I too have experienced some minute changes brought in by a well-made power cord from Cadence Bangalore based dealer.
But...this But is very important ...those changes are very very minute in nature or could be a borderline case of placebo effect.
I use HP printer cables costing Rs 300 (each) instead of stock power cords and that serves my purpose well, no need to spend even Rs 1000 on power cord and make those
special efforts to listen those very minute scale changes. I wrote a small review (in a hurry) on that (Cadence Bangalore based dealer??s) power cord (on the other forum)
but now I openly confess, it was nothing but a Placebo effect.
My hearing is good, my system (all Cadence) is revealing enough, my listening room is appropriately sized, my music is well recorded and I got training in Indian Classical music by Pandit Arvind Gajendragadkarji so I know how and what to listen in a piece of a music.
In my case it was Rs 1000 (+100 towards shipping) so I really don't care much for the money I wasted like this. But when people claim power cord to be a system-improving tool then that becomes a
snake oil for me.
I have seen, people putting $1000 power cord for a $400 CDP! If at all they are so much bend to spend , they are better off by a $1300 CDP and at the most $100 power cord for it.
Being an Electrical Engineer by training I can short list here, what is needed:
- Conductor should have sufficient thickness to carry required current w/o getting hot.
- Conductor with high conductivity to minimize self-heating
- Proper Insulation and shielding to avoid electric hazards and filter out EMI/RFI to some extent.
- Cord must have a proper termination with good contact strength, which is made up of non-corrosive metal parts.
If existing stock power cord is not meeting the above mentioned criterions , then do replace with one that meets but spending in tune Rs 5000 to Rs 20000+ is outright insane.
Now regarding power conditioner / Servo Stabs/ UPS. I myself use KryKard 3 KVA Servo Stab with built in EMI ??RFI filter . I have taken care that current capacity of my Stab is atleast 3 times more than worst case current requirements of my amp. I would have loved to have a UPS here but the cost of Pure Sine Wave UPS with required current rating is prohibitive. My sincere appeal to those advocating an UPS (Venkat it is you!) please go that extra mile , contact UPS manufactures (NO SUKAM please) , find out prices and publish that data here so people will have a clear cut idea of what it takes to put an UPS in the chain.
Same is true about Power regenerators, can anybody put forward information about brands , availability in India , Service support position and ball park pricing?
Stand alone Power line filters or terminal strips with small filter devices. If you are looking at Made In China thing, may God Bless You. That??s all I want to say.
Other brands Monster included , mostly use cheap components and MOVs. MOV can protect your system from voltage surges and spikes
but not for long. After every such surge attack, it weakens and one fine morning it simply fails and exposes your system to those spikes again and that too without you knowing it. Other filter components are mostly RC networks but such simple networks won??t provide much of a protection. You need to spend quite a lot to get some real protection.
In most well made HiFI gear such care is already been taken and that??s why reputed brands don??t recommend any Power conditioning devices, they simply say, connect the equipment direct to your wall socket.
Audio and HiFI is very subjective and many times what we call as a difference is in fact a Placebo effect. There are enough Double blind tests carried out all across the globe to substantiate this point.
Hope this helps.
SUhas