Power Cord for Power Conditioner


I'm trying to figure out if it is absolutely necessary to use a company's power cord with their power conditioners. No brand in particular.Any help would be appreciated.
thanks in advance,
128x128commonone69
I have three dedicated lines,two 30 amp and one 20 amp.

I run less than ten feet of 10 guage Romex to two Shunyata receptacles and one FIM.The panel is in my dedicated listening room, no HT., only 2 channel.

I use 3 Annaconda power cords and one Python CX, and use Shunyata Hydra 2 and 8.Also one DIY power cord using the top of the line Furutech recptacles and wires.

My sound has improved,and I don't need to have any measuring devices to prove by how much.
My best indicator is that I listen a lot longer, and my grin is perhaps wider than before I started cleaning up my power.
I should also add that I use HiFi Supremme fuses in all my electronics.

Yes power is a big deal to me.

It never used to be,I was unaware of how much it matters, and I never used power conditioners or upgraded power cords never mind dedicated lines, up until about seven years ago.

But I was happy,and used to scoff at the high cost of this stuff and the claims that were made about it.Things sounded great to my ears.In this case,my ears were playing tricks on me.Or perhaps I had just convinced myself that this was as good as it gets.I think we are all guilty of that from time to time.
Sometimes you need to be exposed to better sounding systems to really get a take on what you are missing out on.

For example,when I heard what paying attention to these things could do for the very first time.

I have a friend with some very expensive electronics and speakers .His system always was way above the rest of our group of audiophile friend's set ups.In fact the total cost of our gear wouldn't come close to his system, and we have some respectable products.
One evening it was sounding even better to all of us,yet nothing we could see had changed.

When pressed for an answer my friend revealed his use of Shunyata power cords and conditioning and a new dedicated line just for the electronics.

This was quite a number of years ago, and at first I thought such improvements would only be noticed on systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, as I had just experienced.

After borrowing some of the power cords and conditioners from a Shunyata dealer, I discovered that even a system much humbler could also benefit from improving the power to the gear.

And so began my journey, starting at the panel and ending at the fuse.

In my experience everytime you do something to improve the delivery of power to your gear, the sound improves along with it.
And having said that, it's cumulative.

Take one of the links out of the chain, anywhere in the chain, and the sound will not be as good as when all the pieces fit.
They work together and now for me, are as important as the speaker amp link. To my ears, improving the power cords make more of an audible improvement than spending large on upscale interconnects and speaker wires.

I presume that some folks think the substitution of a single power cord is all they need to do and if that doesn't knock their socks off they think it's all bunk.

A single power cord will improve the sound of what it's connected to, but you still have other gear in the chain.
If that gear uses standard plugs and receptacles and non dedicated lines,then the improvemnt that a single power cord makes will be less pronounced.

This is my take on why some folks are so anti power cord,they just don't go far enough.

If you can't afford to replace all your power cords with top grade ones, then the next best thing to do is make your own,using decent wire and nice upgraded plugs,make them all the same and upgrade your wall receptacles to at least Hubell industry or hospital grade.

If you then notice an improvement(and you should even at such a modest cash outlay)then you'll understand that taking it to the next level isn't just the stuff of fairy tales.

You can quit there or go forward and spend what you like.
Hi all ! Hate to sound a little harsh here...but anyone who cant hear a change in powercords is wasting their money. I would recommend they go buy an all-in-one system and cut their losses . Btw , I live in the Tampa Bay area...any nay sayers can PM me and I can prove it. (just dont ask WHY IT WORKS , I dont know) brad
Bradluke0 - Noticed on a couple of other posts that you are also concerned about cable resonances if cable elevators are not spaced correctly and believe that cables have a grain structure which dictates a best direction for the cables.
It is your privilege to believe what you wish, but sometimes when the listening results are consistently outside of the boundaries of explanation it might be worth re-evaluating the listening methods.
Jeff have you ever tried any of the things Bradluke is talking about?

I would agree that if you haven't, then this is all voodoo to you.

You'll never hear a difference a quality power cord makes, until you try several of them.

And casual listening isn't going to cut it.

I am sure Jeff is not a casual, passive audio enthusiast.

You need to go old school, which is not in fashion anymore regrettably.

Audio today is all about the music and not the gear, yet how often is the music second fiddle to multi tasking?

Musak comes to mind.
Just a pleasant background to life's more important endeavours.

When someone posts that he made an improvement by doing this or that,it means to me that he is more than a music loving,albeit, background music loving, individual.

He is involved in the hobby, and is trying to find ways to further improve his listening pleasure, which he takes quite seriously, in my opinion.( I could have used IMOP, but I'm old school).

How can it be all about the music, if you are only willing to go just so far?Which saddly for most in this hobby is just turning the power on and running stock.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't find the sense in investing large amounts of money in music software, and then scrimp on the hardware to play it back on.

Somehow to me that defeats the "it's all about the music" concept.
Because without paying attention to quality gear and using aftermarket upgrades to improve the gear,the music suffers.

But, you have to be more than a music loving casual listener.

It has to be more than just about the music.

It has to be how the music reacts to the gear it is being played thru.

What good is thousands of dollars of recordings if the sound is sub standard because the gear is looked down upon?

Gearheads, as those who are chasing after the illusive audio perfection are often referred to,may have less invested in software, but they mostly enjoy more of the music that is on the recordings they own.

In other words, they are getting ,perhaps 30% more of the music they have paid for than the folks who settle for less when it comes to putting together a decent audio system.

I've always felt that until I get my system to the highest performance ,the music will suffer.If I have 9000 less lp's than the music lover so be it,it's how great the 1000 lp's that I own sound that matters most to me.

But I am old school.
Hi all ! A few things are certain , cables sound different when the direction is changed . Cables sound different with elevators and with different elevator spacing (due to string resonance ). I you cant hear this then it does not matter what methods are used . Sorry for being so blunt but I am quite tired of hearing about how wires dont have a sound . Many of us can hear it and many of us cant , just the way it us .