Power Cord Advice

OK theres allot to respond to so here goes........ ALBERTPORTER: It's just your standard romex 10/2 with ground solid core copper house wire.......... Garfish: I got the hubble end from HOME BASE there about $12 (home depot doesn't sell any good ends at all) I also have good levinton ones that I get from the distibutor even though I'm not a dealer or contractor (they don't care as long as I sign somebodies company name). You can get the wattgate from their website and you can spend up to $120 a piece for gold plated ones but I got the standard ones for $30 each from an audiogon member who buys them in bulk. His user name is R32446. He will give you a great deal so send him an E-mail. I don't use a cover but I was thinking about using some shrink wrap to fancy it up. With both ends you push the wire in and screw down a clamp (no twisting)............ DAVID 99: I've only made the one cord and haven't tried it on my source yet I'll let you know when I finish making the next one and carl is done with it. Right now I really like the MIT Z-cord 2 with no other line conditioning.........SOL332: I also changed an end on my Z-cord 2 (a major pain in the butt I might add) I hope you made sure to attach the mesh jacket to the ground wire otherwise your not getting any line conditoning. Anyways MIT uses a very cheap stranded wire in there so if you liked that then you'll love my new cord. I love Z 2's on my frontend but found it made my amp to soft and limited dynamics........EVERYBODY: Please keep this in mind. I have brand new wire running from the street to my brand new breaker box. from there I use 10 guage wire to my quality levinton outlet. I get very clean powerfull electicity. This wire makes sure it gets to my amp as good as when it left the street. If all your other wire in the house is poor than it may not do much. If you have poor electicity and need some serious filtering then the expensive ones may be better if thats what there made to do. .........I can tell you this: Part of my house uses very old stranded wire and my stereo sounded absolutely lifeless, slow, and dull on that line. None of the powercords I used made hardly any difference. Only with the new line could I really test the cords and I found the one I made to be by far the best. R32446 told me an even better thing to do is to not even have an outlet and hook the IEC end straight to the wire coming out of the wall! Carl said he has only fair wires in his house so I would like others to try it out so we can get a few opinions. Please E-mail me and over the next few months I will try to get it to you but after carl you will need to pay for shipping both ways. Have A good weekend everybody I'll be back sunday night.

Kacz: Mesh was connected to ground, no problem there. Thanks for the tip...

I was to eager so I made some time and finished making the other cord and put it on my dac. I like the sound better than my Z-cord 2. It's a little more natural sounding among other small improvements so I won't really have a loner cord to lend out after carl but if he likes it than you guys should probably just go out and put one together. It's cheap and I'm sure you'll keep em. ALBERTPORTER: Please let us know how yours turns out. Anyone want to buy a Z cord 2 for $75?

Actually, I have already tried making AC cords using Romex. It is not bad, after all, it is what is in your walls! I even remember a review from Peter Moncrief of IAR, where he used a four cross (two Romex cables in an X) to build an AC cable. I tried that as well. Also, Tube Research builds a 10 strand Romex AC cable with the large 20 amp IEC connector soldered in place for their GT 400 amps (I had that cable too). All of these are good, but I must confess I prefer the old Tiffany TPC 60 over all of these. And although the Tiffany is now discontinued, it is often for sale at $60.00. To go beyond, I also believe that many of today's more expensive power cords are better than the Tiffany. I don't want to ruin this post with a negative comment, so I would just add that each of you can experiment for yourself, especially considering the small expense involved. After all, if it works at all, it beats the stock cords and you have a backup in case you get a loner piece of gear you wish to test. Last comment, Romex is a brand name, (like Band Aid) there are many types of sheathed copper cables, and there are differences in the sound of each. This will make this somewhat more difficult to test. (Sorry to bring all this up).

Kacz, wanted to clarify that my house wiring is not stranded, but is solid core, similar to Romex, not sure the brand. It is only 12 gauge times 3, however, and all the breakers are only 15 amp. We only have 200 amp power service, also. I don't think this is as much of a drawback as has been made by others, however. Also, I must take issue with your assumption that high quality or "new" cables in your house, or breaker box, would TOTALLY eliminate the need for ANY filtering or conditioning, especially for line level/source components. I feel that there is no such thing as a clean 60 Hz sinewave straight from the power lines (or under-ground lines). Just look at the test of the PS Audio unit, and you'll see how distorted the waveform was before it got to the PS Audio. I've considered trying one, but I think it'll consume too much power for one of my rooms (700 watts?), where both source and amp are on the same circuit. That said, I have every intention of trying your cord both on my source, and on both my Krell and Rogue amps. I like to plug my source components into a Chang Lightspeed 6400. I'll try it with and without the Chang, for argument's sake, though. I have the Z-Cord 2, and believe that it is a 14 gauge times 3, is it not? It has the stock connectors, and since it has beaten EVERY expensive cord I've thrown at it (when used ONLY with the source component), I'm not inclined at all to change the connectors, fearing a loss of synergy (I realize many enjoy doing this, however).............I've noticed that Purist Audio Design, and also ESP, use the Eagle IEC connectors. Do you have an opinion on them, Kacz?..................As far as "tweak freaks" go, I would say that I am NOT really in that camp. There are those that believe that interconnects and speaker wires should have conductors literally exposed to the air with no dielectric or insulation, and that speakers should have no binding posts, that the wires would just come out of a hole in the back of the cabinet, and even soldered directly into the amplifier (bypass its posts), when possible. I admit that binding posts have a sonic signature much greater than the "wire" connected to them, but there are certain safety and practicality issues that should be adhered to to avoid all sorts of time over-consumption and terrible "accidents", it seems to me.