Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Power cords -- is there a difference?

subspace · 18th December 2002

I don't know nuttin' bout all that complercated stuff you's guys is talkin' bout, but I'll tells you what I done here...
When I built the place, they ran a 200 amp line from the commercial service transformer on the pole to my building's box. I've got a 100 amp breaker in the box for the studio, with two 20 amp breakers for the control room. From the breakers to the gang boxes in the room, I ran 30 amp rated wire in 2" conduit. Most offices and homes will just pull romex for this, but industrial buildings usually have at least 30 amp rated cable installed for adequately juicing machinery. I think a studio's console and main's amplifiers qualify for that much attention to power.
I plugged my console's supply straight into the gangbox with the stock power cable and it sounded good. I took a short 2' piece of 30 amp power cable and attached the supply's connectors to it instead. The low end had better definition on transients, less soft and flabby. Hearing this, I went ahead and scrapped the original supply, cords and all, and put in a double rated supply with load sensing. This was a much more audible improvement all around, and I'm now in the process of adding individual supply wires running to every module socket from the supply connector, rather than relying on just the PCB traces.
So, yeah, I'll agree that buying a $1000 power cable and plugging it into your ungrounded 1912 house wiring is a pretty stupid way to upgrade your sound, but at the same time, using a 12¢ computer grade IEC cable to power a $2000 tube amp from a proper 20 amp socket is pretty ******** as well. Putting a voltmeter on your PSUs output to see if it's starved during transients isn't that tough...

18th December 2002	#19
subspace Lives for gear Joined: Jun 2002 Location: Too sun Posts: 859 2 Reviews written	I don't know nuttin' bout all that complercated stuff you's guys is talkin' bout, but I'll tells you what I done here... When I built the place, they ran a 200 amp line from the commercial service transformer on the pole to my building's box. I've got a 100 amp breaker in the box for the studio, with two 20 amp breakers for the control room. From the breakers to the gang boxes in the room, I ran 30 amp rated wire in 2" conduit. Most offices and homes will just pull romex for this, but industrial buildings usually have at least 30 amp rated cable installed for adequately juicing machinery. I think a studio's console and main's amplifiers qualify for that much attention to power. I plugged my console's supply straight into the gangbox with the stock power cable and it sounded good. I took a short 2' piece of 30 amp power cable and attached the supply's connectors to it instead. The low end had better definition on transients, less soft and flabby. Hearing this, I went ahead and scrapped the original supply, cords and all, and put in a double rated supply with load sensing. This was a much more audible improvement all around, and I'm now in the process of adding individual supply wires running to every module socket from the supply connector, rather than relying on just the PCB traces. So, yeah, I'll agree that buying a $1000 power cable and plugging it into your ungrounded 1912 house wiring is a pretty stupid way to upgrade your sound, but at the same time, using a 12¢ computer grade IEC cable to power a $2000 tube amp from a proper 20 amp socket is pretty ******** as well. Putting a voltmeter on your PSUs output to see if it's starved during transients isn't that tough... __________________ "If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good."