Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Well, there is way more to power cords than meets the eye that's for sure. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many companies out there peddling this stuff.

Since my last post I have experienced a lot of "discovery"

But to cut a very long story down to a more digestible post here's the coles notes version.

I started looking at different cable architectures and figured there had to be one that a reasonably competent DIYer like myself could use.

All of the designs that appeared to get great reviews appeared to have an architecture that avoided parallel conductors.

The problem is parallel conductors...
- passing an electrical current through one conductor will induce electrical noise in the adjacent conductors
- inducing noise into the neutral side of an electrical circuit has a negative impact on that circuits performance

So I set out to see what effect simply braiding the conductors would have.

I went to a hardware store and purchased a 12 gauge extension cord and cut a length of about 6 ft.
- I then stripped the outer sleeve from the entire length to expose the three conductors.
- I then braided the three conductors and installed quality silver plated copper IEC and Mains connectors.

To my complete amazement this very inexpensive power cable outperformed my DIY cable that used high quality Furutech bulk power cable, which also had the exact same IEC/Mains connectors.

A fellow poster on this forum has tried this and also found it's performance to be significantly better compared to one of a very popular brand he had in his system.

Next I stripped the outer sleeve and screening from the Furutech and braided it's internal connectors. The very high quality copper in the Furutech cable combined with good connectors and braided cable architecture makes a power cable that provide an extremely high level of performance.

I have compared the braided Furutech to cables costing many times it's price and found its performance to be very comparable.

This is now my standard power cable on every piece of equipment in my system.
- 10 gauge for the amp and power distribution panel
- 13 gauge for the sources.

The braiding also works to deter RFI

So - are power cords snake oil?

Pretty much, any after market cord will perform better than stock cables.

However, sometimes cables like those supplied with the Sophia Electric Baby amp posted by Cbozdog may well have been designed to provide the best performance.

Using cables made from better quality copper or some fancy alloy will provide some benefit, but the architecture is more important

Cables that are designed such that the conductors are not parallel to each other will perform better than others.

I'm not saying braiding is the best architecture out there - it is the easiest for a DIYer like myself to implement and provides a significant improvement over standard bulk cable alternatives.

If you are not into DIY, then look at the architecture of the cable before you purchase third party products - there are some very good ones out there.

For the DIYers out there - if you want a more affordable cable to Furutech then try DH Labs Power Plus and Encore.
- For about 1/3rd the cost of Furutech you get very close to it's performance ability.

I use Sonar Quest Silver plated copper IEC/Mains connectors from Ebay
- if you want a more affordable alternative try the Vanguard gold plated copper connectors from Ebay

Improvements include faster dynamics, larger image more micro details and deeper bass.

Hope you find it useful

Pierre S. Is a friend of mine but his power cables look as if they would be dangerous. If any of you are electruded please let us know.

I am apparantly joining the party late. So far entire discussion revolves about 4-5 feet of the cable from wall recepracle to the unit it powers. Nobody has considers what is behind AC wall receptacle and what kind of power is coming to that receptacle through the wires. Even if you pull completely new 20A line from breaker box to your HiFi (which is probably most efficient thing you can do) there is no guarantee what kind of power is coming through that receptacle. We are trying to fix the consequence of imperfect electrical grid by spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on 5 feet of cable. How can 5 feet rectify hundreds of feet of imperfection and cost cutting processes. I am all for making improvements, but within reason. Here there is simply lack of valid reasoning.

Why power cords, wall outlets, wall outlet covers, power cord plugs, contact enhancers on power cord plug contacts make a difference to the sound is one of many audio hobby mysteries that alter and illuminate our times. Obviously, having more stable and cleaner power delivered from the factory would help as would having perfect weather 24/7. And having all the wires in the correct direction. Unfortunately, for most of us, you get what you get. 

Nobody has considers what is behind AC wall receptacle and what kind of power is coming to that receptacle through the wires. Even if you pull completely new 20A line from breaker box to your HiFi (which is probably most efficient thing you can do) there is no guarantee what kind of power is coming through that receptacle. We are trying to fix the consequence of imperfect electrical grid by spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on 5 feet of cable. How can 5 feet rectify hundreds of feet of imperfection and cost cutting processes. I am all for making improvements, but within reason. Here there is simply lack of valid reasoning.

Romex has extremely good performance, so actually the real problem is at the outlet and beyond. Romex is not legal for power cords as it is too stiff. But in the wall it works great.

IOW the power cord doesn't 'rectify hundreds of feet of imperfection' because it doesn't have to. It is important for a power cord to be competent though. FWIW, that has little to do with price. The effects of a power cord are often measurable. I've seen them rob an amplifier of about 30% of its output power due to voltage drop across the cord!