Best power cable under $1000

spazmatron

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Dec 4, 2015
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Get in touch with davec , zenwave audio. If you want to spend that kind of money, he will provide you with a great price per performance ratio. He sells direct, knows what he is doing.

In the end of the day if you believe the power cord can change the sound then really you have to try a few as one mans best is another's to be avoided. You may well want different attributes depending on the application and desired sound you want.
 

Gregadd

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Apr 20, 2010
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DH Labs Red Wave circa $700.
To say something is the best implies you have surveyed the field. I have not.
 

Mike Lavigne

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Apr 25, 2010
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best under $1000?

any old power cable with the new Furutech FI-50 NCP male and IEC plugs installed.

the plugs are pretty much doing most of the work anyway.

combine those plugs with the new Furutech GTX-D NCP (R) duplex outlets and don't look back. you will be amazed at what that whole combo does for your music.
 

Gregadd

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Apr 20, 2010
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Mike it is my opinion that the connectors are the most important part of any cable.
I am a little hesitant to say " any old power cable. " RFI is a concern for me. I would hazard to guess you are not using amy old cable. That said many companies offer the option of user termination.
 

DonH50

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Jun 22, 2010
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How do you define "best"?

  • For minimal voltage drop, at what current (power) level?
  • Need for EMI/RFI shielding?
  • What about safety ground or isolation?
  • Desirable mechanical attributes like cable size and flexibility, connector size?

Etc. I am not a proponent of expensive cables, but do feel some metrics should be in play when choosing a power cord. Especially if you're going to spend $1k. I wonder if all components are up to the stress of a massive cable hanging on the power connector?
 

Mike Lavigne

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Apr 25, 2010
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Mike it is my opinion that the connectors are the most important part of any cable.
I am a little hesitant to say " any old power cable. " RFI is a concern for me. I would hazard to guess you are not using amy old cable. That said many companies offer the option of user termination.

sure; you do need to apply common sense.

find a used power cord for $400 or less where you like the general approach of that brand on RFI and swap in those plugs. or purchase the raw cable that fits your needs. if you are not good at the install part find a friend who can do it competently. I watched my dealer install 7 sets on my power cords. it is tedious and I would not personally feel competent to do it all the way right. but I suppose I could do it myself if I had to.

try one and see what it does. the price of admission is not that steep.....and the effort not that great. you might end up with a significant system upgrade reasonably priced.

most of us have pretty good unused power cords lying around that would be good candidates for this approach. and it's easy to do a before and after comparison.
 

nirodha

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Aug 11, 2010
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How do you define "best"?

  • For minimal voltage drop, at what current (power) level?
  • Need for EMI/RFI shielding?
  • What about safety ground or isolation?
  • Desirable mechanical attributes like cable size and flexibility, connector size?

Etc. I am not a proponent of expensive cables, but do feel some metrics should be in play when choosing a power cord. Especially if you're going to spend $1k. I wonder if all components are up to the stress of a massive cable hanging on the power connector?

Thank you all. The best power cable I have is the Elrod Statement Gold. But that is a BEAST of a cable. I am switching to the small, light Nagras AND I don't want to spend fortunes on audio any more. I also have an MIT Z-cord III (without the "boxes") which is eh...good... I think. With "best" I now mean: flexible and not darkening the sound, open character.
 

ptman

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Dec 23, 2011
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I moved to all Waveform Fidelity HE series last year. I auditioned a couple and felt they provided a punch and warmth that I did not receive from the others I auditioned (including Audience Au24 SE). I've been extremely pleased, and the care Paul Kaplan took in building them was impressive.
 

Folsom

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Oct 25, 2015
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the plugs are pretty much doing most of the work anyway.

While I prefer a good connector, this isn't entirely true. Consider that the average cable has zero cross sectional areas. They aren't twisted, they simply spiral. That means they offer no real attenuation of noise. On top of that there is no shield on any typical cord. I would not prefer an unshielded non-twisted cable. Either shielded and non-twisted or twisted.

A cable with a lot of twists/cross-sectional-area will greatly reduce the noise from the power cord.

As far as connectors anything that is phosphorous bronze or better will do wonderful, with the big bad boy Furutech's being the best.

Also I don't like using under 12ga. Smaller never sounds right.

*You can't buy a pre-made cable with the Furutech FI-50 NFC on it because the connectors alone are $680. Your only option is DIY. Otherwise Dave's cables are awesome. Under that there's a host of whatever you can get your hands on without bad connectors, like Pangea etc.
 

nc42acc

Member Sponsor
Nov 10, 2015
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Doesn't adding a shield to an AC power cord add considerable capacitance? Kinda goes in complete contrast to the Romex running to the outlets.


