Do I need upgraded power cables?


Hello and Good Day

I'm wondering about power conditioners and power cords. Here's my equipment:

Cronus Magnum lll Integrated Tube Amp / Focal Aria 948 DW Speakers / Kimber Kable 8TC Speaker Cables / 2 SVS SB2000 Pro A Subwoofers with SVS Sound Path Subwoofer Cables / Grado Sonata Cartridge / Pro-Ject 2 Xperience SB DC Turntable using the included interconnects / Denon DCD 1700NE CD Player using Kimber Sliver Streak Interconnect / Panamax MR4300 Power Line conditioner and surge protection 

Upgrade the Panamax?  - is it providing anything besides surge protection? Upgrade the power cords for which component? Or do nothing? Maybe my components aren't audiophile enough to justify purchasing upgraded power cords. 

Any advise or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thank you

Bill

 

bzawa

The Panamax certainly isn’t doing you any favors. I’d replace that first with a good conditioner as that would benefit all your components at once and then address individual power cords when you can after that. The EQUI=CORE 1000 offers balanced power at an attractive price and worth a look.

https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/equicore

Both Ice Age Audio and Pine Tree Audio offer high value power cables if you want to explore those. Hope this helps, and best of luck.

You have a nice system and good cables.  What and why do you want to change?

Thanks so much for all of your comments. In response to your questions:
“What and why do you want to change?” Most of the time I'm pleased with the sound of my equipment. The sound stage is wide enough. Voice and instruments are detailed and separated enough. But could it be just a little bit better with the proper tweak? There are times though (especially in dense musical passages) that the sound is stage is a blur - as if of all the instruments are coming from the same place. But maybe this complaint should be directed at the recording not the equipment. Anyway, I hope I answered the question sufficiently. 

“1) do you like your current SQ? 2): are all current power cables original? 3) does the wall outlet have significant IR drop, dimming light etc. when high current load is applied? vacuum cleaner turned on etc.” 
I do like the sound quality of my system. All of the power cables are original. I don't notice any IR drop.

Thanks soix for the recommendations but the Equi=1000 is out of my price range. I liked the Equi=Core 600 but I need 5 outlets. You mentioned Pine Tree Audio - what do you think of their Iso-Power 15A Power Filter?

And thanks to soix and jl35 for pointing a finger at the Panamax.

Again, thanks to all of you

Hi OP,

Panamax and Furman are owned by the same company, and while some features have transferred some have not, and the mix of features per model is maddeningly complicated.

Key features for noise reduction are LiFT and the other is SMP.  Lift is linear filtering and SMP is series mode surge protection.  The latter also happens to work much better for noise reduction due to a variety of technical issues.  Panamax still lists Linear Filtering as a key compnent of some of their models.

Another feature I am fond of is voltage regulation.  Panamax and Furman both have some models with this features.  I believe, but am not 100% sure that the better value among these features is either this one (15A) or this one (20A) but they lack some consumer features like switched outlets.

I _think_ Panamax at one point had a series mode protection model but if so I can no longer find it.

For noise and surge related issues I don't plug any equipment into the wall without them.  Warranty's be damned, I'd rather prevent a surge than file a claim.

Sorry, lets talk cables. Honestly always like to encourage first timers to consider making their own using high quality shielded cables from Parts Connexion.

In an area of heavy use of network and Wifi I like to make sure any cables I build are shielded to reduce the chance of noise coming in, especially after it’s already been cleaned up by a power conditioner.  If you build one and hear no difference at all, or hear a great difference you will have learned a great deal without spending too much green.