Ideal power cord lengths?
A quick Google search suggests there is consensus that the ideal power cord length is 2m. 1m cords sound “harsher” and 3m cords sound “smoother”, with 2m being the sweet spot. The PS Audio dude suggests that the reason is that the reason is that all cords have an impact on the power, and the greater the length, the greater the impact, good or bad.
I know many will say there is no difference between a 1m cord and a 3m cord. But my question is, who here has tried like model power cords of different lengths, and what were the differences?
Second question: How does length factor into the equation when you have a cord feeding a conditioner, then other cords feeding components? If 2m cords are in fact the ideal, would 1m cords be ideal when using conditioners?
I tend to believe those that say that power cord lengths matter. While I’ve not been able to do this test myself, I’ve had these two experiences:
Very interested in learning of others experiences with power cord lengths.
"the cables shorter than 1.5m sounded TERRIBLE by comparison." I realize the subjective nature of our hobby but this is the kind of BS that gives bad wrap to audiophiles. Just think about it, why would a cable manufacturer supply a 1M length if it sounds terrible compared to 1.5M, 2.0M and so on? @glennewdick ...LMAO! |
I tried different DIY digital cable lengths (single ended RCA non-coaxial types) years ago with a Bel Canto DAC 1 and ended up preferring a 90" (total length of both wire runs combined). It was made as follows ("" below are copied from a 20 year old post I made @ AA) with 47 Labs OTA 26 gauge wire and in addition the 60" run was "loosely" looped around the 30" run. "With digital IC's I preferred 1.5 over 1.0 and .5. I eventually made a cable 90" long with the hot lead being 30" and the neutral lead being 60" (this sounded much better to me than the equal length leads in the 1.5, 1.0 and .5, so go figure)." The design was given to my by Richard of Vantage Audio in the UK and I used 47 RCA connectors on the cable (their RCA's contain zero metal and the wire itself make the necessary electrical contacts). The odd DIY cable sounded better than a $200+ Illuminate (Kimber?) and another popular/budget digital cable of the time that was an unusual purple/mauve color (forget the name). I don't recall the length(s) of the 2 commercial cables noted above, but they were @ least 1 meter in length (the purple one may have been 1.5 - but not certain). I later read that the length of the digital cable (making a difference) also had to do with the design of the DAC itself (some applied - like the Bel Canto and others did not, but I did not understand the explanations). My power cords are 5' BMI's and Absolute's that I think are around 9' (both sound good to me, though I prefer the heavier gauge BMI's on source gear - so once again - go figure).
DeKay |
Sounds like an Apogee Wyde Eye. Of course I just ordered a 1m PC yesterday for my soon-to-arrive DDC before I saw this thread. That’s how my luck’s been running of late. Oh well, should still at least be better than the stock cord I guess/hope. Ugh. |
