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Power Cords - Shielding or No Shielding

I have been researching power cords (PC) this past week and I must say, I find this far more frustrating than researching any other part of the audio system.

It may be a false hope, but I desire to purchase a "generic", if you will, PC that works well everywhere, I can't say now what piece of gear it will be on and even if I did, that piece may change at some point. I suspect some will say that just like other gear plan on changing as necessary; I am hoping not to do so. Anyway, I am getting off topic.

Most PC's I read about have shielding, but Audience claims on their Web site that they do not use any on their PowerChord stating, "The powerChord by audience is not shielded. We have found that shielding power cords can be sonically detrimental." More can be read here.

What is the collective thought on this?

As if the cost of interconnects and speaker cables weren't out of control (IMO), PC's are right there with them. I have already doubled the price I started out to spend and it's going up!
brianmgrarcom
bigtee
803 posts
 
Look at the news letters on the Bryston site about power cords. I have to agree, how can the last 6 or so feet provide anything after 50 or so feet of regular old wire from the breaker panel. Hell, I think we need to use gold plated contacts in the breaker panel. I have not found a single engineer that will buy into this stuff electrically unless he is in the cable making business! Once something is on the wire, it is on the wire. It's not going to filter anything out. What about all that wire to the plug? I suppose everthing is benign until the last few feet.
Sorry, but I just can't by into this stuff. If you hear an improvement, support your cable manufacturer.
trelja
3,215 posts
 
Ernie, you may want to change your moniker to subaruandcableguru. A question, I have picked up some large gauge OCC power cord, about 35 feet of it. Along with 4 OCC IEC plugs.

Is there anything you recommend me wrapping the outside of this cable with, for shielding purposes or otherwise? I have noticed that when playing with some Lowther drivers, I am picking up some noise, but haven't spent enough time with it to be sure where. My goal is to make sure that the power cords are not adding any noise to my system. They will potentially be used anywhere in the system, for digital, preamp, or power amp.

Also, I have some brass plated hospital grade AC mains plugs, but they don't look to be up to the same level as the other two components, which plug do you recommend, if you would be so kind?

Thanks so much,
Joe
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
If you have an old house with BX wire, your power is shielded, up to the wall plug. Maybe people who like shielded power cords ought to use BX instead of Romex wire when they install dedicated lines.
subaruguru
1,353 posts
 
Eldartford, it's nice if the shielding is NON-MAGNETIC, though...I really like the Belden 83803 over ANY BX....
Hi Joe! If you send me a foot or so of it I can better comment. RSVP personally. Re Plugs my favorite cost-effective plug is the all-black industrial Leviton that I use in my PC Kits. Its "open air" architecture has lower dielectric involvement than 52/366 or 82/315 types, and said access to BOTH sides of each terminal's screw-clamp head means you can torque down multiple leads evenly instead of squishing all the copper down on one side of the screw-heads. Truly a fine plug. OTOH I use a Hubbell 5266 and Hubbell Hospital 8315 true 20a for those who like the traditional black & white look and/or want the cache or are spec'ing a 20a IEC for a Krell or something. Cheers. Ern
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