What do you think of this power cord?


Maze Audio is a family-owned company that states it hand-makes its cables in the US.  There is a range of prices for power cables, but I was looking at this entry cable.  I don’t see any mention of the metal used in the cables, but I don’t know if that is as crucial for power cables as for interconnects.  I am interested in your opinions.  Thanks.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Maze-Audio-Eden-Series-Black-Orange-AC-Audio-Power-Cord-Cable-10-Ga-Audioph...
bob540
When it comes to gauges, I am not sure how it goes. Zu describes their cheaper cables as 9/13/13 and most expensive ones as 9/9/9 and gives other measurements (resistance, etc.). Signal Cable says 10 and that is it. On the picture, they look very similar in size.

Speaking of end-game equipment, Zu lists "Life Expectancy: 100 years+" Can you beat it?
@bob540 , Yes I know about Hanson Audio in Oakwood & also Cincinnati. It is where I got all my Bryston gear through. 

The Maze Audio cords I purchased are a woven design and therefore quite thick. They are pretty flexible though.
Among other things, the weak point of most power cables/connections is heat dissipation.  We do FLIR (infrared imaging) test of cables in burn-in and here are some images:  https://www.onfilter.com/cable-temperature  We use pretty good industrial-grade cables, yet even they "shine" when it comes to a couple of hours under nominal current.
Hi bob540,

How much power does your amp require ? Add up the wattage of all channels (in case you have a multichannel amp) of your amp, multiply that by 2.5 to account for losses and very dynamic music passages and the peak power requirement, and that is how much power you need to draw from your mains outlet. Divide that by your mains rms voltage (typically 120 in the US) and that is roughly your current requirement.

For example, if you have a stereo amp with 300 Watts RMS per channel from a 120 Volt supply:

- your power requirement is (300 + 300) x 2.5 = 1500 watts.
- your max current requirement is 1500 /120 = 12.5 amps.

to be on the safe side, say 13 amps.

Most houses are wired with 15 or 20 amp max Romex mains cable, which will most likely be 12 gauge ( https://www.cerrowire.com/products/resources/tables-calculators/ampacity-charts/ )

So ANY multistrand pure copper wire <= 12 gauge would work. In fact, at the 60 Hz mains frequency, even a solid wire would be much more than acceptable but a multistrand cable will bend more easily and be flexible.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS, YOU DO NOT NEED ANY FANCY CABLES FOR POWER. ANY fully copper cable 12 and lower gauge will work more than satisfactorily.

Having said the above, if your amp is more of a welding machine than an audio amp (power requirement > 2000 watts), then you have to think of using 220/240 volt mains anyway, in which case, all the calculations will have to be remade.

So save your money. DO NOT spend too much on power cords and maybe even speaker cables. Where you should spend your cable money is on properly SHIELDED cables on your phono stages and ANALOG low level signal stages. Also, just like power cords, you do NOT need to spend money on DIGITAL (HDMI, ethernet) cables either as long as they are within the speed specs, they do not bring any benefit, it is all snake oil.

As "turnbown" also very importantly indicated above, make sure whatever you re buying is UL certified unless you want to make your insurance company happy for not having to pay you for the fire which you may cause.