Cable Costs Relative to System

The most perfect power cable is only as good as the romex in the wall!. I am sitting in front of my system right now (listening to a GREAt Oscar Peterson CD, I might add), contemplating a fancy power cord. My System is mid to lower cost for this hobby, with about $4400 retail invested with (2) sets of AQ Diamond XLR interconnects and AQ Caldera Bi-wre. (All bought used, total outlay about $1400). My Martin Logans seem to easily reveal the difference between these cables and the MIT stuff I started out with, so I do believe cable makes a significant difference.

I Also have some hospital grade Hubell receptacles. BUT: comming into the receptacles is a dedicated line I ran myself. It is a 60 foot run of 12 gauge Romex, bought at Home Depot. It connects through a Square D Breaker. The breaker is mounted to a plated copper bar in the breaker box, which then runs to the service. It Goes through the utilities meter.

So, If I buy a perfect power cord, the best it can do is take the power the 3 feet from the wall receptacle and deliver it to the amp.

Now, My classe 301 came with a fairly decent ICc cord, as did my Audio Research LS 16. I Think both of these cords are way better than the wire in the walls, and they sure seem like they would have less loss than my breaker box.

It seems like my cables should not be the limiting factor in my power system, so, I don't see why I would want to spend money to "improve" them.

Actually, the best money I spent yet on my system was the Tube Traps and other room tuning. I think, dollar for dollar, the biggest improvements can be had with room treatment.

Just my 2 cents. I will duck now in anticipation of the flames to follow;)

Let me have my 15 minutes of fame. We live in a less than perfect world. The only thing constant is change. Mistakes have been made & theor dis proven but what we hear and see can not be totally relied upon as TRUTH. Conserning the powercable. The device is only an extention of the power company that energy is transfered from and thru many substations & routes before it enters your home and finds it`s way into your system. No matter how refined the the electronic instrument is it shares the same energy matter that is common to all. We can not improve upon this at the present time unless we generate our own power which is possible if we have the cost effective means and the dollars to spend. Perhaps this has been tried. I don`t know. Any one who reads this and has ventured into or has knowledge of the same please advise. It would be interesting reading. As for the POWER CABLE QUESTION ??? After reading some of the threads I thought., HEY ICAN DO THIS MYSELF. Considering that all of the electrical service into my home was generic and copper ROMEX was behind the wall why not just extend the ROMEX as close to the system as possible and this would solve the whole problem. BUT being the finiky person that I am this was my answere to my own question to the neverending quest for perfection in Audiophileland. FIRST. A dedicated line was installed from the breaker/fuse box useing generic 12/2WG ROMEX. Making sure that the connection(s) in the box were clean and positive. Chemicals used to clean the wire was NoOx and De Oxit. The romex was routed as far as possible from all other wire to isolate it. The romex was threaded thru 1/2" copper household plumbing water pipe. In line prior to the wall receptical I obtained a DU-3 isolation transformer. I then installed a steel duplex receptical outlet box and used a 20 amp GFI dupex recepical. SECONDLY: I purchased a 5/8" copper shielded steel ground rod and hammered it into the ground. Next, I installed a ground wire to it and connected the ground wire to the copper pipe outside shielding to bleed off and RFI / EMI. THIRDLY; I made the connections in the receptical box makeing sure all connections were clean and with the use of DeOxit to perserve the same. NEXT. To extend the power from the receptical I used 12/3WG ROMEX and threaded it thru a lenght of FLEXIBLE CONDUIT. This was tricky but paste floor wax on the Romex helped. After the ends were cut & making sure I had enough wire to work with., I installed HUBBLE HOSPITAL GRADE connections on the respective ends The THIRD WIRE within the BX cabel was stripped on lthe end and bent back to make contact with the BX conduit. Thid served as a dielectric to reject RFI/EMI. My first instrment to plug into the service was MONSTER CABLES HTS-2500 MkII. All other components & instruments were pluged/connected into the system. Upon turning the system on the improvement was to my satisfact -ion and the noise was lowered much more than it had been before. Let me tell you this: It is so quiet that you can hear a mouse pee on cotton!!. SUMMING EVERYTHING UP. I would like to share this with you. You ask God to let you see straight and write strait. "A critic can neither see straight or write straight until he comes to terms with who he is, until he faces== indeed, embraces==the realization that what he knows, how he came to know it, and how his mind deals with the knowledge and how he presents it to others are all inescapeably individual, unique, and "SUBJECTIVE" that any other approach to his duties is mere dissembling". This is just food for your thoughts when reading others opinions and reviews and one must in his oun mind when evaluating the same -"Consider The Source" Thanks for your valuable time

just a few thoughts,if you are wanting to stop the noise look into acme true power conditoners and i am not sure what the gfci will acheive in that application

Why should it matter how much you spend on cables, as long as it sounds good in YOUR system?? I was looking at some new Purist Audio Cables. The new Musaeus 10ft bi-wire sells for about $550 and sounds better than the older Purist Colossus (about $1700) But according to your post here maybe I should spend for the inferior Colossus because the price is closer to my system value. Foolish...I will spend 550 and get a better cable.
Why does it always have to be about cost......What about sound, thats what I am going for!

As a response to Meta's question: "Is there anybody using
$50k audio system. If yes, please
let us in on the magic."

Well, my system is only $40K, and my wire is anything but
"magic," but since no one else has answered:

Wadia 860 CDP
Panasonic SV-3700 DAT
Fanfare FT-1A tuner
Audio Research LS-5mkII preamp
(2) Audio Research D-400mkII amps
Kinetic Audio Labyrinth speakers

All ICs/cables are DIY:

Canare L-4E6S balanced ICs with Neutrik gold-tip XLRs for
sources/preamp/amps. Parts cost: $10 per 6ft pair. Total
system cost: $50.

Canare DA-206 AES/EBU digital ICs between CDP/DAT. Parts
cost: $15 per 6ft pair. Total system cost: $15.

Canare 4S11 speaker cables. Total parts cost: $15 per 10ft
pair. Total system cost: $30.

No "upgraded" power cords or power conditioners.

Total "wire" cost for system: $95 or 0.2% of component cost.

As I mentioned in another thread, I used to swap out cables
a bunch in my previous system (XLO 3 was the last brand
name) before my system became fully balanced and I started
rolling my own ICs/cables.

Now I'm not going to tell you that these are the best ICs
and/or cables, etc. I will tell you that in my system I
have never bettered the resolution I achieve with my current
Canare ICs/cables. That includes other DIYs and brand names.

Maybe it's because they're DIY? Maybe it's because balanced
systems are less sensitive to cable differences? I don't
profess to know the answer, only that it has allowed me to
get off the IC/cable merry-go-round without looking back
once.

But, the more important question: system investment vs.
music investment. With approx. 1700 CDs my total music cost
is somewhere near $20K (assume $12/cd) or 50% of my system
cost.

Right now (and for the past few years) my main focus is
increasing the music cost beyond the system cost.