Recommendations for a flexible power cord?

[richpjr]

I have a Philips 963SA player on the way and from all early indications, the power cord that comes with it is pretty bad. I have read the monster thread about the Virtual Dynamics power cords and how great they are. I have a real tight spot for the player and worry that the stiffness of the Power 3 would be way too much of a pain to work with. Is it really that stiff and heavy?

My budget for a cable would be somewhere around the Power 3 range. How about the Cardas Twinlink? Sonic Horizon? Any other recommendations for something that sounds good, can be bent, and yet still allow me to send my kids through college!?!?!? Or are these thick and inflexible as well?

I am amazed that you guys spend more on cables than most people do on their entire systems! How much of a difference is their REALLY between a Power 3 and, say, a Nite? I have read the reviews carefully and people claim that their is a huge difference. I realize that we are getting into the law of diminishing returns very quickly here, but how MUCH of an improvement is there? 1%? 5%? 10%? Just curious - I have to live vicariously through you guys - my wife would crucify me if I ever spent 2 grand on a cable!!!

Thanks!

Rich

 

[grancasa]

For my ears, I couldn't tell a difference btwn the Power 3 and a stock cable. This was using a Cambridge Audio CD player, a ME Head (I believe), and Sennheiser HD 580.

On the other hand, I have been able to easily tell a difference btwn the stock Sennheiser cord and the Clou/Cardas upgrade cables, and have notices large difference when switching tubes on my MG Head. So for my money, if you're going to do a power cable upgrade, do it last, or not at all.

However, some with $5,000 power cables may disagree. Someone at the Bay Area meet had a serious VD collection... quite impressive. I velieve it was all Nite cables, both power and interconnect.

 

[Gallaine]

I am a believer in power cords. But I also follow the rule that no more than 15%-20% of my total system budget goes to cabling. A $1000 power cord on a $300 amp just doesn't make sense to me - but that is just my opinion.

Anyway, to answer your question you could try building your own. I just put together the Bob Crump Asylum power cord and found it to be very flexible. Before you say that you couldn't solder your way out of wet paper bag there is a mod to the "recipe" so that no soldering is required. Buy a solderless Marinco plug and IEC connector and you are good to go. Of course, the Marinco plugs about double the price

The total cost was around $50 including the Marinco plugs.

The Sonic Horizon power cords are also pretty flexible, though not quite as much as the DIY PC I mentioned. I have a Sonic Horizon power strip with the Hurricane Power Cord attached. For the money I thought it was pretty good.

 

[lextek]

I recently picked up a pair of Cardas Twinlinks. They fit the bill. They fairly, flexible. Bought them at www.audioadvisor.com. As far as improvements. I believe they helped the sound.

 

[botchki]

Check out ZCables lightning power cord at around $200. Made a big difference from others I've used in my system and I was surprised by that. Can get more info at www.zcable.com

 

[Tuberoller]

I would strongly suggest you build your power cord first.this is so easy I can't put the difficulty level any higher than a two on a scale from one to ten.All the parts are available at Home Depot.I would use 14/3 Hubbell or Belden stranded copper with shielded insulation.This is gonna be an ugly bright yellow or black,depending on the store.I would also use the Hubbell or ACT 20 amp plugs and EIC-type connectors.There is no soldering involved and total cost should be around 25 bucks for a six foot length.I would also consider using the Quail molded hospital grade 14/3 cords.They cost about the same and are very flexible.IF you hear improvements with either of those,then a further upgrade would be warranted.Cords are a tweak and should be treated as such.I did hear a difference with the 963 and the cord should be replaced.

 

[eric343]

I use a Quail cord; cost me about $6. No I didn't hear a difference a/bing it with the stock cord (on my Arcam), but the hefty clear plug is nice and lets me easily identify the cords running to my audio system. (the MG head also has a medical grade power cord, salvaged from an EKG)

IMHO, the order of difference is something like this:

Headphone > Amp > Source > Tuberolling (if applicable) > Headphone cable > Interconnect > Headphone positioning on your head > Power cord > Vibration Damping > Miscellaneous Voodoo.

Note that I find that I stop hearing a difference around the finer points of headphone positioning, though I haven't tried any exotic/expensive cables or tweaks.

Also, electrostatic headphones DEFINITELY have a different chain!:
Headphones >>>>>>>>> Source > Positioning > Interconnect
(that's as far as I've done comparisons; note that amps are not listed as I haven't compared any)
With electrostats, I've found the drivers to make a huge difference... out of the ones I've heard (Stax SRM001, Stax Lambda Basic, Stax Omega 2[1], Sennheiser HE90) I would only recommend the Sennheisers; all the others I found woefully lacking in some way or the other.

[1] I heard these at the Headroom World of Headphones tour; according to MANY people, the headphones were sounding much different than they usually do and as such this is not an accurate source to base one's opinion on.

 

[richpjr]

I ended up buying the PS Audio Micro Lab Power Cable. It was on sale at Music Direct for $75 so I figured what the heck. I didn't do much A/B comparisons between it and the stock cable. I figured that since I spent the money, I might as well use it!

Besides, if I A/B and didn't hear much difference, I'd feel kinda foolish for spending the money!

 

[Gallaine]

Good to hear that you found a PC. I thought Music Direct had a return policy. If you A/B the cord against stock and don't find a difference I am sure they would let you return it.

I tried the PS Audio Micro and the Audio Magic Xstream a couple of months ago. Both were good, better than stock. But I decided to make my own. I think it is at least as a good as the Micro and *much* more flexible.