While I prefer a good connector, this isn't entirely true. Consider that the average cable has zero cross sectional areas. They aren't twisted, they simply spiral. That means they offer no real attenuation of noise. On top of that there is no shield on any typical cord. I would not prefer an unshielded non-twisted cable. Either shielded and non-twisted or twisted.

A cable with a lot of twists/cross-sectional-area will greatly reduce the noise from the power cord.

As far as connectors anything that is phosphorous bronze or better will do wonderful, with the big bad boy Furutech's being the best.

Also I don't like using under 12ga. Smaller never sounds right.

*You can't buy a pre-made cable with the Furutech FI-50 NFC on it because the connectors alone are $680. Your only option is DIY. Otherwise Dave's cables are awesome. Under that there's a host of whatever you can get your hands on without bad connectors, like Pangea etc.
 

Folsom

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Doesn't adding a shield to an AC power cord add considerable capacitance? Kinda goes in complete contrast to the Romex running to the outlets.

It's not carrying signal so capacitance doesn't play as big of a factor. Shielded also works best when connected at one end.

Twisted > shielded . That's my personal experience. But no twists and no shield isn't winning much of anything.

Having twisted power cables reduces noise that the romex can collect. But it also helps a lot since the stereo itself generates plenty of noise and tries to share it. The horde of cables on back of a stereo pollute, and the better all of your cables can reject/attenuate it the better. There isn't a mess next to all of the romex. You might as well think of a well designed power cords like miniature power conditioners. They don't do a lot, but they do something.

It would be very fun to try twisting two Romex runs. The results might be very rewarding. It would also be pretty hard to do!
 

nc42acc

Member Sponsor
Nov 10, 2015
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Folsom great reply, thank you sir. So the preference would be if you use shielding is only tie to ground at the outlet not the component? Thanks again.

It's not carrying signal so capacitance doesn't play as big of a factor. Shielded also works best when connected at one end.

Twisted > shielded . That's my personal experience. But no twists and no shield isn't winning much of anything.

Having twisted power cables reduces noise that the romex can collect. But it also helps a lot since the stereo itself generates plenty of noise and tries to share it. The horde of cables on back of a stereo pollute, and the better all of your cables can reject/attenuate it the better. There isn't a mess next to all of the romex. You might as well think of a well designed power cords like miniature power conditioners. They don't do a lot, but they do something.

It would be very fun to try twisting two Romex runs. The results might be very rewarding. It would also be pretty hard to do!
 

Folsom

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Oct 25, 2015
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Folsom great reply, thank you sir. So the preference would be if you use shielding is only tie to ground at the outlet not the component? Thanks again.

Shielded cables will have a shield and a ground wire. The plug that goes to the AC receptacle will have the shield connected connected to the ground wire. At the IEC end only the ground wire will be connected to the IEC plug.
 

es347

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Apr 20, 2010
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Lessloss DFPC
 

audioblazer

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May 13, 2010
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Try preowned Tara lab cobalt
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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My PL power cable has never lost a comparison and it's been around for about 2 years. For around $1k you get an 11 gauge cable, including 11g grounds, using UPOCC copper litz wire with a cotton jacket. There are over 6000 runs of individually insulated UPOCC copper in the cable, resulting in less AC impedance as well as low DCR. And they feature the Furutech FI-50 AC plugs which cost over $600 new. The NCF plugs will add about $100 to the price of the regular FI-50s.
 

cjf

Well-Known Member
Nov 19, 2012
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I moved to all Waveform Fidelity HE series last year. I auditioned a couple and felt they provided a punch and warmth that I did not receive from the others I auditioned (including Audience Au24 SE). I've been extremely pleased, and the care Paul Kaplan took in building them was impressive.

+1

I'm using the HE/HC MK3 version of these on my amps and they are very impressive.
 

JmCamrn

New Member
Jan 4, 2015
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The best power cable that I've ever heard is the MIT Oracle ZIII. You can get it on Audiogon from Joe for around $700 new. Just for reference, I've listened to every single cable in the Shunyata and Transparent lines and a good amount of cables from Synergistic.

The bass is so prominent and at the same time effortless on the MIT, that it has to be heard to be believed.
 

nirodha

Well-Known Member
Aug 11, 2010
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The best power cable that I've ever heard is the MIT Oracle ZIII. You can get it on Audiogon from Joe for around $700 new. Just for reference, I've listened to every single cable in the Shunyata and Transparent lines and a good amount of cables from Synergistic.

The bass is so prominent and at the same time effortless on the MIT, that it has to be heard to be believed.

I have one Oracle ZIII and it really does nothing wrong. The only cords which are better (only from my experience) are the Elrods (have two of them). But they are too heavy for the Nagras. The ZIII is probably the best option. I am not fond of the "boxed" MIT power lines. Thanks for your tip: Joe Abrams is a jewel among dealers.
 

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