Doing the Power Cord Thing

erik_squires

I’m not sure I hear anything, but if I do, I would say, enhanced tube like liquidity and delicacy for flutes and violins, darker deeper sound stage and faster energy when needed.


Am I making it up? Was the benefit actually from the power cord and not from re-routing the cables?

My favorite part is the way it went from "not sure I hear anything" to "enhanced tube like liquidity and delicacy" in just one sentence. Addresses bias, humbly expresses self-doubt, and declares victory all at once. Sweet!

Except, hate having to tell you this, but it was the re-routing. Done this a few times myself including last night when all I did was prop up a few cables for greater separation and it was pretty easy to hear the improvement. So your DIY power cable probably made things worse. But everything else you did made things even more better, enough for you to pretend the DIY was worth the effort. But you knew that. "Am I making it up?" Yeah. Sorry.

Which was of course the foregone conclusion. I had a friend spend 30 years toiling away trying everything he could think of all to "save money" and the best he could come up with sounded awful compared to the cheapest one I could dig out of my old discarded cables drawer. Whatever you spent, give it to me and I will send you back a cable that believe me, you will be sure sounds a whole lot better. Shipping included.

But hey! You faced down your fear of lethal voltage! I wouldn’t lose one minute of sleep over the lack of testing. I mean, not like its gonna burn your house down.

Be interesting to hear your thoughts after more break in and comparison to another PC.  BTW, what PCs were you using before?

@soix

The black ones. Except when I was using the white ones.
if you're not sensing much benefit with the DHL cables, why not just order some "better" cables and see if they're any better? 
Well, first, PC is having a sale, these are ridiculously cheap right now, about $50 / matched pair so I'd rather just make a new set, but then, honestly, I'm not an actual power cord believer so $100 into this experiment may be as far as I go.

My favorite part is the way it went from "not sure I hear anything" to "enhanced tube like liquidity and delicacy" in just one sentence. Addresses bias, humbly expresses self-doubt, and declares victory all at once. Sweet!

@millercarbon

I was auditioning for a future post at a gear rag, or maybe CNN analyst. :)

My point was kind of rolled into this. I can push myself to ascribing some sort of benefit even if none may actually exist. I had fun making this cable up. The part quality is really nice, and I got the high satisfaction of building it myself. Is it working? I don't know. Was it worth $100 plus tools to make this? I feel so, even if just for myself.

Best,

E

How about eliminating the plug, and just put in a junction box.

How about eliminating the plug, and just put in a junction box.

Apartment dweller here,and on top of that, I use a Furman between all  my devices and the wall. I'm on the fourth floor. There are so many power cables and junctions between my living room and the transformer it's not even funny.


I'm also not a believer in having a wide-band AC path to the transformer. I want a very narrow band transmission system. So, I will always use a conditioner like Furman which have incredibly low resistance at 60 Hz and very high resistance at 3 kHz. No use for Litz cables for me!

I guess I am confused or just lack experience.  But my question would be if a company can make a power cord for x amount of $ and sell it for $$$$, why would a DIY not be able to make the same cord if given the same exact parts.  To me and I say this lightly without offending anyone, why can't it be done. These companies that make cables have someone actually hand making them, given same parts I find it confusing why DIY would not have the same result,  if you believe cables matter. I dont want to get into the whole cable war, but I have heard a difference with a couple I have demoed.  In the end I kept the one that came with my amp because it the highs became to high.  I am a newb and I dont have the knowledge of you long time audiophiles.