Why do I need power management if I have a great power cord?

@bruce19 

So my observation is that a blacker background on a tv does not make the programming better or worse. However if you focus on the blackness of the background you can make yourself unhappy with your equipment. Is that a smart thing to do?....Is there such a thing as 'optimal stopping' in audio? I think so.

I would agree that there is such a thing as optimal stopping. What I have found recently -- by adding a relatively inexpensive linear power supply to my streamer -- is that the content (or "programming") *did* get better because I was able to hear instruments and notes that were not previously available to me. If that occurred by adding better power to my whole system, it would be quite reasonable to do.

So,  perhaps, one metric to answer your excellent question -- roughly, "When is it optimal to stop improving the system?" -- is this: *when no more content is added or improved significantly.* Or even, *when I cannot justify spending this money, here.*

Knowing when to stop is kind of a judgment call which comes down to each of us. It's that same part of us that knows when to stop eating at an "all you can eat" buffet!

@holmz 

Exactly so, A large,  fast,  over spec’d capacitor bank in a power supply is the key. 

“ 

The capacitors only get filled up when they are at or below the voltage coming out of the transformer-rectifier-regulator. That physically is happening in a rectified sine wave that operating at 120 Hz. So there is a great deal of time (maybe a 1/4 of the time), where the AC is NOT feeding the capacitors any DC.

The power supply in an amplifier is holding DC and buffering the AC to provide that energy reserve..“ 

There exist electrical-magnetical distortions and crosstalk induced by the gear and there is also distortions and acoustic crosstalk induced by the speakers/ room / two ears relation...

I will explain soon the psycho-acoustic geography of my room in my acoustic thread... 😁😊

"When is it optimal to stop improving the system?" -- is this: *when no more content is added or improved significantly.*

The answer to the question when stop upgrading is related also to acoustic treatment and control...And your own purse for sure...But price tag of the gear is overevaluated much in S.Q. experience and acoustic and psycho-acoustic underevaluated much... Then...

I was hearing new details about sound and more accuracy after acoustic devices tuning or speakers/room tuning...

There is also the acoustic cues and factors that cannot be given by the gear alone in an optimal way and ask for room treatment and control...

Especially listener envelopment/source width ratio and timbre....

This was my motto for years: dont upgrade before the audio system is well embedded in mechanical and electrical and acoustical working dimensions...

I myself for example add a linear power supply for my  dac with success and a lower noise level but the linear supply itself must be controlled  for his vibrations for example...I even add a "golden plate" on it (shungite+copper tape)...

@piaudiol 

I've been trying to understand what you are saying. But first of all, respectfully, I think the relationship of the size of conductor to resistance involves a square and a determination of output impedance is more complicated that just being the product of LCR. I am not an EE so I struggle like many others with the complexity of electrical circuits.

But it sounds to me like you are saying that the benefit of a short, fat wire (a bespoke power cable) connected to a long thin wire (the household romex) carrying AC current is that it acts kind of like a capacitor in that it stores up current as a reserve in instances when the amp needs more.  My problem with this vision is that in an amp's power supply the AC is converted to DC and if the amp has a linear power supply built into it (and here I am thinking of a solid state class A amp, in fact I am specifically thinking of a Pass Firstwatt F6 which I am currently building) then it includes a generous bank of capacitors and resistors specifically to smooth out the dc current after it has passed though the rectifier that converts it from the AC into DC. I believe that same capacitor bank also acts as the current reserve for the amp. I suspect this reserve is much, much larger that what could be conceivably stored in a 3 or 6 foot length of power cable.  So it seems to me that either I am mistaken or you are mistaken about how this all works. I tried searching for a more definitive answer on the net but I suspect I just did not know how to phrase the "fat wire, thin wire" question correctly.

For what it's worth, I don't know if you have ever had the chance to look inside an amp, but the wires carrying the current as well as the outgoing signal are pretty thin. Also while reading up for this amp building project I recall Nelson Pass, a man for whom I have great respect, making a comment regarding wires to the effect that he has nothing against nice wires and if people give them to him he uses them but beyond that he seemed not too concerned.

A Class A PASS XS300 monoblock will dump 48A on demand.  You need two of these.  See where this is going?  

@piaudiol 

This seems really unlikely!! Giving the amp the benefit of the doubt, and assuming it can double power into 2 Ohms, it would be making 1200 watts. If it can do that the current would be about 24 Amps. To do 48 Amps, the amp can would drive 1 Ohm with 2400 Watts (that would be 48 Amps of current) and I just don't think so. The math is against it.

You might want to read this:

http://www.atma-sphere.com/en/resources-common-power-amplifier-myths.html

Whomever you got your information from was misinformed, IMO.