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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
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shosugi
20 posts
 

bogbeat,

Can you describe the rest of your audio system?  If you have a very complicated setup, it may not be easy to hear differences in power cord, outlet, or power conditioner changes. 

Another way to test for good/bad AC power is with a high resolution video display.  Bad power can show up as visual noise/artifacts.

- Steve O.

mikem
260 posts
 

I would personally ditch the furman and use a BPIT, balanced power isolation transformer. Balanced power works via physics, CMR, common mode rejection. It’s not snake oil, it’s simple and proven.  Just use the right sized unit and allow for headroom peaks. My BPIT is rated for 10x the current draw I am using..  haven’t found anything more effective in lowering the noise floor.

riley804
1,224 posts
 

i would first start with having dedicated outlets installed.....and then see if the power conditioner is really needed or not.   from there, you can experiment with power cords to see if they make a difference or not.

erik_squires
15,756 posts
 

This comes up so often I made a blog post about it:

 

gbryant's avatar
gbryant
83 posts
 
  1. Make sure your electrical system is grounded well. Install additional grounding on your home... assuming you own a home. 
  2. Think of power like water... dirty water.... 
  3. Think of power cables like water filters.... pour in the dirty water, clean water comes out.
  4. Good power supply, cables, etc. 'clean' the power.... lowers the 'noise floor'. Doesn't 'add' to anything.
  5. Put a good quality power cable on your preamp... put in your best source music, listen at low volume and close your eyes. It feels like you are melting into the music. (I assume you have a system that is capable of this if you are considering spending several hundreds of dollars on power cables).
  6. Disregard if you are a 'YouTube cable hater'.
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