Benchmark AHB2 Power Cable Upgrade

I have a few of the Audience forte 3 and like them on some pieces. However, I did not notice a difference with the AHB2 and the Audience forte 3.

Hey, I have two of the Amps and BM speaker cables.  I do believe in some power cord upgrades.  In THIS case, albeit, I do not see the value.  I have upgraded old Sony CD Players to better internal, then external possibilities with improvements. These Amps are one of a kind for sure and are not for all, as in any HiFi endeavour.  Recently added the BM preamp, and it easily accepts upgraded cable.  

Happy Listening 

@timothy_m 

I have 2 'x AHB2 with the BM speakon speaker cables. The supplied power cables with the AHB2's had to be replaced as I require UK plugs. BM confirmed that they don't provide cables with non-US plugs. They also confirmed not to spend money on upgraded cables.

Found the following at Amazon and are using it on the AHB2's and the HPA4. They are guitar power cables, 12 AWG, solidly made. I have no complaints.

https://www.daddario.com/products/accessories/cables/power-solutions/iec-power-cable-10/

British cable maker, QED makes power cables that will fit the AHB2's without a problem

Enjoy the BM's! 

@timothy_m 

QED link 

https://www.qed.co.uk/xt5-power-cable.html

@carlsbad2 

The resistance of speaker wire is miniscule compared to that of the speaker that the wire delivers its power to.

For example, here is what the total cable resistance of  10 feet of stranded copper wire vs gauge is:

16 ga - 0.045ohms, 14 ga - 0.030 ohms, 12 ga - 0.017 ohms, 10 ga - 0.011 ohms and 8 ga - 0.007 ohms.

The speaker wire is in series with the speaker resistance which seldom reaches 1 ohm.

For 10 feet of 12 gauge stranded wire, the wire contributes 0.017 ohms independent of frequency (less than 20KHz) the speaker contributes more than 1 ohm at any frequency (most speakers are larger than this, but it is frequency dependent). Since these two resistances are additive, the net contribution to losses and heat in that wire is about 2%. That is negligible.

Even 16 gauge looks to be fine. I use 12 ga stranded copper wire from Belden for my speaker connections just to be done with this issue.

For any reasonable length with any speaker with any gauge of wire 16 gauge and bigger the contribution of the resistance of the wire is not an issue.

Inductance and capacitance have different behavior. If improperly implemented, they could cause havoc with the frequency response. These factors are also negligible in a stranded copper wire properly terminated. Some boutique cable manufacturers have delved into inductance and capacitive loading which, if certain values of these are chosen, can cause all kinds of FR deviations (and other problems).

This works for line level cables as well, with the caveat that cables from the tonearm to the phono preamp must have low resistance (50 ohms or so) and low capacitance (less than 30 pf/ft) so as to not cause a droop in the higher frequencies.