Power Cord Flavors


Someone recently sent me an e-mail asking about warm and fullbodied power cords versus neutral, clear and extended power cords. I thought I'd post my opinion, and ask others to share theirs, too.

My system is tubes: VAC Phi 110/110, First Sound Presence Depuxe II, APL Denon 3910

Warm and full bodied in my system=
Purist Audio Dominus w/Fluid
Elrod EPS-3 Signature
Revelation Audio Precept
VH Audio Airsine

Neutral, clear and extended=
Shunyata Python and Anaconda
Electraglide Epiphany
Ridge Street Poiema!!!
Audio Indulgence Alpine Lace
TG Audio SLVR and 688
Z Squared
Absolute power cord

That's a scary list of power cords. I'm kind of shocked at how many I've owned and tried.
tvad
Hi folks, I think some of these suggestions cause some readers to be psycologically driven. This thread I think, sometimes guides your expectation toward a certain level of sonic characteristic expectation of a cord before you plug it onto your gears.I just wondering whether we listen to the music or the cords ?
This thread I think, sometimes guides your expectation toward a certain level of sonic characteristic expectation of a cord before you plug it onto your gears.
Leanbean, I believe you miss the point of this thread, which is to provide potential buyers with an idea of what they might expect when inserting specific cords into their systems. The thread is intended as a resource. A tool.

Those who don't believe that power cords make a difference to a system's sound will find no value in this thread, and in fact the thread was not intended for them.

Once you experiment with a few cords, then please come back and comment on what you heard. Your opinion counts.
Personally, I've found it's almost useless to compare PC's in different systems without looking closely at the # of components in the system, and the # of lines used to power the system.
A system which has 3 components (cd, pre, amp) plugged into one line, will always make the PC's sound 'different' than say a system with 5 components plugged into 2 lines (transport, room correction dsp, dac and preamp in one line, amp in the other).
Everything you plug into your ac lines changes the sound, even if it's not in the music signal chain. IMO, this makes evaluation and comparisons nearly impossible on a system-to-system basis. The most likely reason for some PC's getting rave reviews on many different systems, is that the systems aren't really that different, from an ac standpoint.
As someone who has spent many hundreds of hours evaluating PC's and ac line devices as research for my upcoming AC power cable introduction, let me tell you, it's VERY difficult to predict what a PC will sound like in a given system.
As someone who has spent many hundreds of hours evaluating PC's and ac line devices as research for my upcoming AC power cable introduction, let me tell you, it's VERY difficult to predict what a PC will sound like in a given system.
Tplavas (Answers)
I can believe that.

However, I have heard similar results using certain power cords in three different systems, both tube and solid state. Furthermore, the effect of different models of a particular brand have had predictable results on specific components. This leads me to the conclusion that the results of using these power cords can be estimated to a reasonable degree of certainty.
Tplavas, I am delighted you will be introducing your own line of PCs soon, after considerable audition of the competition. In addition to what TVAD already correctly pointed out, a lot of us are conducting PCs comparison tests in very controlled environments, mostly on our own systems, or on multiple well-known systems, with our own music selections, and often have the opportunity of letting new PCs settle in for weeks at a time before expressing a firm opinion. As such, we are likely also somewhat qualified to express our findings publicly.