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Affordable Hospital Grade / Green Dot Power Cords - Page 2

post #16 of 85
7/1/01 at 1:30am
DIY is great for speaker and IC cables but I draw the line on power cords!

All power cards must be UL approved! If not, God forbid there is a fire. Insurance companies will then have reason not to pay!

Just my 2 cents!
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post #17 of 85
7/1/01 at 1:41am
For an afordable "audiophile" cable, why not try the $50 Absolute Power Cord?

They can be found here:

http://www.gttgroup.com

I haven't tried them myself but I have read some favorable reviews. Plus, I have a hard time justifing $1000 power cords!
I would first invest that money in power conditioning first.

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post #18 of 85
7/24/01 at 3:02am
Thread Starter 
Reviving an old thread...

I just received a call from Quail to let me know my hospital grade power cord is shipping. I'll let you all know what I think of it when it gets here. I imagine that, quality-wise, it is probably nicer than the stock one on my Max. Whether or not there are any sonic benefits remains to be heard.

I think the shipping cost almost as much as the cord, but that still means that the total bill with shipping will still likely be under $20.
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post #19 of 85
7/24/01 at 8:23am
Hmmm, I don't know, jude. Are you sure hospitalization is the best way to deal with tweaking syndrome?
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post #20 of 85
7/26/01 at 2:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by Tomcat
Hmmm, I don't know, jude. Are you sure hospitalization is the best way to deal with tweaking syndrome?
LOL!

Actually, the cord arrived today. It's a lot nicer than I imagined. It is quite thick compared to the AC cord that came with my Max (which it's replacing). The Max's stock AC cord is 18 AWG, whereas this new cord is 14 AWG.

Following is a picture of the Absolute Power Cord, which is not what my power cord is. I'm only including this pic because the main plug (the transparent plug in the pic) looks almost identical to the one on my new cord. The aesthetically cool thing is that the IEC plug at the end of my cord is also made of that same semi-transparent material.



Compared to the Max's stock cord, the main plug on this new one is far fancier. Also, the contacts in the IEC part look like they're going to grip the amp's IEC prongs a lot better than the stock cord's. Unfortunately, my Max is away for some tweaking, so I won't be able to try this cord with it until it comes back.

Look-and-feel first impressions are so far very good -- especially for ten bucks plus shipping.
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post #21 of 85
7/27/01 at 4:06pm
Thread Starter 

Wow, my Quail power cord looks just like...

...the Zcable Lightning power cord which sells for $125.

Now I'm not saying they're the same, but I can't tell the difference between the power cord by Quail I'm holding in my hands right now and the cord in the photos on Zcable's site of the Lightning (see big photo below) -- to my eyes, they look exactly alike. I'll post pictures of my cable later tonight or some time this weekend.

For more info on my Quail power cord, scroll up to the top of this thread. My cord cost around $10.00 plus shipping.

According to their site, Zcable performs some proprietary optimization to the Lightning, and I'm not sure what that is. I've optimized my Quail cord, but my optimization is anything but proprietary (I put ProGold on the contacts). I should be getting my Max back very soon (which is the component I bought this cord for), so I'll let you know if I hear any benefits (or otherwise).

Photo of Zcable's Lightning power cord from their web site:


(The "click for larger image" link on the photo does not work here)
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post #22 of 85
7/27/01 at 5:20pm
Bootman, funny you should mention that power cord because I just ordered one this week. I should get it next week and I'll let you know what I think.
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post #23 of 85
7/30/01 at 3:40pm
Anybody else contact Quail? I sent them an email and they faxed me a quote. They said they would send me a sample but did not mention anything about paying for it. They said lead time for this would usually be about 8 weeks. Maybe I'll receive an invoice with it. Hmmm....
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post #24 of 85
7/30/01 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by acidtripwow
Anybody else contact Quail? I sent them an email and they faxed me a quote. They said they would send me a sample but did not mention anything about paying for it. They said lead time for this would usually be about 8 weeks. Maybe I'll receive an invoice with it. Hmmm....

