Should I upgrade the cable of my Line Conditioner?

@xcool - try a Zavfino UP-OCC power cable

• it will make a nice improvement in dynamic performance and imaging

Regards - Steve

Great question. Yes it depends. If you have no extra high end power cords around… well, you probably will at some point. A waste of money? Probably, but over time it happens and it ends up being useful for experimentation.

One thing you can pretty much bet on is installing a couple direct lines for your system (one for most components and one for amp) will have a significant payback.  Might be a move to consider first.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments so far.    I do use 3rd party power cords for all my components.  They are not expensive ones.   They are mostly Pangea power cords.   I'm not so sure if they are good power cords, but they give me peace of mind.   I think the Pangea cables are very much over promoted by Audio Advisor.  I've tried their IC, and they are just so so.

Anyway in general,  power cord is one area of my system that I haven't found big impact on my sound.   I wonder if it's because the Pangea cords are simply not up to snuff, or I just have very clean power from my electrical outlet.  I live in a high rise apartment building that's a little less than 20 years old.

My original question is about whether the line conditioner itself should use a better quality power cord than the stock one.   Seems like there are definitely many different opinions on this.   I was hoping not having to spend the money if I don't need to, but I guess I would have to try it out for myself.

Thanks.   Feel feel to suggest a few best bang for the buck power cords that I should consider!

@xcool - I build my own high perofrmance DIY cables, so I have made all cables from the outlet to each component.

In my case I have the following cables from the wall outlet to the components

• an 11 foot Extension cable with a dual socket outlet
• I plug the amp directly into one of those sockets
• I plug a 6 outlet Power Distribution box into the other socket of the extension cable
• Into the Distribution box I plug my source components i.e.
  • a phono stage and
  • a Streamer.

So the power for each of the source components arrives through 3 seperate power cables and one power distribution center.

I have upgraded the cables and Distribution box many times and each time performance has noticeably improved.

But If a lower quality power cable is substituted for any of my cables then performance will suffer.

So to answer your ogirinal question - YES a good power cable on your conditioner will make a difference

• i.e. provided - the other power cables being used are capable of performing to a similar level.

The Pangea power cables are better than stock cables,

• but they would not perform to the same level as the Zavfino cables I mentioned in my post above.
• So using just one Zavfino cables to connect to your conditioner - you might not notice too much difference.
• Getting a Second Zavfino cable would allow you to use on your amp or source component would allow you to hear the improvement

Sorry for the long post - but as you can see, the question does not have a simple YES or NO answer

Again - take a look at Zavfino - they are the best bang for the buck out there because they use UP-OCC copper and advance cable geometries to boost performance

https://zavfinousa.com/collections/power-cables

Fina OCC Power Cable 14AWG - ZavfinoUSA

Take a look at this link to read what others think of them

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/zavfino

Regards - Steve

OP, what is your system? Power cords and interconnects can make a big and obvious difference.. but it is dependent on your system and your objectives.

Perhaps (it sounds like this) you are largely happy with your system and just don’t want to feel like you missed something. That is fine… I’m not sure if I were you I would do anything. If you really want to get the very best sound (assuming you have pretty good equipment), then you have to be prepared to work for it. Like do some reading and rent a couple sets of high end cords from the Cable Store. Then do thoughtful comparisons. If you try some really high end stuff… even if you don’t want to buy it, the experience can tell you what you can get out of doing it…. a tiny change, or huge. You can direct your further work from their. Typically I would start with speaker cables and interconnects… but they all can make a difference.

If this doesn’t appeal to you, the buy a budget cord an feel good that you covered your bases.. or don’t and feel good that you didn’t waste the money.

If you live in a multi family building, I would guess you can be certain you do not have good clean power. All the appliances and stuff in the building conspires to mess it up.