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Improve your sound with an outstanding Power Cord

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(@nounours18200_1572789253)
Posts: 223
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Welcome to a well known discussion in the audiophile community: the cables !... Audio cables have already been a hot topic for years, but when it comes to power cords, then the polemic is even bigger...

Most of the people believes that a power cord cannot make a difference, simply because there are dozens of kilometers of electric cable before the AC outlet feeding your equipment ! these kilometers belong to your electricity supplier... so how can a 1.5 meter of power cord make any difference ??? this is not a stupid question...

To be honest, I have always believed that the "audio power cord" or "improved power cord" is a new concept simply invented by audio manufacturers/distributors to make (even more) money ! and when I see some power cords costing 1.500$­­­­­­­­, I still believe in it ...

But as an engineer and because, when it comes to sonic performance, I have learnt to believe *only* in what I ear, I decided 2 years ago during a particularly cold winter season..., to spend some time on the subject.
And the first thing I did was to replace the original power cord of my THRESHOLD SA/3.9e by a beautiful and big power cord containing a RF filter and costing around 250$­­­­­­­­.

The conclusion was very simple: if I had to pay for it, I would have lost 250$­­­­­­­­... because the sound was more "compressed", with less dynamic than with the original Threshold supplied power cord.
So, was it time to stop the experience ?
I briefly thought about it, but there was a huge "but": if this particular power cord generated a loss in sound quality, then there is an obvious conclusion: all the power cords are *not* equal !
This was surprising to me because I believed that the mission of a power cord was simply to carry 110V (or 230V depending on the country) to the equipment.
So I immediately thought: if a power cord can be worse than another, then it should be possible to find one that would be better than the original ... pure evidence...

So I started to learn and read some litterature on the subject, and I decided to manufacture my own power cords. The goal was to evaluate if an improvement could be reached with a reasonnable budget.

My study concluded that the important parameters were (from the most to the least important):

* the gauge of the cable (particularly when the "power hungry" devices are concerned, eq amps)
* the quality of the dielectric
* the ground connection and the cable topology
* the ground loops management (this will be explained in a dedicated coming article)

over the pasts years, I have learnt how the manage the last point, but also how to optimize some major components, mainly the CD converters/drives, preamplifier and amplifiers (particularly the Thresholds).

The most difficult caracteristic to fnd when I searched for the raw cable, was to find a cable with a good dielectric. As you may know, the best dielectric is Teflon, but it is hard to find cables with a Teflon dielectric, particularly if you are not ready to order 500meters of it, and if you are looking for a relatively big gauge.

Provided that this power cord is supposed to feed power hungry devices (Threshold amps), I wanted a bigger gauge than the original cable, so I searched for an AWG-12 cable.
Provided that I already knew how to optimize the ground connections, I searched for a cable with only 2 wires, as I did not need a ground connection at the device side.

The best cable I found was the BELDEN reference 83802.

It is an AWG-12 cable, with Teflon insulation, only 2 wires, available in a cryogenic version, and having a shield around the cable (this is important when you plan to use cable without connecting the Ground). It is not easy to find at retail, but it is possible (supplier is proposed later on in this article).
The BELDEN 83802 looks like a red and very rigid cable:

The Belden 83802 is an extremely rigid cable...

The Belden 83802 is an AWG-12 cable. This means that the gauge of this cable is big. You will se later on that this an advantage regarding the dynamics, but this has an immediate consequence: the connectors chosen on the AC side and on the component side must be able to accept the AWG-12 wires; and this is not so common...

But before talking about connectors, let's talk about the cable topology. I do not say that this topology is the best one (I know it does not), but I strongly believe that you will have (very) hard time trying to find a better power cord at a comparable price !...
If you find one, let us know what it is !

The cable presented herebelow is primarily used for our THRESHOLD amplifiers which prefer to not have a ground connected. Remember the warning at the begining of this article: your HiFi equipment should be connected to the Ground...
I am not going to explain why this topology is chosen, ...

My system is described here / monsystème est décrit ici : http://www.thresholdlovers.com/articles.php?lng=en&pg=2158

 
Posté : 07/06/2008 8:52 pm
(@nounours18200_1572789253)
Posts: 223
Reputable Member
Début du sujet
 

Hi Mike,

As you say, "Theory can be overide by our ears"... and I follow this rule, because I not always explain the reason of an improvement, but as long as there is an improvement, I am satisfied !

Sorry for my English, but what do you mean by "hard wiring" ? do you mean that you use nude cable inside the electronics, instead "ready to use" internal cables ?

My system is described here / monsystème est décrit ici : http://www.thresholdlovers.com/articles.php?lng=en&pg=2158

 
Posté : 08/01/2012 7:46 pm
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