2. cables
  3. 1146689056

Power Cords on a $1000 budget what would you do?

I am still running stock factory cords and am looking to upgrade. My wife has a very limited patience level when it comes to swapping in and out multiple iterations I am enlisting your help to point me in the right direction. I have 3 power cords to buy. A 6ft length for my power amp. A 3-4 ft cord for my pre-amp and CD/DVD player. My system is outlined below. What I'm interested in knowing is if you had $1000 to spend on 3 power cords, how would you spend it and which cord would go on which componant?

My system is as follows:
Speakers: Proac Studio 200
Center: Proac CC2
Surrounds: Definitive BPZ/A in-walls
Sub: Sunfire Architectural Signature
CD: Denon 2910 (3-4ft)
Processor: Rotel 1066 (3-4ft)
Amp: Rotel 1095 (5-6 ft)
Power Center: Monster 3600 (3 ft)
Tuner: Sansui TU717 (3 ft)
I/C's Pure Note Paragon (Silver) throughout
Cables Pure Note Paragon (Silver) Bi-wire

What would you recommend for me getting started to hear the biggest positive impact? I have worked my way through combinations of Acoustic Zen Hologram and Matrix ref 2 I/C, through PS Audio Statement, and lastly Pure
Note Signature speaker cables. I have found the Paragons satisfying. I have my HT set up on a dedicated 20A circuit with the red hospital grade Hubbel wall outlets. I didn't install the real high priced wattgate,oyaide, etc...
sempaul
tmstamps
20 posts
 
Hearing is believing. I heard the difference in my system. I beleive.
fendergibs
3 posts
 
Samuel,

Double blinded tests are the "gold standard " in all industries to prove if a product/drug does what it claims to do. It weeds out the BS from reality.

I am 100% sure if you got 5 or 10 or your friends together who are skilled listeners and identified the differences between stock and after market power cords that approx only 50% would be able to reliably ID thoses same differences under true double blinded conditions, and as you know a scores close to 50% mean that the difference was due to chance and that the cord had no real difference in the sound. What you thought your heard was the powerful placebo effect.

If you can do it above 65% of the time you might have somthing and you would be the first person on the planet to reliably hear diffences between power cords.
enyoy the rest of your system
fendergibs
inpepinnovations
134 posts
 
In fact people 'hear' the difference between the same cord, somtimes! Yet, these same folks can't tell if the channels on a two channel system have been reversed. Believe me, I have witnessed this at a serious audio shop, trying to demonstate the difference among power cords (or is that power chords?).

Bob P.
tmstamps
20 posts
 
To me, my DCCA power cord brings out the musicality of my system very much. One may have the phylosophy of investing in component upgrade, however, going from a cheap lower guage power cord to a giant 8 guage power cord for only $500.00 is more worth while than chasing the elusive better component than the one that is in my system which is already good. In my case the cdp power cord was the limiting factor. I heard the difference compared to the stock cord. This was my own single blind study.

Oh by the way, placebo effect applies only to drugs in my opinion. In double blind study of drugs, it either work or does not work. Though i may be new to audio (3 years), all cables will work, but some will work better than others. One good example is DCCA cable (8guage) compared to the original $5.00 stock cable (16 guage).
gregm
3,397 posts
 
going from a cheap lower guage power cord to a giant 8 guage power cord for only $500.00
If it's really so significantly superior, why not make it yrself for $5?

There no magic to making a reasonably good wire connector.
More to discover