Custom powercords worth the money? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Hargrove]

I am curious as to if a something like a 10 gauge hospital grade powercord can really make a noticeable difference. I see many people on this board who spend alot of money buying these. I think it is actually kind of pointless because the power cord is not what I would consider the weak link in the system. I have 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits with 20 amp wall sockets for my home theater but, like most people, I have 12 gauge Romex from my breaker panel to the outlets. This stuff is copper and roughly 10 cents a foot. Then, there is the feed from the house to the breaker box and before that, the feed from the street and so on... I think the most important component would be something to filter the power coming out of the wall. If you've ever seen it, it at times can resemble a triangle wave with fuzz all over it than an actual an actual sinewave. Even with good filtering the limiting factor is going to be the amount current you can pull through the given wire size in your home. My components that have high current demands have 12 or 14 gauge wiring already. Am I missing something here? If anyone has some expertise on this, please help me out. Thanks

 

[Chu Gai]

perhaps if in someway your equipment is substandard or your present one is in some way defective...then just maybe

 

[Joe Tilley]

I myself don't feel like spending two hundred or more dollars on some of the a power Cord I've is worth it. But I can say that I have made my own cords for my receiver & sub Amp & noticed an improvement over the factory suppliyed 18awg wire. I have used stranded 12awg THNN copper wire with Wattgate connectors in a braided fashion for mine.

I noticed an improvement in bass response & over all sound quality. Bass seamed quite a bit tighter & clean than before & sound quality at high volume levels seamed to improve quite a bit. Where things just started to sound plain flat before they now seamed to come alive with much more detail.

I know alot of this is a bunch of BS to some, but I feel like it made a very good improvement in my system & I'm quite happy with the little money spent on it.

 

[Mark Austin]

Unlike Joe, I didn't make my power cords, but I have noticed improvements in my system after intalling after market power cords. Worthwhile investment in my system? You bet.

 

[James Zos]

Okay, I'm a sucker. What price range do these "after market" power cords come in? I have some IRD monoblocks and some people swear the sound improves with better power cords than what they come with ...

 

[DanaA]

Like anything audio, they may cost several hundred dollars. You might check this one. I've used him for interconnects and my opinion of his work is very high quality for the money.
Link

 

[Paul Gere]

I've bought a couple of cables from the source DanaA links to above. For me, these are great quality cords at a "reasonable" price. NOTE: "Reasonable" is a relative term and can only be defined by you - might be $10, might be $1000.

My $.02

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I have personally had good experience with the Cardas Golden Reference AC cord. when I added it to my system, the background became quieter and the music seemed more dynamic.