Which Power Cords: I Need Some Informed Guidance

Nasaman,

It's good to hear you have had luck with the Blue Jeans ICs. I have been recommending this company's products for friends who are skeptical of wires that cost as much as their gear because the products appear to be well made and use quality materials. I am confident they will work well, if not expected to extract the last ounce of resolution, air or nuance from hi end systems.

For example, I purchased one of their HDMI cables for my father's HT system. It works great and was cheaper delivered than what they sell for at Radio Shack or the big box stores. Wondering if you have tried any of their speaker cables?

Interesting that Blue Jeans hasn't figured out that Power Cords really make a difference and entered that market. Their approach would be refreshing and have a niche I would think. The owner is a lawyer - maybe he doesn't want the liability of making products for high current application...

"Wondering if you have tried any of their speaker cables?"
- No I haven't and I can't. Because of the room design, I must stay with flat speaker cables can design. Otherwise, with the rounded body ones, they would have to be long to go thru the front wall, pass the wall templates then another set of connectors and conductors to go to the speakers; too much possiblities when testing. With my flat ones like Nordost, they can just be simply slided thru the little gaps of the front entertainment.
- I currently have the BlueJeanCable's Hdmi 1M long in my system; the Belden Series-1.It's great for its price catergory, but it's no comparasion when tested side by side with the Nordost SilverScree 2M long. The Nordost SilverScreen's body is very thick, very hard to "sneak it" around behind my system. After I tested them both intensively, both tips of the Nordost finally came loose on me.
tip of the Nordost

A few things to note if you're going to DIY your own cables, and I've found from practical experience that these tend to be fundamental and similar whether constructing an interconnect or a power cord:

- the type of metal matters (silver vs copper vs ???)
- the guage matters
- the geometry matters (twisted, braided, side by side, etc)
- the insulating material matters
- stranded vs solid vs combined matters
- the connectors matter (and more expensive doesn't mean better here)
- the method of termination matters (solder vs crimp vs both)
- break-in is real, so first impressions may not be correct
- measurements don't nearly tell the whole story, and can quite often be deceiving
- the component you use it on matters (it may be different on one than another)

All this leads me to say that the possibilities are endless, and what may work best for you in one place may not work well at all for another. In the long run, after much time and money and lots of critical listening you will probably come out with something that is reasonably good. Better yet, you will come out with an appreciation of the art/science of the thing and some knowledge and experience you can share with others.

Not an easy road, but then again, you may luck out and develop something truly special. In any case you will surely understand why some cable manufacturers charge $500+ for their cables.

Enjoy,
Bob

From what I have researched these powercords seem to be
a very good bang-for-the-buck:

1. Audience Powerchord
2. Shunyata Taipan (If you can stand the putrid lavender ends)
3. Acoustic Zen Tsunami
4. Analysis Plus Power Oval 10

I ordered a Tsunami myself but it hasn't arrived yet.
I'd love to hear if anyone has done a shootout with these
above powercords..