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The Truth About Power Cords and there "Real" Price to Performance

This is a journey through real life experiences from you to everyone that cares to educate themselves. I must admit that I was not a believer in power cords and how they affect sound in your system. I from the camp that believed that the speaker provided 75% of the sound signature then your source then components but never the power cord. Until that magic day I along with another highly acclaimed AudioGoner who I will keep anatomist ran through a few cables in quite a few different systems and was "WOWED" at what I heard. That being said cable I know that I am not the only believer and that is why there are so many power cord/cable companies out there that range from $50 to 20-30 thousand dollars and above. So I like most of you have to scratch my head and ask where do I begin what brand and product and what should i really pay for it?

The purpose of this discussion to get some honest feed back on Price to Performance from you the end user to us here in the community.

Please fire away!


 


128x128blumartini
mwoh419
54 posts
 
@tweak1 

"I probably have several thousand dollars of cables in the closet, most have little to no resale value."

Your closet has my curiosity piqued.   :)
twoch
429 posts
 
   I don't think Price to Performance if i can get 3,,,4, % better i will buy it.   Problem i have ,   Can i afford the product  i can't buy 10 k  wire  so i buy a 
Cable that has the word 
"Clear" in it's Model  
tyray
575 posts
 
@mwoh419

I saw the same at usedcable.com and used TO ME - is affordable. Also on the Synergistic Research website there are different levels of power cords and as audiophiles upgrade there are bound to be ones available for resale on sites such as hifi shark. This maybe good news to some looking to try Synergistic Research power cords.

@fastfreight

If your Synergistic Research Atmosphere level 2 (20 amp) power cord performed as well as you say it did ’new’, would you please report back after the burn/run in period. I think we here would really be interested in your responses then too!
limbc
4 posts
 
If you hv ultra deep pockets, its nice luxury to spent BIG sums on hifi to get closer to ' true' sound. 
Even then, u can get the most value only if u balance yr spent. Yr power cable shd preferably be at 10-20% of yr total spent. 
As there is only so much a great power cord can do. The greatest determinants of SQ will be yr amps n speakers, followed by the other peripherals. 
But yes, choosing the best sounding and best value power cord /cable within a defined range of budget is still very tough without A/B test. That's where perhaps experienced audiogons can help. Rgds. 



tyray
575 posts
 
@limbc

When I started to get back in the hi fi audiophile game one of the first things I noticed that even very expensive gear had stock ’lamp (shade) grade’ power cords and I read somewhere that ’oxygen free’ cable were better and I’ve been upgrading ever since. Sometimes without any need for A/B testing if something looked, well cheap.

I also think that anyone can be an ’experienced audiophile’ when you start spending your hard earned money on hi fi gear and somehow you think it’s ’disposable income’.:)
In my humble opinion of course.
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