pre vs amp power cable question

Liguy, so you feel that power cord design or gauge has very little affect on the sound of a Class D switching amp?

If you have power cords of sufficient gauge to supply the current required of the Amplifier under worst case conditions and the power supply is properly designed you will have a difficult time telling the difference between any of them.

Class D amplifiers are sometimes labeled as switching amplifiers but they still require a DC power supply to operate. In the case of a Class D amplifier the input signal is switched. Class D amplifiers can have either switching DC power supplies or conventional linear DC supplies. With this being said, the same rules hold for traditional Class A or AB amplifiers as Class D amplifiers. If the power cord can supply the amount of current that the amplifier requires and the power is designed properly whether it is a switching or linear supply, you will have difficulty telling the difference between power cords. I hope that helps.

Hi Lloyd. The simple and correct answer yes. However, the quality of design and mechanical construction, purity and engineering of conductors (silver coated high purity- perhaps single crystal- copper being excellent), dielectric, shielding and grounding are the vital components, particularly for a phono preamp. I suggest, as others have, that you experiment. I recommend you try at the least 1 networked cable (Magnum or better), and an Oracle AClll, both from MIT, to get a sense of things. I will say that, for sure, if you don't try at least these, you will forever lack some experience you may find joyful. : )

Lloyd, as a follow up; you may need to try the power cords in your preamp and amp as well in order to evaluate the change in the phono section. If you don't hear a difference with your existing p/c's--assume they are not of adaquate quality because the one's I've mentioned have significant benefits to offer. Cheers.

This is a very interesting argument for me as a recent test on my system caused me a major uncertainty about power cords gauge. I'm aware that the chosen gauge should just permit the necessary current arrival to the devices and that above a minimum value every difference due to the gauge is likely very hard to listen. I'm also aware of the problems due to a too-low power cord gauge as I have read of them everywhere.

During the last years I used industrial neoprene-jacketed power cords of approximately 13 AWG for my power amplifier (JRDG Model One) and loudspeakers (MartinLogan Aerius) as, based on my experience, I don't like the performance of hi-end power cables (except for a Cardas power cord connected to my Classe' Audio DR-5 preamplifier, possibly due to the fact that it is Cardas wired). A few weeks ago I had to slightly increase the length of the power cables of both power amplifier and loudspeakers and I decided to build 16 AWG power cords. I expected that the new performance of the system was not worse respect to the use of my previous 13 AWG power cords due to M1 and ESL panels low power. Surprisingly, the performance was largely better, with a better bass control and a less "inflated" sound as if more electrical power was "too much" for my devices. So I tested common computer power cables (of similar lenght) in black PVC of just 0.75 mm2 for both power amplifier and loudspeaker and performance has greatly increased respect to the 16 AWG cables.

It may be that my system is not highly-demanding from the electrical point of view but I really don't understand why larger-sized power cords seem to create problems.