High current power cables

The power cable zealots will tell you that it is not only the gauge but the materials and the construction/weave that matters, plus the termination/plugs. I remain an agnostic and leave the stock captive power cords on my gear alone. I did buy a $99 Pangea to use experimentally on one amp that requires an add-on cord. The cable zealots will tell me that I will have to spend $500 at least to hear an improvement. Go figure!

I see in the June Stereophile that the wire agnostic Herb Reichert is now using a $1K Audioquest Thunder power cord, along with some $3900 AQ Thunderbird ICs for his review of the $3K Holo line stage and DAC. Got to keep the advertisers happy!

+1 @jasonbourne52!

@bigtwin Thanks for posting. That is exactly the simple (and correct as far as it goes) understanding that causes people to buy too small a cable.  If you go by your amps power rating, lets say 200 watts, then you need less than 2 amps. An ampacity table will tell you that 26 awg is all you need.   Can you imagine a 26 gauge power cord?  A small to medium amp would run on it--and sound like crap.

In reality, your load is dynamic, not static.   You need to be able to change current values very quickly.  It isn't the steady state current that sizes your cable.  That is the steady state calculation you posted. 

But if people keep using power cables sized the way you calculated, there will be used amps for sale for the rest of us to buy.

Jerry

If small power cords are fine then how come Boulder's top of the line 3050 mono amps use a 32 amp 230 volt custom power cord and custom connectors, maybe the size of the cable really does matter.