Aftermarket power cable for power conditioner?

Ggaylin, You made a very good point.
I keep an open mind and I will try anything if I think it will improve the sound.
How many remember the $1.20 tweak. It involves 4 quarters and 2 dimes which makes $1.20. The quarters are placed in the front left and right corners of the speaker and the dimes are place in the center between the quarters at the front edge of each speaker.
Try this and listen for a while. Then remove the coins and see if you hear a difference. This would work best on a conventional speaker cabinet. I don't think it would work on Vandersteens.
You have nothing to lose by trying it. If you don't hear a difference you still have your $1.20.
I tried this on a pair of JBL L-300 speakers when I was using a single ended amp. It was in the early days of single ended and there wasn't much in the way of speakers for low powered amplifiers yet. The L-300 turned out to be a good choice with it's high quality drivers using Alnico magnets and it was truly a full range speaker. Anyway, the $1.20 tweak made more than a noticable difference on that speaker.

There was another tweak that was very affective. Does anyone know what happened to Microscan? It was a devise that attached to the back of the speaker cabinet to absorb cabinet resonance. This was a very good and powerful devise. I used them with terrific results and I gave a pair to a friend who attached them to the bass cabinets on his Martin Logan Monoliths and he said it was the biggest improvement he had ever made to any system.
Microscans disappeared for a while then came back under another name, I believe it was Technisonic. If anyone has information about this product I would appreciate hearing about it.

By the way, I do have a favorite power cord that comes in a variety of types and sizes. The name is Beldon.

Another rant From your local “on & On” member….on the futility of perfectly optimizing system components with cabling….

Yet the reason to at least try.

The only note I’d add here is about the ‘trying’ aspect of cabling. Power cords or Ics…. Or for that matter, speaker cables, in order to optimize a system…. Not to patch over glaring issues.

The prime issue with cabling, once one actually tries decent cabling and realizes they do affect the sound, is the sheer combinations of brands and models available to be ‘tried’!

It’s more than daunting! It’s mind boggling!

No one can or could ever infuse, examine, accept or reject all the possible itterations, and their subsequent possible combinations even with a integrated amp and a single source!... let alone a system comprised of all separates with multiple sources!!

Anyone who has do let me know. Please.

No one can or will I assure you.

A couple three years ago, I went thru trying out at the onset, just 6 or 7 brands and/or models within those brands, and wound up auditioning about ten in all. It tooke me about 7 months or better as some were brand new and required run in.

Listening to the same dozen or so CDs for the better part of a year is towards the end, sublime torture. One must consider or try merely one at a time too, if actual changes or improvements are to be recognized.

Looking back as I approached the end of the trials, I felt I could conceive of possible previous combinations for future applications, which then were untried as solutions… So that would have been just guess work. True enough, some inkling of their own voice was achieved as I did use more than one system very often to glean results of the wires from, though the combined effect of brand X + brand Y in truth, remained a mystery, in spite of the educated hypothesis’s I could then surmise..

A systematic approach is required IMHO for integrating either components or cabling into an audio rig. Pick an end to start at and go from there..

Same + same throughout is easiest. Same brand + different models comes in second place for optimizing as it’s more difficult, but I’d think better chances for gain would be had that way. More pertinent results too, as each device is being considered at greater lengths.

Thereafter comes the various brands and various models in those brands for optimizing each and every individual device. Naturally that means both the IC and PC attached to it!

This latter method appeals to my more masochistic tendencies. This route is the most arduous and time consuming, and yes… it’s pure guess work at times, until the proper brand/model is attained…. And that end may or may not ever come to pass…. As again… there’s too freakin’ many wires out there to contend with!!!!

Yet even then, the end result derived at with as much objectivity as is possible, remains a subjective and imperfect product.

If you could run through them all, by that time, therre’d be further iterations of what you’ve already tried out awaiting their own turns in your array!!

So my best guesstimation of how folks do what they do with power cords, conds, and cabling, is that they push along to the limits of their paitience and then settle, or compromise. On something, somewhere. Or they give up completely and toss in for another component instead. Some won’t do that much. Other’s will throw pennies at their pricey collection and expect premium effects.

Or, as was said, by “pasting” over some irritating sonic deficit, or attenuating some other minor issue. Without such compromises I’d have blind squirrels juggling butcher knives in my brain all the time… as that pit has no bottom. Then and there, the ‘fun’ is entirely evicted from the past time. And severe disappointment moves right on in.

So I, and dare say, ‘we’ must compromise. Somewhere, on something, to some extent. How much though, and in which area (s) seems the real questions each audio nut answers routinely.

BTW The shortest road of all is to simply never try a particular aspect of audio as it might interfere with preconceived ideals, training, knowledge, and or simply makes no sense at the time to the rig builder..

Of course, to never strive .to gain personal experience and continually debunk or condescend such a prospect, is how ignorance really thrives, and prejudices rise up.

I feel there’s tons of very good to great gear out there for sure. Spending time eeking out it’s highest potential performance level takes time and care with wires, isolation, and possibly addressing the incoming power line faults and artifacts. IMHO that’s as valuable as is the synergy between components, and the matching criterium some devices have as prerequisites. Don’t do these things, and the truth of them remains an unknown, and the best your gear can hand you is never going to be your’s.

Nemesis,

I am not familiar with the conditioner/distributor you mention but in
general, for those using non-current limiting power distributors (those that
do not limit instantaneous impulse current)-- the power cord running from
the box to the wall is often the most critical in the system.

The reason for this in general terms is that this one PC is responsible for
feeding the current load for all upstream electronics. The more electronics,
the higher the current load, the more important the quality and measured
impedance, reactance, conductance and gauge becomes.

In essence, the design characteristics that _should_ be a part of a proper
cords construction are magnified because it will affect every component's
interface with AC upstream.

The simple analogy to consider would be plugging class A bias mono amps
into a passive conditioner or power strip with massive 7 gauge cords while
out the back is a 16 gauge belden to the wall. That is an extreme example of
folly, but there are many cases where several line components with good
cords are plugged into a box with a stock cord for eval and the conditioner
gets the blame when the bottleneck is actually the inferior feed cord to the
wall. That will always be the potential weak link in any single AC line power
system. In other words, the more dedicated lines the better.

A small digression --
Separating high-current (amps) from low current electronics on dedicated
lines is by far the best gift you can give to the potential performance of your
system. Digital and analog are _not_ the worst system mates per
longstanding audiophile mythology. It is high current and low current that
benefit the most from AC separation.

Some people make the mistake of taking amps off their own dedicated line
when the buy a conditioner so that they also benefit from
protection/conditioning and this always spells disaster. Amps pull very hard
on an AC line and off the crest of the sine wave. The more electronics you
have on a shared line the more difficult it is for electronics to draw current
efficiently--especially amps off a single 20A breaker shared by low current
source and line level electronics. Whenever possible find a separate line for
the amps and their performance will increase dramatically.

In my experience, the best power cord--or equal to the best cord on
electronics should be running to the wall from any power strip or passive
conditioner. Transformer, choke, coil and regenerator based power
distributors have also proven to benefit from better cords but probably to a
less obvious degree because of their internal current management.

Regards,

Grant
Shunyata Research

Has anyone tried a different power cord from the wall to a Furman IT Reference 15i?

Tlg--yes I have refIT 15 and 20 used the 15 first in my 2ch system then moved it to HT and went with 2 of the ref IT 20 for my 2ch system have played with a number of pwr cords--email me and I will give you all the various results Rich