My take on power cords....
Power cords are something that need to transfer power from the outlet. The power cords quality of copper is important, and so is the gauge for power amplifiers. What is a safe gauge for amplifier cords drawing a full 20 amps? 10 to 12 guage is enough, but you can buy power cords 7 gauge. The connectors just have to be designed to get the full power of the cable to the amplifier. Makes me wonder why there are power cords that are audiophile cords. The audiophile cords come up with some science that allow the company to charge crazy money. Seems to me that there are just filters built into the cable to change the sound. The designers of amplifiers want the best pure AC power thru copper to come into their powerful amplifiers. And then the amplifier takes care of that power. The best amp designs store enough power inside the amp, and don't stress the power cord at all. Does this wonderful amplifier want filtered power going into the amp from the wall? I would think not. But every amplifier you see at the shows have cables that cost as much as some equipment. I'm not saying that these cables don't change the sound, compared to a good standard cable design. What I'm saying is that these audiophile cables are filtering the sound before it hits the amplifier. This, in itself should not be what the amplifier is looking for. Now this is just an opinion from someone that believes in cables. Just not these $2,000 or more Power Cables. I call these audiophile cables a way of coloring the sound before reaching the amplifier.
Now the most important that you can do for your system is 2 dedicated 20 amp lines put into your sound room with quality outlets. The difference in sound will be amazing with the amplifier on one circuit, and the rest on the other 20 amp line. If you want the electrician to put Romex 10/3 wiring, you can have a bit of reserve power with Monoblock amps. The dedicated power lines are the best expense you can make. If you have funky power in your town, that you can try some of the high end power stations out there. I would take this advice on where to put your money. My workstation for my computer systems use a number of Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to get the AC power to sine wave levels. I used to live in a place where there were brownouts like mad. Now I live where the power grid doesn't overload. But any spikes or drops with computer equipment will wear your equipment out. And having battery backup when doing mission critical work on the computer is just as important as backup. But for my stereo system I use AVRs (automatic voltage regulators) for all the equipment other than the amplifier. I calculate how much power draw I want from each AVR and add the amount of them I deem using no more than 40% of the AVRs power envelope. Currently I use 2 of them from APC. They cost around $70 each and are so worth it to make sure there are no voltage drops or spikes going into your expensive equipment. Do you see how cheap these AVRs are? If it was an audiophile item, it would be $2,000. I can only say use your head when spending money. Just an example...... instead of expensive power cords..... get yourself a good streamer, or a better DAC.
I am not an authority on Power Cords. I just know the science, and have grown up with a Dad that was a wiring genius. I also spent 40 years myself in the industry of audio and being a moonlighting electrician with my Dad. He was an engineer for General Motors. We were wiring and building just about anything you could dream of. It just doesn't make sense to throw all that cash to go along with the audiophile community. It's a high quality copper wire going into the amp that is all it should be.
Power cords are something that need to transfer power from the outlet. The power cords quality of copper is important, and so is the gauge for power amplifiers. What is a safe gauge for amplifier cords drawing a full 20 amps? 10 to 12 guage is enough, but you can buy power cords 7 gauge. The connectors just have to be designed to get the full power of the cable to the amplifier. Makes me wonder why there are power cords that are audiophile cords. The audiophile cords come up with some science that allow the company to charge crazy money. Seems to me that there are just filters built into the cable to change the sound. The designers of amplifiers want the best pure AC power thru copper to come into their powerful amplifiers. And then the amplifier takes care of that power. The best amp designs store enough power inside the amp, and don't stress the power cord at all. Does this wonderful amplifier want filtered power going into the amp from the wall? I would think not. But every amplifier you see at the shows have cables that cost as much as some equipment. I'm not saying that these cables don't change the sound, compared to a good standard cable design. What I'm saying is that these audiophile cables are filtering the sound before it hits the amplifier. This, in itself should not be what the amplifier is looking for. Now this is just an opinion from someone that believes in cables. Just not these $2,000 or more Power Cables. I call these audiophile cables a way of coloring the sound before reaching the amplifier.
Now the most important that you can do for your system is 2 dedicated 20 amp lines put into your sound room with quality outlets. The difference in sound will be amazing with the amplifier on one circuit, and the rest on the other 20 amp line. If you want the electrician to put Romex 10/3 wiring, you can have a bit of reserve power with Monoblock amps. The dedicated power lines are the best expense you can make. If you have funky power in your town, that you can try some of the high end power stations out there. I would take this advice on where to put your money. My workstation for my computer systems use a number of Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to get the AC power to sine wave levels. I used to live in a place where there were brownouts like mad. Now I live where the power grid doesn't overload. But any spikes or drops with computer equipment will wear your equipment out. And having battery backup when doing mission critical work on the computer is just as important as backup. But for my stereo system I use AVRs (automatic voltage regulators) for all the equipment other than the amplifier. I calculate how much power draw I want from each AVR and add the amount of them I deem using no more than 40% of the AVRs power envelope. Currently I use 2 of them from APC. They cost around $70 each and are so worth it to make sure there are no voltage drops or spikes going into your expensive equipment. Do you see how cheap these AVRs are? If it was an audiophile item, it would be $2,000. I can only say use your head when spending money. Just an example...... instead of expensive power cords..... get yourself a good streamer, or a better DAC.
I am not an authority on Power Cords. I just know the science, and have grown up with a Dad that was a wiring genius. I also spent 40 years myself in the industry of audio and being a moonlighting electrician with my Dad. He was an engineer for General Motors. We were wiring and building just about anything you could dream of. It just doesn't make sense to throw all that cash to go along with the audiophile community. It's a high quality copper wire going into the amp that is all it should be.