A not sarcastic question for the power conditioner/upgraded power cord folks

@mclinnguy

holy crap @chuck that must be one the longest posts I have ever seen- good stuff!

I am not arguing with what’s in that post, but I think it’s a cut and paste from something I remember seeing somewhere else recently. The Absolute Sound, maybe?

And as far as what it says, I won’t argue with anything become I am a pure ignorant novice on this stuff, but I cannot help but feel that a dedicated run of 12-2 (although 10-2 may be better) has got to be superior to running your audio off the same circuit all sorts of other household stuff is on.

Furutech DPS 4.1 PC run from wall receptacle to Puritan Labs 156, replacing their stock PC was revelatory.  This was replicated in my friend’s system with same Puritan Labs 156.  We were both taken aback.  Happy listening.

@kennymacc fyi…your AQ Niagara uses transformers and as such it is an active power conditioner. It works on the same principle as a Puritan PSM156 which is a current limiting active power conditioner. May be the high current outlets in the Niagara 3000 bypass the circuit with transformers but the fact that you have transformers already means you are limiting current.
Your best shot at a non current limiting power conditioner is with a passive Shunyata units.
In my experience power conditioner is not a mandatory item. Whether you need or not depends on quality of power in your dwelling and quality of power supplies in your components. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. 

I am not arguing with what’s in that post, but I think it’s a cut and paste from something I remember seeing somewhere else recently. The Absolute Sound, maybe?

And as far as what it says, I won’t argue with anything become I am a pure ignorant novice on this stuff, but I cannot help but feel that a dedicated run of 12-2 (although 10-2 may be better) has got to be superior to running your audio off the same circuit all sorts of other household stuff is on.

Yes, you are correct, I am giving him the credit for someone else’s work. it is from Absolute Sound. Sources should always be made clear if posts are not original.

I have 10 gauge on a dedicated line but it has been so long ago I can’t recall a huge difference putting it in, but for sure it is one of the first things an audiophile should do. If one had a long run from their panel to the hifi they would have to be pretty "dedicated" to use 6 gauge, then drop it down to 10 gauge in order to fit it in the receptacle, but many audiophiles have spent more money on things that probably have less benefit on the sound quality.

In line with this thread though, I am confused why you need 3m power cords though- most people have the components close to the outlet or power conditioner and have longer interconnects to the amps, or longer speaker cables.

Which doesn’t preclude me from moving my dedicated circuit outlets up a couple of feet, and I suppose I probably will,

I wouldn’t, but it is your house (I hope?) After re-reading this thread if that is easiest then yes do it. I think alot of us who use power conditioners have it within 1-2m of the components, and then if you need a longer power cord to go from the wall to the conditioner you buy just one longer power cord. 

with a 2 meter run my amp is all that I can get straight into the wall. So right now, I am forced to use my glorified strip to plug the pre and cdp into. Problem 2 is that I cannot upgrade the pc to the glorified strip, because although it appears to be a very nice braided pc, it is hardwired in.

....but I found that I couldn’t reach the wall from my CDP or my pre with only two meters.

Sounds like you are fixed into your components needing to be in a rack? A tall one? Do they need to be? I don’t have a rack- I have platforms- so I don’t have that issue.

but I was curious as to the opinions about the limitations of a power conditioners power cord.

From my experience going direct to the Furutech GTX with the Coda amp instead of going through the Puritan PSM 156 had no difference, so I left the amp plugged into the Puritan. I haven’t tried with this Coincident Frankenstein amp yet though.

And replacing the 20 amp Puritan Ultimate power cord that feeds the PSM156 from the wall to a Shunyata SigmaV2 improved the sound quite a bit. It is the most important power cord, and should be your best, so IMO there is no "limitation for a power conditioners power cord" unless you are using an inferior one, or maybe one that is not up to the level of the others.

If you still have some OEM power cords you will probably notice the biggest difference once you have replaced the last OEM power cord in your system- once the "weakest link in the chain" or "the bottleneck" is swapped out to one that built properly is when the improvements of all of them become most noticeable. Not just about gauge, but EMI shielding, and your own components from contaminating the others with noise.

I think that is why some people replace just one OEM power cord with a $300 one and don’t hear that much of a difference, it is not only because their components are lower level, but they are still hearing the degradation of all of the other OEM power cords and interconnects in their system.