A not sarcastic question for the power conditioner/upgraded power cord folks
And I realize that there are those that don’t believe in either
Assuming you use a power conditioner and after market power cords, do you feel that the power cord from the power conditioner to the wall might be a limiting or even a negating factor to the performance of the after market power cords that run from the power conditioner to the gear?
The reason I ask is that I was about to embark upon some more experimentation with different power cords and where I plugged them into when I discovered that the aftermarket cords I had purchased before and some recent arrivals are actually a meter shorter than the ones that came with the gear. This doesn’t matter for the amp due to its location, but when I did my last power cord upgrade I ran my CDP and pre into a conditioner so the length for those didn’t matter either, but as I was doing the musical chairs with power cords thing today, I also was intending to run the CDP and pre straight into the wall on separate dedicated circuits, but I found out that I am a tad short on those two.
Which doesn’t preclude me from moving my dedicated circuit outlets up a couple of feet, and I suppose I probably will, but I was curious as to the opinions about the limitations of a power conditioners power cord.
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To address the OP’s first question, yes, the power cable from the wall to the power conditioner is critically important, at least that is my personal experience. I recently upgraded the supply cable from the wall to my conditioner/distributor and it was the most impactful cable replacement I have made in my long journey with hifi. Sounds like you are going in the direction of dedicated circuits, but if you decide power conditioning would be helpful in the future, I recommend you splurge on the quality of the supply cable. kn |
The Absolute Sound article posted by @chuck is very thorough and sounds right to my non-electrician ears. I wish it was available when I purpose built my listening room from the studs out 15 years ago, including the power lines from the breaker box. What I got right based on the article is a dedicated twisted 10 AWG twisted Romex line on a dedicated 20 amp circuit - complete with silver paste on the breaker and outlet contacts. What I wish I had done is running one or more additional lines for my audio and video equipment. Oh well, at least the phase is the same to all components. Did this dedicated line make a difference? I think so. My system at the time was a modest powered integrated amp, a CDP, and some Totem tower speakers. Compared to my living room where this system was connected to a non-dedicated 15 amp 14 AWG line, when moved to my dedicated room the amplifier sounded both more relaxed and especially more dynamic. I would recommend using the highest gauge supply cable from the box that is practical, but nothing less than 10 gauge. One note, if you opt for 8 or 6 gauge and are forced to step down in the wall to 10 gauge to connect to your outlet, I believe code will require a junction box. kn |
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