Do power supply units/cables make a difference in sound quality?

I always protect my expensive equipment. I use maintainers with circuit breakers and of course surge suppression. The quality of the AC source is as important as cleaning the dust off a stylus.

Power cables and quality cabling are as important as quality equipment.

A few of my buddies use Threshold and I use to. You better use a good PC. It has nothing to do with looks is does have everything to do with performance.

No it doesn’t cost a fortune for very high quality cabling. I can purchase an entire set of cables for 500.00. I can make them for about 300.00.

Enjoy your upgrade and enjoy the new sound. Be patient, it pays. Be kind to your cables. Handle cables with great care and protect the terminal ends against static discharge after they are conditioned.. Everything matters..

+1 @helmholtzsoul 

A system's sound starts with the power supply of the various components. NOT with the wire from the AC outlets! RF noise from the AC outlets is a non-issue for any competently designed power supply.

A system's sound starts with the power supply at the point of origin, the service panel. A dedicated AC line is the best way to insure that appliances and electrical devices in the home are on separate circuits and don't add noise to the audio system. A quality receptacle and power cord should be considered part of the audio system. The use of a power conditioner is usually a benefit, but each owner can make this decision. I use balanced power conditioning with surge protection and the improvement in SQ can easily be heard. The power supply on components plays an important part by regulating voltage but can only do so much. RFI/EMI filters will further lower the noise-floor.

Those who say they don't hear a difference between a treated AC line (as stated above) may not have a system that is revealing enough to appreciate the benefits.

I don't think the quality of the electricity is as important as the quantity.  The PSU in your amp promptly rectifies it and regulates it so the electricity coming out of the wall it pretty much adequate in quality.  60Hz and approximately 120V.  A little noise that gets cleaned up almost totally by the PSU.

The quantity is more important.  You need a ready supply of quick current for your amp to deal with spikes or quick demands. This is required to make your amp quick and responsive, especially in the bass area.  

I think people often focus too much on quality and too little on quantity.  A generic 10awg cable will get you 99% of the way there by ensuring there is a ready supply of current.  Cleaning up the quality of the electricity may get you 1% since some tiny percentage of the "noise" in your electrical line may get through the PSU. But this is very tiny. 

Power strips and conditioners that limit current can do more harm than good.

Jerry

Carlsbad:  Your comments coincide with my beliefs.  I somehow could not wrap my head around how the quality of sound would be affected by the electric connection cables assuming they were adequate for the needed flow and fit will with no interferences.  My house current has always been adequate for the loads of my system.  My main concern is surge protection and I have accounted for that.  Looking at four figure prices for power regulators and cables had me puzzled as to how much they would affect the sound from my system.  Thank you.

Joel

@baumwoll - having spent many years investigating cables, I have had first hand experience of how different things can positively impact the sound we get to enjoy from our systems

I have has success implementing cables on mini-systems costing as little as $200, up to pretty good systems in excess of $70k - other members have much more expensive systems and have observed improvements also

Unfortunately the cable companies like to spin their jargon as to why their cables are the best.

But the answer is pretty simple - a good cable will use...

1. excellent quality wire - copper or silver
   • There are varying grades of copper in used, the best being UP-OCC copper
   • There are varying grades of silver used, with UP-OCC Silver currently being the best
   • What is the difference? - Conductivity
     • beryllium copper, teryllium copper, Bronze or Brass
       • are all copper alloys
       • their Conductivty is 70% or lower
     • Pure Anealed copper is rated at 100% and is the Benchmark for Conductivity
     • OFC copper is around 101%
     • UP-OCC copper is 102% -103%
     • Silver is 106%
     • UP-OCC silver is 107%
   • What is the benefit of using a high conductive metal ?
     • better details and improved clarity
     • better/faster dynamic performance
     • better/faster transient processing response
2. good quality insulation
   • lowers cable related noise issues - so it lowers the noise floor of a cable
   • The Dielectric Constant (Dk) The ratio of the permittivity of a cable
     • is the metric used to indicate the electrical activity of the insulation
     • As the signal changes polarity in an AC sifgnal it charges the insulation in one direction
     • and then recharges it in the opposite direction as the polarity changes
     • this flip-flopping injects noise into the metal wire
     • using insulations with a low Dk improves clarity, details and imaging
       • PVC has a Dk of 4 (ish)
       • Teflon is 2.2
       • Foamed Teflon is 1.45
       • Cotton or Silk is 1.3
       • Air is 1.1 Vacuum is 1.0
3. built using a good noise cancelling cable geometry
   • Cable geometry is how the individual conductors are situated with respect to each other.
   • When you have two wires side be side in close proximity, as with many cables in use, you get distortions induced from one wire into the wire next to it
   • This is noise and impacts overall cable performance
   • Some examples of cable Geometry are
     • twisted pair
     • braided (e.g. Kimber Kable products)
     • Helix Spiral designs (e.g. Anticables)
     • Ribbon - Like Nordost speaker cables
4. use great quality connectors
   • many connectors use brass or some copper alloy, but as identifed above, the low conductivity metals impede performance
   • Also, in the case of interconnects and speaker cables, the mass of the connector also impedes signal trasmisson
     • well enginnered Low Mass, high conductivity connectors provide significantly better performance
   • For Power connectors, pure copper or silver plated copper provides better performance

As with everything in this hobby there are improvements that can be achieved with "refinements" to the above design points and those refinements will cost a lot more.

RE:  the "Power supply" to the system

• most power supplies to the house are stable, but some people do experience noise related issues often from commercial builds that are close by, and for those, a good power conditoiner or power regenerator is often reqired
• Othrewise, if the power supply to your house is relatively clean then simply having a good power cable to each component will improve sound quality, Why?
  • this is how it was explained to me by a very knowledgeable person with a wealth of Electrical Engineering experience
    • At each connection point in the "power supply line" i.e. at each breaker, outlet and plug - the transfer of electrical energy is only depedant on the quality of that connction and the quality of any wire used to bridge from one connection point to the next
    • This is why a good power cable will provide improvements in performance
• A dedicated line from the breaker panel to your system provides noticeable benefits
• Quality outlets, like Hospital grade MRI outlets from companies like Pass and Seymour, will grip the plugs more tightly and provide better power transmission

RE:  the power supliies inside components...

• Power amps tend to have very large transformers and banks of capacitors (i.e. compared to source components), which are designed to supply enough power, especially when large transient signals are encountered
  • But even the very best amps can also benefit from having a very good power cable
  • But for the best amps you will need an exceptionally good power cable in order to achieve any noticeable benefit
• Source components, especially in the more budget oriented designs, tend to have a less capable power supply, so having a good power cable will provide a more noticeable benefit.
• Wal-Wart power supplies are perhaps the worst - I avoid them or replace them

The cable companies I typically recommend include

• Zavfino
• In-Akustik
• Hijiri

There are a few others, but these provide good and noticeable Bang-for-buck

Zavfino is a great place to start and their product line caters to many budgets and their products actually perform.

As you may have observed in this thread, there are many opinions out there.

Some believe in the benefits of cables and other do not

So use the Audogon search feature to aquire knowledge from postings from other members pertaining to cables.

Apologies for the long post, but this subject gets complicaed very fast

Hope it helps - Steve