Best Powercord for a TV?


Hello everyone,

So my question is whats a good powercord for a tv? I recently upgraded my LCD TV and plasma tv with Richard gray powercords and they actually made the picture worse compared to the stock cord.

I had a ps audio powercord and a old transparent cable powercord that I tried as well and although they where better than the Richard gray, the picture quality was not that good.

For some reason the powercords made the black color look weak and choppy.

Are newer tvs made differently than older ones? I remember upgrading my plasma tv years ago with a transparent powercord and it made one hell of a difference.
Any suggestions?
soundsvision
I use a TV on the backyard and for outdoor TV you should use a higher quality cable so the weather can't damage it. Well, as one of the factors, you also need to use the cover for the TV.
Soundvision - I plug my tv into a Panamax conditioner - switched outlet

But the Panamax has an upgraded power cord with a plug with gold plated copper contracts

I just tried silver plated copper connectors like these and they work extremely well
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/SONAR-QUEST-CRYO-Ag-Audio-Grade-Silver-plated-IEC-plug-Schuko-plug-/130856829251?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item1e77acc143&_uhb=1

Hope this helps
Soundsvision,

I have a Shunyata Hydra that I use for my home theater and it is even better than the plug into the wall. Color saturation increases and images appear to have added dimension. If I used high current amplifiers I would plug those directly into the wall. I have installed a whole house surge protector at the mains and could neither hear nor see any degradation. Of course, YMMV.
What is it about surge protectors make the LCD
picture quality look so bad? Because that doesn't happen with my Plasma. I am still in shock to finding this out....
I agree with that statement and in my own experience had similar degradation with my Panasonic Plasma from surge protector.

Power cord did make a difference on mine, not as big as the HDMI cable but certainly visible. Due to length and cost of good audiophile cable I instead choose Belden 19364 shielded and added my own connectors.

Nice upgrade and cost consummate to the value of my TV.
Jedinite24, you my friend just answered my problem, in trying to replace my powercord I kept seeing no difference or a worse quality of picture. After reading your response I decided to unplug my LCD from the Richard Gray 1200 and the Sub-station and plugged it directly to the wall with an upgraded cord as well as without an up graded cord and the difference was night and day.

What is it about surge protectors make the LCD picture quality look so bad? Because that doesn't happen with my Plasma. I am still in shock to finding this out....

Williwonka, do you connect your TV straight to the wall?
For my Samsung LCD TV from 2008 I have used an original Belden based Volex 17604 power cord and I found the colors to be more vibrant and the picture more crisp. Things got too detailed when I plugged the Samsung with the Belden cord into my Tice Powerblock though
I inserted an old Electraglide Genghis Khan PC into my Samsung HDTV and the improvement was breathtaking! Colors were more saturated and picture much more realistic.

Neal
I bought a tara lab ac reference that's suppose to be for a tv and it indeed made a difference on my Samsung plasma but not my Sony LCD.

I even tried it in my sons 22 inch LCD and no difference at all, then I went to my brothers house and connected it to his LG plasma and it made a difference in color and most importantly blacks.

I then went and bothered my cousin and replaced the PC on his projector and it made a difference as well..

So, has anyone changed their LCD PC and noticed a difference?
I never thought about replacing the PC on my Samsung Plasma TV so I went and dug up an old GTT PC (nothing dramatic-14AWG vs. 18AWG) and yes, I now have a much better picture. Thanks for starting this thread.

I believe my lying eyes.

All the best,
Nonoise
I'm using a Pangea 14SE on my 42" Panasonic Plasma. Huge improvement over the stock cable that came with it.
Tls49 - been there suffered that :-)

Better hearing? - maybe - different hearing? Definitely!

Actually, my sister and I have omnidirectional hearing, but my brother and other sister has uni-directional hearing.

Unfortunately for me my wife has uni-directional - she can hear me talking at a thousand paces (seems like that) - but she has to be facing me :-)

Like the dutiful husband I always walk 10 paces behind her :-)
Here's a novel idea: offer the OP what he asked for (the names of cords
you have actually used) and then let him hook them up to his TV and use
his own eyes. They work or they don't.

Or we can go with the usual circle jerk about everyone's pet theory. ;-)

A $100 Shunyata Venom PC visibly improved my Sony Bravia HDTV's
color saturation and reduced noise in the picture. My parents saw the same
results with their Sony's. No idea whether it will or won't do that with your
brand and model. And that's all I have to say about that.
Yes I have to agree with women having better hearing but not for audio in my experience, only for when we mumble about them while walking away....

I think the sheilded computer powercord is worth giving a try, I will check that out for sure.

I was just surprised that these expensive powercords don't work for tvs, which is why I mentioned are they audio only.

Thanks for all the answers guys, lets see what happens...
But I got damn good hearing :-)
Williewonka, be careful, you do realize women have better hearing than men. Let's just hope this doesn't happen to you.

Now hear this
.
Watch out, now someone is going to come out with aftermarket cords just for TV's.
Try a cord you have for another piece of equipment, if you can see a difference buy one for your TV.
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when my wife...

I can't tell you how many times that line has been used to justify a purchase or tweak.
I put a 15 gauge furutech power cord on my lcd tv - when my wife saw it she asked, and I quote "what did you do to the tv"

When I told her about the power cord she said she thought I'd been messing with the colour and contrast - more vivid colour and very white whites. Nope, only the power cord.

Funny thing is - she had to point it out - I hadn't noticed until she mentioned it.

But I got damn good hearing :-)
I went and got from a computer store a generic/standard 18 ga. SHIELDED power cord. It seemed to have made a difference from the unshielded version. In my case w/my TV (LG 42LD 520) the picture quality is superb. Don't feel the need to "upgraded" the PC any further.
In general terms, audio aftermarket power cords are specifically designed to alter the sound so audiophiles FEEL and HEAR DIFFERENCES. It's a HARD task to achieve. One has to emit so much of EMI of specific form so it will bring pleasant distortions reachable to component inputs. If we starts speaking of such powercords at each of component, the EMIs will superpose and create even larger difference. You'll often see here ones recommending to get aftermarket cords nearly for every component same or different brand to 'FEEL DIFFERENCE'.

While for audio it considered to be a 'good toy', for video
I don't think that it's a good idea for TV at all. Most of the TVs nowdays using computer grade power cords and they seem to be working OK.