Romex to your amp?

I did just that about six years ago. I ran 12/1 Romex straight from the breaker box into a Dynaco 400 amp.  Everything worked as it should, but the Romex was so stiff and unruly I removed it in less than a week. And yeah, it’s not legal in most places.

All the best.

JD

I agree that it is not that practical  to run Romex all the way to the amp...and presumably not to code; but the question is whether this set up would compete with mega $$ power cords  SQ wise that are readily available to the hobbyist? 

Yeah and romex is so good Synergistic Research uses it inside their $16k Powercell. Oh wait, what's that? They don't?

No of course they don't. Because its absolute nonsense.

Look, forget about power cords, UL BS and all, just think about the copper. What's the first thing you learn in Audiophile Wire 101? No not study hall, the class. Isn't it purity? Don't every single one of you know five nines copper is better than whatever crap goes in romex? Crystals, anyone? Impurities? Beuller???

Or what about the dielectric? (Insulation, for you class-cutters out there.) For sure all the big romex manufacturers have huge R&D departments chock full of people listening and double-blind testing and formulating all the best dielectrics. Oh wait, what's that? They don't? Well then at least they know which direction it runs? What? Not even that??

Why, its almost as if the only thing they care about then is being able to transmit current and not get too hot.

Romex is crap. It is however cheap. That is the reason its used.

Millercarbon
Is your house wired with 5 nines copper from your private generator? You do know you have 50+ feet of Romex in your walls behind your stereo.
The trick to power cords is they filter out some of the high frequency interference. Its not that the 3 foot cord of some ultraconductive big gauge wire amplifies the voltage you lost going thru the first 50 ft of Romex. You can get 95% of the way there just by twisting the positive and neutral AC leads tightly and have a loosely wound wire that connects to ground that acts as a shield. Then add some plugs that are better than the cheap injected molded nickle plated crap.
For my DIY power cable I decided against using Romex. I was seriously thinking about it but the stiffness mentioned stopped me. I tend to play around with my system too much and did consider the solid wires being brittle. But if you just plug things in and stop messing with it will be OK. Its more about the design and the way you plug your components in. Ended up going with some 12 ga silver plated Teflon jacketed mil spec wire instead and some pure copper Sonarquest plugs . It works.

See thread titled: "wiring my house for sound" (started 3-14-2002)
My response:
03-15-2002 6:36pm "If you want to get extreme, hard wire your mains to whatever uses them. For example, cut off the male connector of what usually plugs into the wall and solder the wires directly to the leads coming out of the wall (have a pro electrician do this of course). Doing this to an amp is the most logical application (could be risky due to electrical storms, power surges, etc. unless you trip the breaker when not in use). Sounds like you’d get the last drop of juice this way!"