[rgs9200m]

Has anyone had this happen? I tried some massive high-end power cords on my 10-year-old Headroom Max (which still does a decent job on newer good headphones like Grado PS1000s and  Beyer T1s) and they created this overwhelming pushy bass and sometimes piercing highs.
Specifically, these were big Shunyata Anaconda Alphas (Helix and non-helix), a Purist 20th Anniversary Contego, and Kimber PK10 Palladians. The nicest job (a balanced detailed but involving sound) was with some thinner much cheaper TG SLVRs and 688s and a Kimber PK14.
 
Are these big cords "too much" for a smaller amp? Even the free stock cord was not as abusive as the big heavy pricey cords (though not as smooth and refined as the TG cords).

 

[rgs9200m]

Just to follow up, a few years back I had a Stax Omega2/007t system, and when I plugged it  into a PS-Audio power conditioner/regenerator the amp started running hotter and the sound, especially in the upper mids, became very aggressive, almost unlistenable. I guess headphone amps are more sensitive to power feeds and sometimes less is more.

 

[zenpunk]

Sounds like you are having problem with poltergeists. 

 or your amps are very poorly designed?

 

[haloxt]

I have power cables of varying awg, and I find the thicker they are, the more control, depth and dynamics is made possible, but this can be choked off or smeared by other parts of the chain. Imo ~14 awg is the ideal awg when people don't want to tweak their gear or don't have very high-end gear. Then again, imo 14 awg cannot do what thicker power cables can do when there are no weak links and in a very good setup.
 
I think in bad enough situations, like really dirty electrical grid plus all stock cables, 6 ft 18 awg can sound better than 8 awg power cables.

 

[rgs9200m]

True, the Kimber PK14 is 14-gauge, and this seems to work.  Of course, the poltergeists are also a strong possibility.
Thanks for the comments!

 

[haloxt]

I wish I had the tech know-how for why I sometimes much prefer 14 awg. To my ears, 14 awg won't reveal too much depth... and it feels like, psychoacoustically, this compression is usually quite euphonic and more forgiving of weak links in an audio chain or a mid-fi setup. Maybe just auditory hallucination, but it's significant enough for to only recommend 8 awg if you're willing to go through trial and error cable and gear swapping, or if you are making an expensive audio setup with zero weak links.

 

[Currawong]

The PS Audio power conditioner probably had noise filtering that was too strong.  With my current power board, I have the option of -70dB or -50dB, and the former produces the same results as you described, so I use the latter, which, IMO, makes an improvement to the sound.  At least you know what a power filter is doing, whereas I'm not sure about expensive power cables. Possibly, if long enough, they are acting much the same as a noise-filtering capacitor themselves.

 

[Zombie_X]

I find that power cords make absolutely no difference in the sound. Think about it. There's thousands upon thousands of miles of old wire under the ground that is crap quality and most likely very old. How can adding a nice power cord on change that sound? I say not at all. I used to think they helped, but I did lots of AB comparisons on all my amps and found there were no improvements, and if there were any they were very very tiny. I've built my own out of nice wire from Parts-Express and those too yielded no results.
 
I found noise filterers to help more than cables will. I have a TripLite one and it dropped the noise floor in my amp, while the power cable could not.
 
I recommends spending the money elsewhere man. Don't waste your money on expensive power cables. Maybe invest in a nice PS Audio power plant or even better, music!

 

[hodgjy]

X2.  Just make sure you buy a 14 awg cable to match the 14 awg wiring in the walls of your house/apartment.  You can get a 14 awg cable from Monoprice for $2, which will sound the same as some $200 luxury cable.
 
Quote:

I find that power cords make absolutely no difference in the sound. Think about it. There's thousands upon thousands of miles of old wire under the ground that is crap quality and most likely very old. How can adding a nice power cord on change that sound? I say not at all. I used to think they helped, but I did lots of AB comparisons on all my amps and found there were no improvements, and if there were any they were very very tiny. 

 

[beeman458]

Say that you like cables, or worse, have the temerity to ask a cable question.....and like Pavlov's dog hearing the dinner bell, the anti-cable crowd come out and start salivating.
 
"Buffy; The Cable Slayer"
 

 
Go figure.
 
Anyways, in my case, I found the expensive power cable sucked the life out of the computer generated music and the provided cheap azzzzz power supply cable brought the life back into the sound when it was used.  Go figure.