Suggested Power Cable for Streamer


Fellow Audio Fanatics - 

I’m at the stage of fine tuning my system. It’s been roughly three years of investment, trial and error, and pure enjoyment. However, as many of you know, this hobby tends to make us obsessive over the prospect of making “incremental improvements.” 
 

Why? 
 

I think it’s simply because we’ve made adjustments over time that paid off. 
 

MY QUESTION 

I am currently using a NRG “The Five,” which is a heavy gauge power cable from a gentleman up in Canada. Great cable for the price! That said, my sense is it’s a cable designed more for power amp rather than source components like DACs or streamers. 
 

I’m wondering if I could improve the performance of my streamer with another cable more specifically designed for source components? If so, what cable might you recommend?  Your responses are greatly appreciated. 

I’m posting my system below for context. 

  • Innuos Zenith streamer with NRG “the five” cable 
  • Merason DAC1 with a LessLoss power cable 
  • Linear Tube Audio preamp with a cardas clear reflection cable 
  • Conrad Johnson Classic 120 with a Cardas Clear Beyond XL cable
  • Speakers - switch between Dynaudio Heritage Specials and QLN Prestige 3  

Everything is connected to a Puritan 156 with their classic cable. I will soon upgrade to their Ultimate cable which will plug directly into the wall.

 

 

 

128x128bluethinker

@bluethinker, the best thing that I did for my music streamer was to power it using an Sbooster linear power supply, and then plugging the Sbooster into my AudioQuest Niagara power conditioner using a not too expensive AQ Blizzard power cord. 

Music streamers generate a lot of high frequency noise so filtering at the power cord can keep them from sharing that noise with the other components. 

 

@bluethinker Yes the majority of my system has Voodoo cables. Some are top of the line such as the front end gear and my amps and some are the next tier down. 

I read about cardas copper and they have a vague history. Some of it may have included different companies at different times. I don't know if shorter is necesarily better here, but assume it does. I hear it can make a huge difference in other cables. I am also looking at similar problem, but approaching it from the power regenerator aspect, because even if I do power cables through cardas, I'll be at higher budget that I can't afford. Plus I would still have filth through the incoming lines. But this is all a year or so out. Imo Audience 70 grain per foot structute has less noise than the 300 to 400 structered per foot other cables. But the price in power is considerable to cardas.

It would think the power consumtion and impedence of the streamer plays into factors. Not sure if this could fall under low eddy current ideals or not.