[00940]

I don't believe much in the merits of power cable swap for amps. However, you need at least a decent cord on your cdp. Doesn't need to be expensive though. Improvments provided by 300$ power cords on cheap diy solution certainly don't worth their price to me. Money is better spent on IC or new cd's. The cord just need decent shielding and good plugs.

The type 2 power cord sold by bolder cable just fit my views, never heard it though

http://www.boldercables.com/Store.as...843&s=AC+Power

 

[insomniac]

I didn't realize that power cords ran so expensive.

I recently picked up a HA-1 and just used a standard computer power cord.

Is there something I should be looking at to improve the sound of my HA-1?

Not looking to spend more than $30 or so

 

[alexs2]

Can definitely make a huge difference depending on the quality of the incoming mains supply,and the equipment you're running.
i've found a marked improvement in both sound quality and noise floor using Kimber high current mains cords on my power amps(Krell KMA100s...old but still sound nice)and lower current cords for the rest of the system,incl the H/p system.
If you have a good quality mains supply,or the luxury of something like a PS Audio power plant,then you probably won't get that much improvement from power cords.

 

[danaa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demolition danaa, Just curious... Which VH Audio cords did you use for your Arcam 72T and Denon 1600? Flavor 1s? Are you using Flavor 2s on your amps/preamps? D.

The Transparent is used with the Arcam. The Rotel pre/pro and Denon use, I think, the flavor 1, but can't remember for sure. I do know that I might have misordered for the Denon and had to get an adaptor to fit into the socket correctly. You might want to contact Chris directly and tell him what you have. He's one of the real great guys I've run into in audio.

Sorry it took so long to respond. I wasn't around yesterday.

 

[shard]

A custom cable maker once used this analogy which I found to be very appropriate.

Think of your power as water from a tap, if its dirty, filters, purifiers etc will work wonders, but if the water coming out is already clean, you probably will not notice much of a difference.

Unfortunately, "clean water" is hard to obtain. Most households have computers, TVs, refrigerators etc that contaminate the power, even worse, some locations have contaminated power sources from the powergrid. I have found that plugging your audio equipment into a filter/conditioner does provide a noticeable difference in sound.

On the other hand, I am not so sure about the benefits of power cables without any filtering/conditioning features plugged directly into a wall socket. Dirty water plus uber hose is still dirty water, be it at a higher pressure or different spray pattern

 

[Demolition]

Quote:

Originally Posted by insomniac Is there something I should be looking at to improve the sound of my HA-1? Not looking to spend more than $30 or so

You might look into getting a cord from the recent Quail group buy. See this thread for more info.


Quote:

Originally Posted by danaa The Transparent is used with the Arcam. The Rotel pre/pro and Denon use, I think, the flavor 1, but can't remember for sure. I do know that I might have misordered for the Denon and had to get an adaptor to fit into the socket correctly. You might want to contact Chris directly and tell him what you have. He's one of the real great guys I've run into in audio.

I'll be building my own cords, based on Chris' designs. I was just curious to know if you might have independently noticed the same things that he did when using a Flavor 1 on his digital sources and Flavor 2s on his amps.


Quote:

Originally Posted by danaa Sorry it took so long to respond. I wasn't around yesterday.

I don't mind at all. I'm just glad to see that at least one of us has a life outside Head-Fi.

D.

 

[danaa]

Quote:

I'll be building my own cords, based on Chris' designs. I was just curious to know if you might have independently noticed the same things that he did when using a Flavor 1 on his digital sources and Flavor 2s on his amps.

My Parasound amp came with a high grade cord so I've never switched it out.

 

[tortie]

I think it would make a more of a difference in your CDP than with our amp. I personally wont spend more than $100 on a powercord. But as usual with this kinds of things, your milage may vary.

 

[kuma]

Mickelae,

An interesting question.
Over the years having to experiment with various cables ( from a stock to a silly expensive ) in various gear and sysetms, one thing I have learnt is they are extremely system and component dependant.

I had a case where a 3$ stock power cord outperformed a 5k$ power cord on some components and systems. Or the very same cable sounds completely different in a different system context.

Whether 300 bucks you are about to spend is worth it or not, I'd suggest you'll try cables in question in your system. Keeping in mind that, a difference you might hear might not be for better necessarily. Your brain percieves something different as a good thing at first. Only way to know is to use it for a long period of time in your system rather doing a quick AB )

Aftermarket designer cables, most of the time, are essentially an expensive tone controls. They can be quite effective. But, whether they are worht it or not is deteremined by a listner's sonic priority, system needs and hes/her wallet.

 

[Claude]

Somebody on Audio Asylum revealed that the $400 JPS "The Digital AC" power chord is actually an relabeled industrial cable made by Eupen Cable in Belgium and sold for approximately $15.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/cab...ges/91533.html

http://www.eupen.com/cable/emc/emc02.html

This doesn't mean it isn't a good cable, but it is extremely overpriced given the production cost. I think this applies to many "audiophile" cables. Very few audio companies design and produce their own cables, and apart form the audio market, no cable maker would manufacture a power chord costing more than $30 to make.

So I would definitely go the DIY route and try to find good cables that are not specifically marketed for "high end audio" use.

 

[greenhorn]

http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=70143

 

[ixeo]

if i'm not mistaken i understand that battery power is the cleanest? so why not just power it with batteries , and keep the batteries charged via the mains?

and screw the PSU and powercords altogether.

(*if what i said is doable and true that is, im not sure)