Advice needed on power cables, wall warts, conditioning, electrical outlet


Hi everyone,

I would appreciate any advice on power cables, wall warts, power conditioning, better electrical outlet,  etc. 

If I have a power conditioner, with all of my equipment plugged into it with their stock cables, would upgrading the individual components’ power cable, wall wart etc. really help to improve the sound quality?  If yes, in what order of priority would you suggest?  Looking to make some low/moderate cost "tweaks" where it makes sense.

FWIW, here’s my setup:

  • 15 amp dedicated electrical circuit with standard home grade grounded electrical outlet.
  • Furman PL Plus-C power conditioner (repurposed from my music equipment studio rack) plugged into this AC outlet.  (Furman has a hardwired power cable, so I cannot easily swap it out)
  • All of my audio equipment plugs into the Furman: e.g. integrated tube amp, DAC, Sound Expander, ethernet to optical converter, Sonore Optical Rendu (feeds the DAC via USB), and Small Green Computer Roon server.
  • All components have their respective manufacturers’ standard issue power cord or wall wart.  (Sonore Optical Rendu with their Small Green Computer standard LPS).
  • TrendNet ethernet switch, not on the conditioner and uses wall wart.  CAT 8 to upstairs to my Asus router also wall wart and not on conditioner.
  • Asus router to Verizon FIOS ONT via CAT 8 ethernet.

Any advice and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

bogbeat

Stock freebie black rubber power cords are so bad literally everything will be an improvement. Which one you do first hardly matters. For one thing it hardly matters because guess what? You can move it! PC are like everything else bought on the basis of how they sound. 

So give yourself some reasonable budget, and use that as a filter. No point reading up on $1500 power cords if your budget for all of them is $500. Be realistic. Realize price is no indication of quality. Your goal should be to look for the value leader at your price level, whatever that may be. 

Don't waste time with construction, and for sure don't waste time with "what is the best PC for my preamp/DAC/amp, etc". A power cord is a power cord, they review how they sound because they sound the same wherever. 

Cannot emphasize this enough, stock power cords are garbage. I did a demo one time, the guy didn't believe they could make any difference- until he heard the improvement so obviously he noticed while the record was still in the lead-in groove. Yeah. The instant the needle touched down. That freaking obvious.

So budget, read reviews, then buy.

Now, about those factory fuses....

MC!

Always appreciate your posts ... hey, what kind of cables are you using?  Have you found a particular conductor configuration better than another?  I'm preparing for a DIY project.  Thanks so much ....

Happy New Year!

 

I'd recommend you upgrade your AC wall outlet. There are a lot of good ones available on the market. I personally use the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium, if you don't want to spend that much the Porter-Port sold by Albert Porter on this website has a lot of bang for the buck.

Power cords for sure, whichever ones that are in your price range from: