@ricred1 - it's too bad that you don't live close to me (central California). I would love to see how some of my "built" power cables stack up. Usually, when cable companies move up in their models, they always go to silver / silver-plated components. I have tested many items with silver content and it just doesn't sound right to me. The audio always has a push in the upper mids and also puts forth an artificial flavor to the sound. It just does not sound natural/real to me. Even a tiny silver fuse is too much silver content in my system.
I always use Furutech rhodium male/IEC plugs with one of the following configurations:
- braided 20awg solid-core OCC copper Teflon coated. (6 braids for 12awg, 8 braids for 11awg)
- Audioquest NRG-4 (best audioquest cable without their DBS system). Chopped with furutech rhodium connectors.
Granted the Audioquest is light at 13 awg (so if you want more, I would just double up the cables -- the Furutech plugs are large enough to accept them). However, this is the only UL rated cable that uses solid-core conductors of the proper gauge (19awg for hot, 21awg for neutral/ground). There are some other offerings out there which use 18awg or 16awg conductors. In my experience, those conductors are too large and will roll-off high frequencies.
These cables are going to be less than $500 to build. I'm not sure how they will stack up to something like $3,000-6,000, but I am not willing to find out., And the fact that they are probably not going to be solid core and that they will likely use silver is a turn-off for me.
The Wire World is still stranded cables. Granted, they are putting the strands into small bundles, but it's still stranded. Though, this is much better than high-stranded stuff like Furutech OCC copper, but it's still stranded. I've tested the Alpha-OCC stranded cords and they sound like low-fidelity equipment. It causes a bright "solid-state" cheapness type of sound. It just doesn't sound right, even though it's OCC and expensive.
