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A not sarcastic question for the power conditioner/upgraded power cord folks

And I realize that there are those that don’t believe in either

Assuming you use a power conditioner and after market power cords, do you feel that the power cord from the power conditioner to the wall might be a limiting or even a negating factor to the performance of the after market power cords that run from the power conditioner to the gear?

The reason I ask is that I was about to embark upon some more experimentation with different power cords and where I plugged them into when I discovered that the aftermarket cords I had purchased before and some recent arrivals are actually a meter shorter than the ones that came with the gear. This doesn’t matter for the amp due to its location, but when I did my last power cord upgrade I ran my CDP and pre into a conditioner so the length for those didn’t matter either, but as I was doing the musical chairs with power cords thing today, I also was intending to run the CDP and pre straight into the wall on separate dedicated circuits, but I found out that I am a tad short on those two.

Which doesn’t preclude me from moving my dedicated circuit outlets up a couple of feet, and I suppose I probably will, but I was curious as to the opinions about the limitations of a power conditioners power cord.

immatthewj
knownothing
1,821 posts
 

@immatthewj I guess my point is that there have been some technological developments in power cables and conditioning since your conditioner was designed and built. In theory, hard wiring a power cable to your conditioner would be superior to an IEC connection. But the improvements in design over time in conditioner and cable technologies from companies like Audioquest and Shunyata (which have very different design philosophies) are stunning - especially at the highest form of the art.

Getting an updated power conditioner with an excellent supply cable would provide a noticeable improvement in sound if you ever decide that having a conditioner in your system is a route you want to go. Sounds like you are leaning towards dedicated circuits.

kn

duckey's avatar
duckey
38 posts
 

Are these power cords that look similar to a Audioquest etc..that you can find on eBay a bad choice or are they adequate ? 

knownothing
1,821 posts
 

@immatthewj denial is a 12 gauge river on the path to disenchantment.

knownothing
1,821 posts
 

@duckey try them, you might like them.

devinplombier
1,677 posts
 

@duckey there was a long thread on here about a low-cost cable brand called Preffair. Their power cables are in the $40-50 price range on Amazon.

Folks seemed to think that they were well built, and that in certain cases they sounded as good as brand-name cables selling for 10 or 20 times more.

At that price they're worth a try, why not? They certainly beat the black molded-plastic cord that came in the box.

Some caveats would be to check that the conductors are really copper and not copper-plated aluminum, and that the advertised 12awg wire is not 18awg buried in extra thick insulation.

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