Do I need a power cable - if so what brand?

I used to have a Ultimate Outlet and Hydra and experimented with different powercords. Then a buddy of mine let me use his RSA Jaco. One by one I plugged components into it. 1st the cd player, preamp, and then amp. Each time a noticable improvement was easily recognized. When the amp was plugged in everything came into focus. I never thought a power conditioner could make a large improvement. I ended up buying a Haley.

Almarg, is it possible that a power cord can act like an antenna? Remember that we used to use wire inside a plastic covering to pick up radio signals for our tuner.

Almarg, is it possible that a power cord can act like an antenna? Remember that we used to use wire inside a plastic covering to pick up radio signals for our tuner.

People do sometimes have problems with phono inputs picking up radio signals, due to the very high amplification that follows, the highish impedance levels, and the fact that those lines are directly in the signal path. In fact there are two threads presently ongoing here involving that kind of problem.

But it seems extremely unlikely that a similar situation would arise with a power cord. First, impedance to ground is low, which would tend to "short out" any rf that was being picked up. Second, there is no subsequent amplification. Third, there is no direct path between the ac input to a component and the signal path. Assuming the design is well done, the power supply section would include filter capacitors that have good performance at high frequencies (in addition to the large electrolytic "cans" that provide energy storage and ripple filtering but don't do much at high frequencies). And the amplifier stages themselves presumably all have "decoupling" capacitors that filter out high frequency garbage from the power going to those stages, right at the point of use.

Regards,
-- Al

Satiger (the original author of this thread, we almost forget you,eh?),
Krell and Nordost brand are great but they're no longer on my number 1 pick due to their unique characteristic. However, as a beginer who wants to see if there's any diff, I highly prefer to give Nordost a try. Any entry level models would probably be ok.
Try it on your source (CD,DVD) first.

I recently changed amplifiers and have been a bit dissapointed with the results of the upgrade. Rather than run out and buy a bunch of expensive cables, I am pursuing tweaks such as Room acoustics and power. I admit to being very skeptical about spending absurd amounts of money on wire and interconnects.

So today, I ran out, bought some Romex and added a dedicated circuit for my amp and DAC still using the stock power cable. I have to admit, it did make a difference. My amp is plugged in direct now, the transport, DAC and DVD player are on a power filter/surge protecter, the TV and cable box on a separate plug. I notice an improvement in transparency and separation between instruments, soundstage is clearer. Cost - $15 bucks as I already had an open breaker and the run was 15 feet plus a couple of hours of label running the wire and hooking it up. I may even try buying a decent receptacle!.

Thanks for the reasonable and thoughtful input - there are ways to improve sound without spending a ton of money and buying into the myths - next is DIY acoustic room treatments.