The Power Cable Showdown!

You are right about the power cable. I removed it, and the amp did not work at all. It is a necessary component.

GR-Research does not have any regulator safety standards for the cable. The female IEC terminal has CE listing but the male end just says 15 amp/120 volt. Even if the latter was UL certified, the whole cable is not. So use it at your own risk! (taken from AudioScienceReview review).

Sorry I missed this video when it came out. I learned early in my audiophile journey that good speaker cables sound better than cheap ones, even on a starter audiophile system. But it never occurred to me that power cables would make a difference. Five years ago, when shopping for a (for me) high-end integrated amp, the owner of my local hifi shop did an A/B test for me between (A) stock power cable and no power conditioner, and (B) the Z3 cable plus a $300 Audioquest power conditioner. I heard the difference right away, and I couldn't unhear it. He said he'd throw in the cable & power conditioner if I bought the amp. After auditioniing a few other amps at other shops, I took him up on his offer. At home, after a week of breaking in the new amp, I listened with and without the Audioquest cable & conditioner. Though not a blind test this time, I still heard the difference and was happy to have them. That said, my experience was similar to yours: the differences while undeniable were subtle. I'm sure the expense would be wasted on a less resolving system. Incidentally, the amp I'm talking about is a Moon 340i, similar price point & performance as Naim Supernait 2/3 but different sound profile that I prefer over the Naim sound. (The Naim's are great, tho, and I can see why so many people love them.) Thanks for such a thorough and well-done video!

I use green dot hospital grade power cable in my system. I'm not sure if it improves the quality but if it's good enough to keep people alive it should be good enough for audio equipment.

Cables - power, interconnects, speaker - are an integral part of a nice hifi system. Beware of price though. Cables are high profit items for dealers.

About the "8-gauge" confusion: The 8-gauge refers to the combined gauge of the 24 smaller wires which are separated by color & then twisted together to create a large positive (12x clear wires) and negative (12x white wires) each of which are roughly equivalent to a single 8-gauge cable. The separate ground wire inside the rope is 14 gauge.

What's the use of using a 6ft length "audiophile grade" (whatever that means) power cord from the wall socket to your amp? Are you going to replace all the twin & earth power cables inside your walls too? What about the circuit breaker board in your home, is that audiophile grade too? What about the miles of powerlines between your house and the power station?

Have you experimented with having a directly wired outlet for you audio system. Running from a dedicated breaker in the box to only the dedicated plug? I have heard this is very helpful and the place to start before power cables. Your thoughts?

terrific review!

Always enjoy your video’s Chris. But I think I’ll keep my $350 bucks. Do you know how many Costco rotisserie chicken I can buy for 350 bucks. Listening to music and eating some chicken sounds pretty good to me buddy

How is it all of a sudden integrated amps are fine and dandy when a few years back they were just another source for unwanted noise. What's change if anything ?

The designer of Clayton M-300 monoblock amplifiers, (msrp is $17,000 for a maxed out pair) says his favorite power cord is something that he charged me $50 for two 6' long pieces. In the current system these amps w/ the el cheapo power cables straight from the wall perform so well that I haven't been tempted to try other more expensive cables that I have laying around. I don't know if others have had a similar experience w/ fairly modest power cables on large powerful class A amplifiers.

The amplifiers you mentioned here have a commonality. Both use what is essentially 40 year old amp technology, as such the amount of noise filtering between the incoming power and speaker outputs is not as comprehensive as what is used in more modern amplifier designs. Both line noise and cable capacitance can have a bigger impact in these less filtered designs. A bit of the background that informs my comments: I have been an audio engineer for 40+ years doing both live shows and fixed installations. I have had to deal with chasing noise in systems that sometimes came down to how excess power cable was coiled and its proximity to other cables. These kinds of issues have become less of a problem with new amplifier technology because the amp's power supply section employs very solid EMI filtering.

One tip I might impart, most outlet plugs have a flimsy breaker tab that connects both terminals of the plug. Break that thing off and just strip your wire to terminate on both terminals at the same time. Other than this, a dedicated circuit with good grounding.

Well there has to be something to this, I went from my own sad attempt at building cables to a minor upgrade in the Svs speaker cables and there was a marked difference. Mids and highs come through cleaner sounding and more clear.

Great comparison as these are two power cords I had considered in the past. The GR Research for its perceived value, and the AudioQuest Z3 because it has so many positive reviews and is the recommended cable at its price point from Upscale Audio. Ultimately, I hooked up all my equipment with Cardas Clear Reflection because that is what I was already using for speaker and interconnects. I’m super happier with these cables and it will be a long time before I consider replacing them.

Thank you Vinyl Attack, finally a decent explanation...........I have 2 degrees in music, studied piano, violin, viola and a guitarist for 60 years......yes I am 69......into audio since 1979......I have a SACDr from T+A an germany company and an integrated amp 75 watt/channel by Audio Research.........both of these total retail is more than 20K.........not chump change agreed..........I went thru coincident cables interconnects and speaker cable, then Van den Hul which I hated then Cardas....very very nice.........recently my buddy brought over his PK14 cable (for CD only) from Kimber Kable......it was broken in and was stunning...........now I have ordered their PK 10 made for amps........my point is this, does it make send that world class equipment would sound at it's best with world class cables? If you are looking for a huge sound stage, beautiful musical tone, deep quick low end response then please keep this as your priority not the fact that you think you are being ripped off...........If you are used to eating McDonalds you are going to have to step up and listen and read and do what you can to get the sound you want..........that is what set Audiophiles apart.....we just don't throw away money just the opposite..... we are very discerning about what we need and like and sometimes it costs, sometimes not..........how about a demo with a guarantee or a 2 year old model of a cable?..........cables don't rust..............350 for a power cable is a handshake and you will probably not hear any difference especially with mediocre eqipment......

Seeing the credits at the beginning, does The Cheap Audioman help produce your videos?

Does anybody have the Audioquest NRG-Y3 & NRG-X2? I purchased a few and they have just been shipped to me. I'm going to take a good listen to them & have 30 days to return them if I don't hear any sonic improvements over the stock power cords that they would be replacing. I have no idea how the NRG-Y3s compare to the X3s.

I wonder how these two power chords compare to a 14awg Hospital Grade Iron Lung Jelly fish preferably 3Ft.