LOL! A sample?! Lucky dog. See, they're quite used to orders in bulk. They're more a supplier than a typical retailer for consumers. When I called and asked for the cord, she kindly asked about the quantity I was interested in. I said "one." She replied, "One.......?" I said, "Um, just one. Like only one single cord. I hope that's not a problem." She said something like, "No, absolutely not," and proceeded to take my order info.

I'm guessing she was expecting me to say "one gross" or "one case" or something like that. Heheh.
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post #25 of 85
7/31/01 at 2:41pm
Well Quail sent me a sample of 5 cords. I'll probably be hearing back from them soon to see if I want to order a case or something.
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post #26 of 85
8/2/01 at 4:21pm
I received The Absolute Power cord from GTT Audio and it looks very, very similar to the Quail cord. It is Green Dot hospital grade and is also 14 guage. It has the clear connector on one side with the green dot. I will audition them over the weekend and let everyone know what I think.
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post #27 of 85
8/3/01 at 1:03am
I'm wondering, is it safe to use hospital grade cords with normal household grade sockets. I'm working in the biomedical engineering deparment in the hospital, and we never use hospital grade plugs on normal sockets. Most equipment even carry warnings that say the grounding pin (shaped differently from normal household grade plugs) will only make proper contact on hospital grade outlets, if it is used in normal outlets it would create a shock hazard...
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post #28 of 85
8/3/01 at 6:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by thomas
I'm wondering, is it safe to use hospital grade cords with normal household grade sockets. I'm working in the biomedical engineering deparment in the hospital, and we never use hospital grade plugs on normal sockets. Most equipment even carry warnings that say the grounding pin (shaped differently from normal household grade plugs) will only make proper contact on hospital grade outlets, if it is used in normal outlets it would create a shock hazard...

Thomas, I'd never heard that before. So I decided to check the plug out on my Quail cord, and compared its ground pin to the ground pin on my other cords, and then to the ground pin on my Radio Shack circuit tester (Cat. No. 22-101A). The ground pin on the Quail cord is both wider and longer than the ground pin on all of my other power cords (though it has a U-shaped cross section, where most of the others are solid or tubular). Most notable is that the Quail's ground pin is quite a bit thicker, and a wee bit longer than the ground pin on my Radio Shack circuit tester, so I'm quite certain it's making solid contact.

Additionally, I have a hospital-grade receptacle in the wall, into which is plugged my Brick Wall surge filter/line conditioner, and then my Max with its Quail cord is plugged into the Brick Wall. And the Brick Wall's receptacles seem to grip as hard (maybe even harder) than my hospital-grade wall receptacles.

But I do appreciate your message, thomas, and I imagine it does apply sometimes (or there wouldn't be such warnings on the stuff you see at work). I would encourage other people who are using cords with hospital-grade plugs to be mindful of thomas' message.
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post #29 of 85
8/4/01 at 1:33am
Yep, hospital grade plugs have a U or V (upside down) shaped ground pin, while normal "consumer" grade ones are a round pin....

On household recepticals, most only have a single contact with the ground pin, and it contacts the bottom of the ground pin... With a houshold plug, that's fine, but with hospital grade plugs, that area corresponds with the open part of the V... (hospital grade recepticals have 2 contacts which touch the sides of the V)

So if the socket and the plug don't match, there might not be proper contact with the ground pin. (the electronics will still work fine (audiphile companies would probably start marketing it as a "custom designed ground loop breaker") but if the circuit starts malfunctioning, you could be in for a serious shock...

Of course, you could always upgrade your recepticals to hospital grade, they seem much better quality than normal stuff...
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post #30 of 85
8/6/01 at 3:55pm
Well, I didn't get shocked, yet! After trying both the Quail cord and the GTT cord they sounded very similar to me. The one thing I did notice was that the Quail cord sounded deeper in the bass region. This was only a short comparison between the two so I'll do some more comparison over the next few days. The test was done playing my new Miles Davis CD "Kind of Blue" on my Toshiba SD-4205 DVD/CD player, using my MicroZotl amp with original 12AT7 tubes and upgraded 1956 RCA 6SN7GTB tubes, MIT Terminator 330 Series One interconnects and my Grado HP 2 headphones.
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