High current power cables

It’s marketing, imo. A 12 ga wire will work on any piece of gear. My 1200 Watt amplifier has a captive cord that looks to be a 14 ga wire. My saw pull 13 -15 amps and I ran it on a 12 ga wire. A 14 ga would work for short distance ie 30 ft. And I’m pretty sure a 14 ga would work on most gear except the highest power amps. But as I said earlier, my 1200.watt has a 14 ga.

So if a mfg has a 12 - 14 ga cable, it would be appropriate for all gear. However if a buyer believes that a 10 ga is necessary for their amp, they will pass by the 12 ga for the 8, 9, 10 ga of another mfg. Many times, marketing is determined by what will sell, not what is appropriate. So if the larger ga doesn't make for poorer sound then, it will sell better than the smaller but still appropriate cable.

To me it is a quandary how so many knowledgeable people don't understand the current needs for an amp.  I use 10ga power cables (not expensive ones) on all my amps.  I recently bought an amp and the seller provided the "upgraded" power cable he had been using.  I looked it up and it was more expensive than any power cable I have ever bougth.  It was 17 awg.  I am confident this power cable is why he ended up selling a fine amp.   Also,  I recently bought a small tube amp (differtnt amp), 10 wpc push pull, 14lbs total. It had poor bass performance and I assumed that was because it was such a small, low power amp.  I was powering it with a 14awg power cable.  After several days a friend suggested putting a 10awg cable on it.  Bass fixed immediately.  I'll never use anything smaller than 10 awg on an amp again.  It is not a big expense to put a generic 10awg power cable on your amp.  And if you still have problems, bypass any filter or regenerator.  Plug directly into the wall and do a test.  If that makes it sound better, then replace whatever you have powering your amp.  Power to an amp in very, very, very  important. 

If 12 ga wire can carry 20 amps or 2400 watts, and your equipment uses only a fraction of that, please explain why a bigger cable would provide any benefit.  It's kind of like having a 500 HP engine in your car at the same time the maximum speed limit is 30 mph?  Sure, you've got a big engine but it serves no prupose?  I've never understood the logic of the oversize cable but I'm happy to learn some science behind it.  

The power cable zealots will tell you that it is not only the gauge but the materials and the construction/weave that matters, plus the termination/plugs. I remain an agnostic and leave the stock captive power cords on my gear alone. I did buy a $99 Pangea to use experimentally on one amp that requires an add-on cord. The cable zealots will tell me that I will have to spend $500 at least to hear an improvement. Go figure!

I see in the June Stereophile that the wire agnostic Herb Reichert is now using a $1K Audioquest Thunder power cord, along with some $3900 AQ Thunderbird ICs for his review of the $3K Holo line stage and DAC. Got to keep the advertisers happy!