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How much does the power cable really do? - Page 2

post #16 of 208
4/4/10 at 2:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Currawong View Post
On a cheap amp? Hell no, buy a better amp or better headphones instead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hentai View Post
powercord makes a difference but not for budget amps
Yepper.

Save your money for a future upgrade.
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post #17 of 208
4/5/10 at 1:18am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Camper View Post
Yepper.

Save your money for a future upgrade.
lol alright, guys. I own a pair of grado 325is's paired with a pico amp/dac... So don't think I have some cheapo headphone. I try not to value equipment by it's price, even though that may be difficult. I just heard the I+ has great synergy with grados and with better cables you can get more out of it.

From what I'm reading, I think the power cord is the least of my worries, thanks!
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post #18 of 208
4/5/10 at 2:56am
In my experience, the sound out of a headphone amp is more influenced by the power cord than by the interconnect.
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post #19 of 208
4/5/10 at 3:02am
THERYANER, See what you started! I'm just Kidding.....I'm a believer in better Power cords, Ics and all the rest of the "WIRE" in our systems.......But, and it's a BIG BUT and I cannot lie-----------MAKE YOUR OWN......I don't care if you put a nice braided shielding over a piece of Romex and install some nice hubbel plugs you'll love it......"IT" will sound wondrous! Then you can build better sounding and looking "CORDS", just add silver or silver over copper in a Teflon Dielectric "Jobbie" add some Mesh and shrink wrap "IT" up and then for the killer ending, Freeze it for a week or two!!!! Presto, you'll be in Hog Heaven! 1 word of caution: Make sure Your New DIY "Big Snake" doesn't pull your little amp or dac off the equip. rack.......Have Fun and enjoy the music!!!!
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post #20 of 208
4/5/10 at 3:28am
MUST RESIST!!!!!
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post #21 of 208
4/5/10 at 7:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nierika View Post
In my experience, the sound out of a headphone amp is more influenced by the power cord than by the interconnect.
x2. Some amps more than others, and obviously some less.

If you need recommendations, PM me with your budget and gear.
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post #22 of 208
4/5/10 at 9:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by theryaner View Post
From what I'm reading, I think the power cord is the least of my worries, thanks!
Depends who you listen to.
I tend to be a cable believer myself, but not all convinced about power cables. It might be related to the fact that we seem to have quite clean and stable power supply here in Norway.

Wait for the little dot i+ to arrive, hook it up with the supplied power cable and start listening. Seek out power cables further down the road if you feel it is not quite "there".
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post #23 of 208
4/5/10 at 1:00pm
you could try really hard to clean up your power with a expensive power cable, or you could get a well-designed power supply. I find the latter to be more effective personally
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post #24 of 208
4/5/10 at 1:31pm
I've seen many pro-power cable people say that the important thing is to not have a power cable that prevents the gear from getting the current it needs by choosing proper gauge cables, and for some things, stock cables are perfectly fine. Current hungry power amp, receiver, and subwoofer need good thick power cables and minimal daisy-chained power strips more than say an mp3 player, and there's plenty of variety of equipment in between, depending on how clean/overworked your electricity is and how good your psu is and how power-demanding your gear is. I've also heard people say they like industrial or DIY power cords even without high purity conductors.
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post #25 of 208
4/6/10 at 3:31pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all the responses, guys! I haven't done much research on possible power cords I might buy, because I'm not sure if I'll even buy one.

But I've seen this one:

MagicPower

I'll probably buy an interconnect from these guys or blue jeans... Not sure which is better.

EDIT: off topic but I'll throw it out there anyways.

copper or silver interconnect? matter of preference or is silver simply better?
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post #26 of 208
4/6/10 at 11:23pm
I have Vampire Wire pure silver interconnects. They make the sound very clean and pure but because of that it also can be a little bit on the bright side and the bass is tighter. I also have silver plated copper. These ones give you a little bit warmer sound. I just discover the pure OCC cables. They are continuos cast ohno copper. These guys give you the warmth of the copper cables with out loosing anything in the to end. IMO is the best for a natural warm sound. At the end it all depends of your sound taste.
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post #27 of 208
4/7/10 at 9:56pm
Power cord can add a certain coloration to the final sound (think the power cord as a RC..RC..RC network). The coloration is usually not huge, but if your amp have a certain coloration you don't like, changing to a different power cord could mask the un-desired signature of amp/source.

For example: to fix the Stax T1S/W's coloration in human voice, one can try a pure silver/teflon power cord. That might take the voice abbrasivness away. However doing so might lose some (perceived) hyper details.

Dynamic phone/amp are usually not that transparent anyway, different power cords might not make much a difference in your set-up.

Save your power cord money, go electrostatics.
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post #28 of 208
4/8/10 at 2:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AudioCats View Post

Save your power cord money, go electrostatics.
I hope you're not implying that a good cord is not necessary for stats. Electrostatic headphone amps are probably the most sensitive to clean, quality power. Which brings me to another point, conditioning. A good conditioner makes just as much of an impact as good cords, and also serves to make sure your equipment stays safe.

Oh, and don't bother with the Signal Magic Power cord, it's just bulk wire in a techflex jacket with some Marinco connectors on it. Anybody can build one in about 10 minutes for less than half of what Signal charges.
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post #29 of 208
4/8/10 at 3:04am
Is the power cord feeding a regulated DC power supply?

Then check this analogy. Wrote it quite a while ago. It tries to give an idea of how little effect the power cord might have (if any) compared to many other things in your circuit, in particular, that power supply itself.
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post #30 of 208
4/8/10 at 3:10am
Dave: It's obvious, as it is with most of these small manufacturers, that you're paying them to build gear from common materials. Saying to the effect of "Better still, build one yourself, they use x, y and z." is good too.

I'd say though, YMMV with power cords. The Northstar M192 MKI I had sounded quite dull until one day I experimentally put an "audiophile" power cord on it. Suddenly it wasn't dull any longer! I'd not expected any difference. With my current DAC, they seem to make a slight difference, but not much. I'd guess that is due to the much better power circuits in it compared to the Northstar. As I said elsewhere though, the biggest bang-for-the-buck was moving my rig to a power point on a different circuit in my apartment (free!) followed by the Juice Box Jr from TTVJ.
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