I won’t weigh in on your rationale for wanting thinner wire for some of your gear but would suggest you reach out to Karl at Empirical Design. I have been using his higher gauge ED-316 PCs for years on my digital players and linestages and love them—much more flexible for routing and sound great. He will work with you on custom cables that will meet your needs and is a no BS guy who understands his work.
Looking For 18awg Audiophile Power Cable Options
Hi Friends,
I'm trying to find some 18awg audiophile power cables and am looking for recommendations. It seems the only ones I can find are of the AudioQuest variety, but I don't like the sound of AudioQuest cables, as they sound too sterile to me (or something, it's hard for me to describe).
I have a music production system and while I use expensive Triode Wire Labs Digital American cables on the DAC, ADC, and production computer/DAW with fantastic and stable results, I've had problems with my other components running on any thicker-gauged cables (powered KRK monitors, microphone power supply, and preamps).
I've tried several different cables on these other components, but I find any cable with a gauge thicker than 18awg results in issues of sound stability. The system needs to run for 12, sometimes 18 hours at a time, and I find that thicker-gauge cables, after about 8 hours, start to render the sound compressed, maybe slightly overloaded, and not as open, which is problematic for mixing and recording.
I started using some 18awg cables with hospital-grade plugs, and while they're definitely a big step up from the stock cables, and the stability of the sound is great, I'm just wondering if there's any 18awg audiophile-type cables out there that would give me improved performance, smoother top end, etc., just from better noise/RFI rejection. The sibilants were smoother when I used the audiophile cables, I think from better shielding, but the stability of the sound of system and vocal chain is of the upmost importance.
It's weird but I guess it has something to do with the digital components handling the thicker gauged cables better for some reason, compared to the analog components.
Any ideas/recs appreciated, thanks for your time!