Bottlehead Kits > Bottlehead Power Cord Kit

Power cord kit review - sort of

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astolatpere:
Been putting my hifi together for last couple of years. Stereomour ii w/ JJ tubes, Heresys, tube analog phono preamp, turntable and an ADC and Soundsmith cartridges. Blue jeans speaker cable and interconnects.

Past 6 months Ive listened to lps every chance I get it sounds so good. Only a couple of "house keeping" items left, like a new base for the amp and maybe more isolation, and replacing the stock power cords on the amp and phono preamp.

I have truly avoided the rabbit hole that is hifi cables for 50 years so I looked for equipment specific recommendations for the Stereomour and bought their cable. After some sweat and tears I plugged my homely result into the amp, turned everything on and - it's just better. Everything Bottlehead claims I could reproduce in my system.

But thats not why I'm here. After much head scratching I concluded that the stock power cord is distorting the signal. I am going to upgrade the power cord on the phono preamp and am genuinely curious about the results.

But it got me thinking. There are multiple places in my system where same sort of frequency loss might occur. Cables in my toneram; speaker wire conection to the odd original connection on the speakers; the cheap power strip I use; the cheap cords attacked to my cd player and wall wort to my dac. Sigh.

I dont want my audio ocd to get triggered. Any suggestions on how to efficiently approach this? Do Blue Jeans speaker cable cut it or does anyone have expereince with cable that does a better job between a Stereomour and Heresys? How about experience with power strips? I plug the amp into the wall but all the other components go into a strip.

4krowme:
 It's been a long long time since I have visited. Looking over the posts, this one sort of caught my eye. Diminishing returns are at the beginning of OCD. To be rational about the concept of upgrading any/all cables, it doesn't hurt to try and put in perspective what you hope to accomplish. Basically, I try look at it this way>>> What is the job of the particular cable being considered? In the case of AC power, I might skip by a power cord used to power a TT. Spinning a platter. It doesn't get more boring than that. This is always in consideration of there not being sort of problem to begin with.
 For my liking, a power cord must be capable of carrying peak current needed for the component. This is especially considered for say a power strip that may feed multiple higher current equipment. Often overlooked and important to me is the actual connector pressure being placed on the prongs of the cord itself. Remember those crappy AC wall outlets that couldn't even hold onto a vacuum cleaner cord? Connection is big. Personally I get picky about the prongs having holes in them. Would rather have a solid prong. Not meant to be last on the list, but shielding can in many cases be as important any of the above.

  Interconnects have the same requirements stated above where applicable, but also there are cases in which additional factors should be considered. Phono cables come to mind, as capacitance is to be low, and shielding is to be good enough to keep out the nasties. I am in the camp that shorter is probably better and neater. Lastly, for interconnect cables, realize that you are attempting to protect a small or very small signal to begin with and so everything matters! A loose connection, or even routing of the cable will show up in hum or noise.

 Of course, I could go on a lot longer, but consider this my re-introduction to the site.

Doc B.:
It's not too complicated really. It's just that cable sellers try to make it so with an awful lot of pop science and pet theory. Start with the free stuff. Clean all your connections and make sure they are snug. The try some inexpensive cables that are well regarded. If you find something you like try it in more than one place. It's all about whether you hear a difference you like. Blue Jean cables are very good bang for the buck.

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