They have a new power cable, the big question is will he get it?

Surely its just a rebranded Isotek?

Ir's been around for a while, will he get it, not bleedin likely. I have been told that it makes all round improvements, by a user not by a dealer. I struggle to hear changes from any capable cable, and after the miles of power line, then the ring main in my house, I can not understand how this , or any other cable will make a huge difference.

The biggest difference would be to my bank balance, I would need, 1 for the deck, 1 for the CD, 1 for the tuner, and 3 for the amps. So thats the thick end of 600 quid, or 25% of the cost of the speakers I fancy. I'll save for the speakers.

When it comes to power cords always make them yourself, the best (materials wise) power cord in the world should cost no more than £400-500 and by that I mean you've used the best plugs available from Oyaide or Furutech, the best cable on it's own should cost max 100-150euros per metre, something like the Rega should cost about £20 in parts.

The rest is just paying someone to make it, the box it comes in and the marketing.

Colin,

The miles of cable in the rng main and the feed from the substation have nought to do with what happens from the power socket to the hiFi unit. It's a bit like saying there's miles of copper cable on the transformer so what difference could a couple of metres make. Well the difference is that the miles of copper cable on the transformer don't just act as cable. They're a circuit and are used in a different capacity. Same is true of the ring. It's a circuit designed to provide a constant 240v/50hz. Connecting hte two circuits is your power cable. Each circuit presents a load to the other circuit. The power cable between the circuits can (and does) change the load presented between the circuits. The aim of most aftrmarket power cables is to lower two things - a) RFI, b) the perceived impedance of the ring main. Their success varies.

There was an interesting article on this in HiFiCRITIC where they tested a bunch of power cables for their RFI rejection and lowered impedance with quite differing results - as well as subjective results of the cables in a system. Certainly some of the theory seemed borne out in practice.

Sorry Frank, but I really struggle to hear the differences in any sensibly designed I/C, speaker cable or power chord. I have tried a few and finished up with Chord Cobra 3, Van Damme 4mm square blue coloured stuff, and some power cables that either came out of the Rega boxes, or some longer ones made from Industrial cable.

It may be I have dropped Lucky and found cheap cables that are a good match in my system, but I am no way parting with my hard earned cash for £100 quid power cables, and stupid money I/C's.

I was told a little while back that a Chord power cable made a huge difference to the Saturn, so I borrowed one. Nothing changed. Same for the Chord I/c's I tried at the same time, £300 ish I think they where.

I have only heard 2 cable changes in my system that I could say were 'real' and I could point them out. The first was when I took out some Rega couples and put the chords in.turned out later that one of the couples was faulty. The other was swapping some Chord speaker cable for the Van Damme.. I found that the Van Damme had a much more balanced sound across the range. I guess that was because of the increase in cable cross section

I am aware that some people are able to hear the differences and are willing to part with a wad of cash for them. I am pleased they can not only hear the differences, have systems capable of highlighting them, and the spare cash to be able to afford them, but for me it is just plain madness to pay the overinflated prices for some of these things, as I just can not hear the changes they 'make'.

I also take the view that "2.5k spent on better speakers, or amps, would bring far more improvements to my system than 2.5k of wire.

It could be that if I suffered from interferance, or noise on the mains in my system I would think again, but I don't. It could be the simple fact that the room with the hi-fi in is on its own ring circuit. Not for any hi-fi reasons. Its just the way the house was wired.

I think your making the sensible choice Colin and it would be the route I would go to, the cables and power cords would be the finishing touch, I'd never spend more on cables that my main components such as the source the amps and the speakers, get your basic components right first then fine tune after.

Source first not cables, and cable just like a loudspeaker can't make up for what has not gone before it.

Oh I'm not suggesting that cables should be inordinately expensive. I'm merely pointing out that IEC cables can make a difference - and why! As for interconnects, that's even more contentious, but the basic issues are impedance matching and well designed output circuits. If the two units have sympathetically designed loads (i.e. one is suitably high to the other's suitably low), then the cable should NOT make a subtantial difference. Also, if the output circuit of the 'source' unit (CD player, preamp etc) is well enough designed then it should be able to drive any interconnect and the difference should be lower.

Balanced connections pretty much require a good output circuit at source so balanced systems tend to display less differences.