Which Power Cords: I Need Some Informed Guidance

A few things to note if you're going to DIY your own cables, and I've found from practical experience that these tend to be fundamental and similar whether constructing an interconnect or a power cord:

- the type of metal matters (silver vs copper vs ???)
- the guage matters
- the geometry matters (twisted, braided, side by side, etc)
- the insulating material matters
- stranded vs solid vs combined matters
- the connectors matter (and more expensive doesn't mean better here)
- the method of termination matters (solder vs crimp vs both)
- break-in is real, so first impressions may not be correct
- measurements don't nearly tell the whole story, and can quite often be deceiving
- the component you use it on matters (it may be different on one than another)

All this leads me to say that the possibilities are endless, and what may work best for you in one place may not work well at all for another. In the long run, after much time and money and lots of critical listening you will probably come out with something that is reasonably good. Better yet, you will come out with an appreciation of the art/science of the thing and some knowledge and experience you can share with others.

Not an easy road, but then again, you may luck out and develop something truly special. In any case you will surely understand why some cable manufacturers charge $500+ for their cables.

Enjoy,
Bob

From what I have researched these powercords seem to be
a very good bang-for-the-buck:

1. Audience Powerchord
2. Shunyata Taipan (If you can stand the putrid lavender ends)
3. Acoustic Zen Tsunami
4. Analysis Plus Power Oval 10

I ordered a Tsunami myself but it hasn't arrived yet.
I'd love to hear if anyone has done a shootout with these
above powercords..

Power cords are system dependent (like virtually everything in audio), and unless you happen to own the same equipment as someone who has done a shootout, their comparison may or may no apply to you.

The only way to determine what power cords work to your liking is to try as many of the possibilities as you can in your system.

Buy-and-Try.

You are 100% correct. Makes a lot of sense..

I have had a hard time "believing" in the power cable has sound qualities argument. With that I just installed a pair of "massive" power cables I won off ebay for $37.00 a piece/plus shipping.
These babies are massive and seem to be well constructed.
They are called "Miova" brand. I plugged them into my Acoustats and I must say I can hear a definite improvement. The already good soundstage has gotten deeper and the whole system seems to be quieter.Which leads me to the question;what am I getting,better current to the speakers(cleaner)or is it all about the shielding which is keeping my interconnects (Prosilways) from interference?

The system seems like it has more headroom which makes me feel like there is more current and or cleaner current.

I am sure that there are folks on here that can explain it so I will sit back and listen.:-)