @ $100K, I bet has that  stinkin Fifty Cent power cord) cut one open, the strand is either 18 or even 20/222 gague,,= justa  few hair thin strands,, which might be all it takes to juice my Defy7. who knows. But when you see that 70 lb beast,,sure seems to me 18-22 gague just ain;'t  giving the juice.
So I went 12 (10 gague was too thick for the copper ends), Now I am confident the Defy is getting all the juice she wants/needs/cares to drink.
Why strave the amp on power?
DIY power cord is something anyone can make, Very easy mod, in less than 30-45 minutes can be acheived. 

The minimum gauge will be 18. It absolutely will not be 20 or 22. For the JA800 based on current draw, it will be 16 or 14 minimum. Most companies will at least meet the basic electrical code requirements even if they don't get proper safety certification.

You can disagree but I get the impression you are not technically qualified to do any more than "disagree".  No they are not "all related". A primary purpose of the power supply in an amplifier is to isolated completely the AC from its impact on the audio signal.


Rectification is the electrical function, modulation is the signal processing operation that occurs. The rectification is a signal processing multiplication function, or modulation. Ideally you would only modulate the 60Hz AC with only 60Hz to yield 0Hz = DC, but the modulation function ends up being something more akin to a pulse (rectangular waveform) multiplied by a sine wave, hence you end up with all kinds of harmonics of 120Hz that you need the capacitors to filter out. Ideally you design your power supply with inductive filters to extend that "pulse" and reduce those high frequency harmonics to there is less ripple for the capacitors to filter.

andy21,171 posts07-05-2020 10:28pm

but I think we can state pretty unequivocally that the goal of the power supply is to isolate the output (audio) from the input as best as possible.

I would disagree with that statement. There is really no "isolation". They are all related.

Technically the diodes in the power supply perform a modulation function on the incoming AC which is why you get DC.

I think that is called "rectificatioin", not "modulation".  

^^^ Well it seems like you're disagreeing with Charles Hanson who is actually a real designer ... sigh ... face palm ...

Your description of rectification and modulate makes me laugh so hard.  I suppose until you understand the difference between "rectification" and "modulation", there is not need to argue with you since it would be a waste of time.