An interesting experience with power cable.

@samureyex I have a 12 lb tube amp that makes just a couple of watts per channel and I was shocked that it was limited by a 14 awg power cable.  I'll never use anything smaller that 10 awg on an amp again.

A small power cable will limit dynamics, rapid changes or bass notes.  music that is more consistent in level and range will be mostly unaffected.

Jerry

@samureyex - what you are experiencing is quite normal because generally speaking...

• Amps tend to have a more robust power supply capable of handling the dynamics of transient peak audio signals
• Source components tend to have have a lighter duty power supply, mainly by design
  • i.e. keeping the component to a specific price point
  • BUT - higher quality source components tend to have better power supplies
• installing a quality power cable on a source components often results in noticeble gains in sound quality
• BUT to achieve a noticeable improvement by attatching a power cable to an amp, you would require a very well designed and built power cable

But as normal, it’s not quite that simple - "GENERALLY"

• tube amps/components tend to use voltage to amplify
  • so a good UP-OCC cable ($$) will "generally" produce noticeable improvements
• solid state amps and components tend to use current to amplify
  • so power cables of the highest quality ($$$) would be required to achieve the same level of improvement
• Trying a cable before you buy is often a very good approach

Unfortunately, there are 100’s of brands of cable out there, but the following are just some of the brands that I have looked into in the 15 years I have been dabbling with DIY cables

• Audio Envy - very good bang for the buck products that offer very good performance
• Zavfino - a step up, but you have to venture into their higher end cables for an appreciable improvement
• In-Akustik - very capable cables but that perofrmance is reflected in their price
• Hijiri - these are exceptional cables for components of the highest quality

Please note - this IS NOT a difinitive list - just some exceptional cables that I have been made aware of.

Any of these cables will provide performance improvements over most commercially available "branded" products within a comparable price bracket.

These cables are...

• well designed - i.e. the employ a noise cancelling geometry, which lowers the noise floor of the cable
• use either UP-OCC copper or UP-OCC silver having excepetional conductivity ratings, which improves dynamic performance
• use insulations that have low values of Dielectric Constant, which improves clarity and imaging
• use quality copper connectors (as opposed to copper alloys)

Hope that helps take some of the myth out of this hobby

Regards - Steve

@carlsbad  Those tube amps can draw a lot of power don't they. 

I believe mine is 8 gauge, not sure. it says "8AG" idk what that is.

@audphile1 I've never heard the difference with cable break-in but I don't refute the idea. Mine is probably at 70 hrs. 

@williewonka  Thanks for the plate of knowledge and the effort you gave. I've saved Audio Envy into my audio log book. 

@samureyex I doubt it is 8 gauge.  8 gauge would be 8 awg.  Ag is silver so i'm guessing the AG is silver plated and 8 means something else.

If it is 8 gauge, then it is plenty big and your amp is OK.  I have an amp with huge capacitors that benefits little from the big power cord.  But I use one anyway because they are cheap.

Jerry