audiphile power cords

I hear a difference with Pangea AC14SE cords on my DACs that I would attribute to lower noise and distortion. This Pangea model is designed specifically for that with line level components, ie source gear and pre-amps.

Power amps are different. More about current delivery capabilities than noise. Pangea AC9 model is for that. I have not tried these to date.

Main thing is always have a clear reason to use a particular product in each case based on problem to be addressed and how designed to address it. All power cords are different. It's a potshot otherwise.

Never buy anything just because it has been labeled "audiophile". That is a useless adjective for describing gear. It may be a good product or not. It may be the right solution, or not. There may be other solutions out there not so labeled to be marketed to "audiophiles" that might work better, or not.

All the "audiophile" label means for sure is that you will likely pay a premium for whatever you actually get.

I have a 502p with a beefy power cord of unknown provinance that somebody gave me, and it sounds great...really great, but attaining a "significant" difference from AC cables might be illusive. I've swapped some high end and less so cords in and out for fun and it pretty much always sounds great regardless. I have it and and another power amp plugged into a PS Audio Humbuster III (more for the other amp which is SS and used rarely for a pair of deck speakers) which has a sensible transformer noise killing design, and having tried various so-called "premium" power cables with very difficult to detect little to no improvement having led me to not give a damn about them. I'm lucky I guess...I do use a PS Audio "garden hose" type AC cord on my REL sub, mostly because it was a cheap used thing and looks cool, but it had no audible effect on the sound of the sub. Good AC wall plugs (again, PS Audio Power Ports) make sense but I'm not sure if the SOUND is better, but the grip on the cable is great so there's that. The claims of what expensive AC cables might do are silly to me, but I do think that better power supplies with chokes and other sorts of filtering can be helpful.

"I've swapped some high end and less so cords in and out for fun and it pretty much always sounds great regardless."

Power cords and similar fringe tweaks have the advantage of not having much down side. They all work pretty well, but performance of gear can certainly vary to an audible extent that might still be better or worse in any case depending on what on starts with and then changes to.

But the differences are subtle on the large scale of things I would say, so its hard to go away unhappy because a power cord ruined the sound.

Same true with other tweaks targeting "audiophile" kooks like us ranging from fringe-to-placebo IMHO like isolation devices, fuses, clocks, flying saucers, even ICs though to a lesser extent perhaps.

At least with wires, fuses and other actual electrical devices, its not as much of a stretch to envision how some difference might result, though proving cause/effect conclusively when it comes to effect on sound quality is elusive at best.

I heard a distinct improvement when I swapped out a stock PC with AntiCable's Level 3 PC particularly with my phono amp - the AntiCable is a braided design which is inexpensive and offers a return policy.

Hi Al2214

I have the same Jolida JD 502P amp that you have. I was using a stock 14 AWG power cord with it at first and then got a Shunyata Venom 3 power cord for about $100. I just had to give it a try as I wouldn't take too much of a hit on resale of that cord. With the Venom 3 in place it was hard for me to notice a difference in sound in my system. I think I've hit the wall with sonic performance for my system. This may vary for you though. With my Jolida I found the adjustment that made the most changes sonically were swapping out the 12AX7 tubes followed by the power tubes.

Audiophile power cords can make a difference as explained by many here but it is very system and user dependent.

If your room hasn't been treated already I'd focus there first before going overboard with tube rolling, power cord swapping or changing ICs and SCs.