Most Beneficial Cable Upgrade

Back to the original question (novel idea, no?)...

Elizabeth’s original post is consistent with my experience. And I can’t say it’s exactly surprising; it is prioritizing the cables which handle the audio signal directly when they are at their most critical (ie. low voltage / current).

I have gone a step further and essentially eliminated speaker cables; my monoblocks are behind my speakers, oriented in such a way that the binding posts line up and there’s two inches of DIY copper foil “cable” in between the amps and the speakers. Always amazes me how so few others with monoblocks take this approach; the speaker cable is effectively gone (effect on sound AND the cost).

I have also found that the better quality your AC is, the less power cords matter. I have three dedicated runs of cryo’d Romex for my system. Preamp, TT, and SACD are on a PS Audio regenerator; monoblocks have dedicated balanced power transformers and hot to neutral capacitive filters. In this setup, I have tried some very expensive power cables, mostly out of curiosity, and heard absolutely zero difference...no joke. In lesser setups, such as when I was an apartment dweller and couldn’t have dedicated runs, there’s absolutely a difference, sometimes large.

So maybe the best way to prioritize cables is to do what you can to eliminate them altogether or reduce their effects? Just a thought.

I agree with Stanwals post. As my gear improved, i heard more minute differences in the various power cables, ICs, and speaker cables that i had missed with less revealing gear. SO, in my ignorance, i thought power cables are where ALL the money should be spent. Power cables IMHO, do seem to offer the biggest immediate 'change' to the sound as a whole even when having a budget system. However, as a system evolves, I find that the signal cables are more important to get down first as they seem to offer more 'information' to come thru with a system with more resolution. The powercords cant help me with that nearly as much. Hope that make some sense. Just my two cents!

my first experience with power cords is when I replaced stock cords with DIY VenHaus cords, the soundfield opened up a tremendous amount and definition improved across the board.

a huge improvement for $65.00 each!

Matjet,

Have you designed the blind power cable experiment yet? For those of us interested in seeing how it pans out, understanding the process would be helpful in understanding the results. Things like the music you plan to use, the system used for testing, and if you have a 2nd or 3rd person, in addition to the person switching cables, available to listen and compare with you.

The last update was you had cables on the way and would report back. Any updates?

Greg

I expect delivery of some new equipment tomorrow. My dealer promised to bring some high end power cables to audiition.
I have all high end equipment, including speaker cables and interconnects. All of my amps (All Krell evo e series for home theater and stereo music) are on seperate dedicated 115 amp lines. I never bothered upgrading my stock power cables, and I have never compared power cables, it has simply not been a priority for me. However, I am curious to see if changing power cables will make an audible improvement (to my ears). My plan is very simple, I will try differenct cables, short term and long term (a few days). I will try some blind and nonblind switching (with help from my wife). That is the best I can do. I have no recording equipment, so I will not do anything elaborate with reordings as mentioned above. I doubt recording with a microphpone would help since recording in this manner will add conditions which will affect sound.
I must admit, I do have a pre-audition opinion. I have been buying high end audio equipment since the early 1970's. Some changes are exremely subtle, some are very dramatic and rewarding. I think the change will be so subtle that I will have to really strain to identify the improvment. This would leave me uncertain (which I consider inconsequential). I will upgrade if I can detect an improvement. I hope it does make my equipment sound better. Like everyone else here on Audiogon, I am constantly looking for ways to improve the sound of my equipment. I will approach this with an open mind. We have had a very mixed response on this thread. Some people feel very strongly that power cables make an obvious improvement, others think it makes no difference. For me, this is all fun. The audition may take me a couple of weeks. I will let you know.