Power cables, a touchy subject with Audiophiles. Audiophiles are roughly separated into 3 camps when it comes to power cables.
- They make a difference, those who don’t think so are not listening
- They do not make a difference, those who think they do are not measuring
- People sitting on the fence looking over in glee
Goes without question I am in camp #1. Power cables make a difference. /thread.
But the arguments continue. The second most common take down from the other camps is that expensive power cables is no different to any power cable you brought at a local store.
There is no point getting better power cables than what you can buy from a local store because you have tens of metres of “normal” in wall cabling, and kilometres of grid cabling. In other words, the power cable is not the weakest link on the grid. There is little point getting after-market/audiophile power cables when everything on the grid is of poor quality.
Is this true? Let us take a closer look!
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I could not agree more. I have always replaced my power cables on audio-related devices with homemade new ones. The thing is, I get great results from quality thick gauge 100% copper power wire I get from the local hardware store, it costs me less than 20$ after I buy good plug ends from any random asian manufacturer on eBay, The sound improvement is HUGE>
The thing is, I don’t have a 100K$ system to hear what a, say, 1000$ cable sounds like… so I don’t need more than what I have.. I’ve tested expensive cables that I’ve borrowed from friends (who have crazy (systems) and my 20$ cables sound EXACTLY the same, no better no worse.
most of my stuff is vacuum tube related, so power is a big factor.
Your right, the bottom line here is that power cables do make a difference and we should pay attention to them in our system. - BUT… our expectations shouldn’t be set as high (or low) as our wallets.
Great article, thanks
T