Power Cords Snake Oil ??

I have to agree with most of Foster_9 posts. Aftermarket power cords are a definite upgrade and can be done for free from most manufactures for 30-day in home trials. Try it out and see for yourself. But as Foster_9 indicates results vary from component to component where some, very few in my systems, just don't offer much benefit. But in many cases I've heard huge upgrade in sound quality in many ways. Experiment and always enjoy.

Sophia Electric Baby amp - the thin cord it came with is the best. I tried replacing it with Shunyata Diamondback, Audio Magic Sorcerer, Audio Magic XStream, Audioquest AC-15, Zu Birth and others and obtained worse result - significantly worse for some of the cords (all the cords made good improvements on their own in other parts of the system). I don't even know if this was the original cord, looks totally generic, might have been hand-picked from a loom by the previous owner of the amp?

If most in this hobby have been weaned off 18 guage lamp cord for speaker wires(maybe not)and use something more substantial,while also using some aftermarket interconnects,I would think that an aftermarket power cord would be the next logical step.

Providing ,of course, that you've heard any differences using upgraded wires elsewhere.

Depending on how your system is voiced,too much of any one type of sonic colourations can be a bad thing.
I wouldn't doubt for a moment that thinner guage power cord could sound better than a thicker one.

The real truth is that you could distinguish a difference and prefer one over the other.
It doesn't matter what the power cord looks like or costs, it's how much you like the sound of it that matters.

Well, there is way more to power cords than meets the eye that's for sure. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many companies out there peddling this stuff.

Since my last post I have experienced a lot of "discovery"

But to cut a very long story down to a more digestible post here's the coles notes version.

I started looking at different cable architectures and figured there had to be one that a reasonably competent DIYer like myself could use.

All of the designs that appeared to get great reviews appeared to have an architecture that avoided parallel conductors.

The problem is parallel conductors...
- passing an electrical current through one conductor will induce electrical noise in the adjacent conductors
- inducing noise into the neutral side of an electrical circuit has a negative impact on that circuits performance

So I set out to see what effect simply braiding the conductors would have.

I went to a hardware store and purchased a 12 gauge extension cord and cut a length of about 6 ft.
- I then stripped the outer sleeve from the entire length to expose the three conductors.
- I then braided the three conductors and installed quality silver plated copper IEC and Mains connectors.

To my complete amazement this very inexpensive power cable outperformed my DIY cable that used high quality Furutech bulk power cable, which also had the exact same IEC/Mains connectors.

A fellow poster on this forum has tried this and also found it's performance to be significantly better compared to one of a very popular brand he had in his system.

Next I stripped the outer sleeve and screening from the Furutech and braided it's internal connectors. The very high quality copper in the Furutech cable combined with good connectors and braided cable architecture makes a power cable that provide an extremely high level of performance.

I have compared the braided Furutech to cables costing many times it's price and found its performance to be very comparable.

This is now my standard power cable on every piece of equipment in my system.
- 10 gauge for the amp and power distribution panel
- 13 gauge for the sources.

The braiding also works to deter RFI

So - are power cords snake oil?

Pretty much, any after market cord will perform better than stock cables.

However, sometimes cables like those supplied with the Sophia Electric Baby amp posted by Cbozdog may well have been designed to provide the best performance.

Using cables made from better quality copper or some fancy alloy will provide some benefit, but the architecture is more important

Cables that are designed such that the conductors are not parallel to each other will perform better than others.

I'm not saying braiding is the best architecture out there - it is the easiest for a DIYer like myself to implement and provides a significant improvement over standard bulk cable alternatives.

If you are not into DIY, then look at the architecture of the cable before you purchase third party products - there are some very good ones out there.

For the DIYers out there - if you want a more affordable cable to Furutech then try DH Labs Power Plus and Encore.
- For about 1/3rd the cost of Furutech you get very close to it's performance ability.

I use Sonar Quest Silver plated copper IEC/Mains connectors from Ebay
- if you want a more affordable alternative try the Vanguard gold plated copper connectors from Ebay

Improvements include faster dynamics, larger image more micro details and deeper bass.

Hope you find it useful

Pierre S. Is a friend of mine but his power cables look as if they would be dangerous. If any of you are electruded please let us know.