Where to put my new power cable?


I just recently purchased a Zu Audio Bok power cable. This will be my first after-market power cable, so I'm not sure what to expect. I intend to use it on my front end component section. What I'm curious about is whether I should connect it directly to my Manley Shrimp preamplifier and then go to my Furman power conditioner, or whether I should hook it up to my power conditioner and then to the wall outlet? I know that, ultimately, only experimentation will tell, but I'm curious as to other's experiences...
iramirez
Jedinite is on the money. There's no hard and fast rule, regardless of what people say. I've bought many a very high end power cord and found the most noticeable results on the preamp, not on the line conditioner. Just break it in, and use on each one for several days to give yourself enough time to become accustomed to the sound. Then switch. The reason I say "days" is that it takes time to become emotionally connected. When you switch them around, you'll know which way affects you the most (which will usually be the path that leads to the most emotionally communicative rendering of the sound). THAT is your answer.
Many thanks folks. I did look through the cable threads previous to posting my query. The reason I posted this one was in the hopes of getting a less ambiguous answer to the question than I found elsewhere. Usually, when I research out a question, I find a sort of consensus that I can use as a preliminary guideline. In this case, opinions seem to be all over the place. As I stated in my original query, I expect trial and error to be the ultimate arbiter. Yes, I intend to let the cable burn in, then I'll move it around for best effect. I think I'll simply connect it to the wall for burn-in, but I think it might eventually be connected to the preamp directly. I'll let you know my impressions once I do.

Cheers,

Ivan
Iramirez, I find it difficult to believe that you ever find a "sort of consensus" on anything. I think people should tell what their experiences are and never say it is the best whatever.

Personally, since you are using a conditioner, I would first try it from the wall outlet to it. After that I have personally found no certain other first trial application.
TBG,

Ha, I mean 'consensus' quite loosely. I know what you mean about not finding it. I own a pair of Zu Essence speakers. Just look up the comments on them; people either hate them or love them, there is no middle ground. I only bought mine once I'd actually heard them at home. There was no way to come to some sort of general understanding based on opinions expressed... Like Lou Reed said, "believe nothing that you hear, and only half of what you see..."

Cheers,

Ivan
Ivan - as people have said it can be a "touchy subject" but I'll wade in anyway, since I have just finished playing with all of my PC's!

I have, what I consider my best cable, on my amp. A DIY Furutech 10 awg cable
- why there, because as I upgraded the other cables I wanted to be able to easily hear any improvements
- plus - it gave me the most noticeable results
- plus the benefits were heard no matter what source played

I then had funds for other cable choices, so I next upgraded the power cable on my power conditioner to a DIY 12 awg DH Labs Power Plus, which powers only my source components
- why there, because when I upgraded the cables on the source components I was able to easily hear any improvements
- again - the benefits were heard no matter what source played
- however I did try it on the amp just to see how it would perform
- it performed as well as the Furutech 10 awg which was 5 times the price
- It's not built to the same "TANK-like" standards as the furutech is,
- but it performs like it! - I wish I'd found the DH Labs cables first!

Finally I upgraded my source PC to a DIY Furutech 15 awg screened cable
- another outstanding upgrade
- the differences were immediately noticeable and what a difference all the upgrades made!
- why back to Furutech? - well, it was previously on the power conditioner :-)

Now all PC upgrades are complete and the system sounds amazing.

Some source upgrades were incremental, but taking this approach allowed me to hear the differences each incremental upgrade made immediately.

During this process I read lots of info on PC's and the reason why PC's work is...
- even though the outlet voltage is constant at 120v...
- the current drawn from the outlet is as dynamic as the audio signal itself
- therefore you need great quality conductors in the mains cable to handle those dynamics
- just like you have good interconnects and speaker cables to handle audio dynamics
- in fact, interconnect, speaker and power cables in a system should all be of the same quality levels
- otherwise the benefits from money you spent on those good quality components/cables is not being realized
- and those that are of a lessor quality become the "weakest link" and
- drags the whole system performance down to that level.

Hope this helps and Good Luck