Sensibly-priced mains cable upgrades (<£200/€300)?

[GRC]

Just sprung for a used D200 and loving the sound from my Squeezebox Touch (digital coax) and LP12 / Dynavector DV10X5 into Dynaudio Contour 1.8 MkII (without SAM).

I need to buy a new power cable because my D200 came with a UK power plug which I'm using via a UK - Schuko adaptor for now (I'm in Portugal) and I thought I could afford better than chopping off the 3-pin and substituting a generic Schuko. 

Seems lots of you guys spring mega-bucks on cables but I'm not in that league.  I'm after a decent power cable with a Schuko mains connector and an IEC that fits under the D200 cable cover.  Preferably one that doesn't rob the Dev of the things it does so well.

Thinking along the lines of Chord Power Chord, Wireworld Stratus but have no experience nor realistic chances of demoing.  Budget up to £200 sterling or €300 euros.

Any thoughts?

Obrigado e boa noite

[PhilP]

Why not cut the UK plug off the cable and fit a decent Schuko plug yourself? That's what I would do

[GRC]

Why not cut the UK plug off the cable and fit a decent Schuko plug yourself? That's what I would do

That's my fall-back plan but with all the hype about cables (on this very forum and elsewhere) I thought I'd see if there is any consensus on an "upgrade" for "sensible" money.

And what constitutes a "decent" Schuko plug as well?  Gold plated?  Silver plated?  It's a minefield!

[PhilP]

Well, if you have a good local dealer you can certainly have some fun trying out new power cables.  I've tried a few (up to £500) and thought they made a big difference when I first added them to my system only to find that I didn't miss them at all when I took them out again

The act of powering down/powering up the amp changes the sound of the system for a while and it may be that that effect is often mistakenly attributed to a change in power cable.

There's an excellent recent post by Frank (f1eng) on the subject of cables here:

http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?t...2#pid30352

It is nice to have some good-looking cables in a system though

[BrianT]

I have NEVER been a believer in upgraded cables, but a few months ago
I had a few buddies at my place, with my previous system.
They all where cable junkies.

So for 4hrs, playing the same 4 cuts, we swopped out cables, sometimes for the better
sometimes no difference (or very little) from the stock cheap o cords.
Today I am a cable believer.

The power cord made the most change in my system.

2 weeks ago, I changed the stock Devialet power cords to audience 24 se
I found an improvement in the sound.
Last weekend I went to a buddies house, and took the power cables
we tried them in his system, and found a more open sound stage.

I do not understand why, a power cable makes a difference
all it is doing is suppling mains voltage to you unit.

Good luck on your choice, I do like Chord products. I'm running one of there USB cables.

Brian

[Rodney Gold]

for that money , you can have a 2.5kva Inverter / battery system installed
ALL my hifi runs off a 5kva inverter and 6 x 200 a/h batteries ..
the power that comes in is pure sine wave and ultra stable , no need for any further conditioning or cables.

[Pim]

for that money , you can have a 2.5kva Inverter / battery system installed
ALL my hifi runs off a 5kva inverter and 6 x 200 a/h batteries ..
the power that comes in is pure sine wave and ultra stable , no need for any further conditioning or cables.

Hi Rodney,

Can you give us brand/type descriptions of that system? I'm very interested in installing something like that.

[Rodney Gold]

Just buy the best 5 kva/48v pure sine wave inverter you can and a bank of 4 deep cycle 200 a/h batts.. get a sparky to wire it in to a seperate DB board..
You can easily hook up a few solar panels to keep it charged

4 x 200 ah batts , assuming you consuming 500w with your system , will allow you about 7-8 hrs if you have a power failure
The circuits I have wired to always get power via the inverter.
A bit overkill.. but what the hell .I live in Afrika Power issues..

My system cost me over $1500 .. but I went for premium stuff Varta batteries and a victron quattro inverter

[Pim]

Just buy the best 5 kva/48v pure sine wave  inverter you can and a bank of 4 deep cycle 200 a/h batts.. get a sparky to  wire it in to a seperate DB board..
You can easily hook up a few solar panels to keep it charged

4 x 200 ah batts , assuming you consuming 500w with your system , will allow you about 7-8 hrs if you have a power failure
The circuits I have wired to always get power via the inverter.
A bit overkill.. but what the hell .I live in Afrika Power issues..

My system cost me over $1500 .. but I went for premium stuff Varta batteries and a victron quattro inverter

Thanks for that info Rodney. they're a lot more expensive here though; A$3,343.- for a 5kVA/48V inverter/charger. But I can see them making a much bigger difference to sound quality then cables costing that much.

[alandbush]

Lessloss have released an interesting new product in the Firewall module.