Hello!
What power cables would you recommend for under 100 dollars/euros, more like 50ish? Would like to try if there is any difference between the stock cable (regular 5 buck cable) and something that on paper (at least) is far superior. Would use it with speaker amps and maybe try with a dac as well
This kinda cable is available for cheap where I live, on paper look okay?
http://www.jenving.com/products/view/lorad-2.5-cs-16-eu-1.5m-3004100354
Cheers!
Hello,
It’s better to buy a power strip that can be filtered, then you’ll save more money in the end than for cables like this.
Of course, a shielded cable is good, but it only really makes sense if you live in a really bad house or in a very dense settlement.
Or if there are many radio frequencies, then such a cable makes sense.
Apart from that, people still like to talk about cable sound, voodoo.
And the increases are kept relatively small.
It would be enough if the cable had a pure copper content and was shielded.
Most of these are available for just under 50-60 $/€.
I have a Taga Harmony pf 1000 at home and mainly connect everything with normal cable.
Another good mains filter strip is available from Audioquest, which is a little more expensive, but all sockets are filtered, which is actually completely sufficient and really good.
I have an Ifi iPurifier connected tot the powerstrip where all my amps are, it kinda made a difference. So not sure If an additional filtered power strip would make a difference, but wouldn’t hurt to try I guess. Taga Harmony makes some great stuff, just bought their speaker cables and it actually made a big difference, much more space within the sound, bass seems bit better too.
there isn’t exept if the regular 5 buck cable is broken
Steve says there is a big difference 
I design electrics systems for houses and buildings I can ensure you that the last meter of cable makes no difference exept if is really under dimensioned but that’s never the case.
IMO, on the level of gear i own, no difference in sound w/ the cables. I did have to work on cleaning up small noise issues i had by making sure i was getting good connections and that i was not inducing noise into my system from fans and other outside sources in the signal chain and i also Used some devices along the way to make sure my power from the outlets was not bringing noise into my system from again, outside sources.
I had an outlet that was being shared by home appliances that i had to avoid, (went to a different circuit on the house)
Cables do look pretty and i like the different colors and materials, so they make a real Asthetic difference to me. Good luck on what you decide, i have found some good deals on used cables and also once in a while run into sales.
Yes, apart from that, it is better to invest elsewhere where it makes sense.
In my flat, for example, the $2-3 socket was painted over with paint.
And the contacts were corroded.
As well as the cable to which the socket was attached.
I replaced the socket with a Furutech socket, cut the wires off a bit, stripped and reconnected them and it was a noticeable improvement.
And in the end it made more sense.
I only bought the socket for aesthetic reasons and because I didn’t want the contacts to corrode too quickly.
Often it’s just the little things that cause faults.
So personally I don’t know if it’s super worthwhile to grab a higher end power cable in this case. I do think you could grab a nice hospital/medical grade power cord (15-20 bucks probably) if you were concerned that the stock cable is bad or poor quality and that would do the job fine, but personally I wouldn’t suggest spending too much more than that.
If you really wanted to improve the power, I would run a dedicated ac line on a new breaker to your audio equipment to give it an isolated breaker and a direct connection, and that should improve sound (better quality connection with no shared connections on that breaker). You could also look into filtering/conditioning/regeneration as that could potentially be more worthwhile than the cable
You’ve gotten all the information you need here about power cables. The only thing I’ll add is that as far as noise, their main purpose is to not leak noise into your other wires. So twisted and shielded is good. Stuff you can do by simply following best practice wiring recommendations. Buy a $50 dollar cable for the build and if is included those two things I mentioned. But not for any sonic superiority. But they do look cool though. 
I’ll also laugh because Steve “The Audiophiliac” Guttenberg’s video where he’s clearly peddling Wireworld AC cables. Here’s my video of just a couple of days prior where he shows you his equipment and, take a notice at his cables see what he’s got plugged into the back of things.
Also if you have a ton of emi. I have a direct driver sim wheel and can measure the noise over ky PC power cable when its on! But a $10 shielded cable with a ups fixed that right up anyways
When a powersupply leaks noise to the grid, it is not CE compliant.
When a powersupply leaks noise from the grid to the device, it is a piece of trash.
Not the power supply that is the issue. The motor for my wheel is a massive electric motor that puts out enough flux to actualy mess with unshielded cables. Most stuff is far enough away from it to not be an issue, but my monitor power chords litteraly run across the top of it.
That is a different story. Electric motors are the absolute worst when it comes to noise. I hate them so much…
Yes electromagnetic interferences can cause problems, usually the interference is between the main cable and the audio cable, a shielded audio cable can solve the problem as well and personally I think that if you have to shield one between the audio and the main is better shield the audio one. But usually I found that it pretty uncommon with the rca exept if there is a mess of cable around combined with some power hungry equipment, in my experience i got problems with interference much more with mic signals that are pretty weak. If the problem instead is in the stability of the line a power conditioner is really a good investiment plus usually they include also protections systems that can save the gear if something happen.
I’m definitely “lo-fi” compared to many contributors on this forum, everyone has a budget 
For power I would LOVE to run a dedicated circuit in my house with high end cabling, but again, budget. SO I did the poor-mans version of this: I mapped out which outlets were on the same circuit breaker as the one I plug in my audio equipment. I found that not only was my office on that circuit, but also the bathroom and part of the laundry room next to my office (also found one of my outlets in my office tied into the kitchen, very odd wiring in my house). Anyway, if I want “low noise” power, I need to turn off as much as possible on that circuit while listening. That way I get poor man dedicated wiring for my audio.
Regarding cabling, I need them to work, but I also like them to look good (hifi jewlery). Since I run all headphone amps I don’t need anything too big. So I ended up getting Pangea AC14 MKII cables. ~$50 for 1 meter. They look great! And sound like… power cables.
Pangea Audio - AC-14SE MKII - Power Cable
I’m certain I get more benefit from turning off as many things as possible on my audio electrical circuit. But the power cables are fun.
The other piece of my “power puzzle” is the Furman Power Conditioner (PST-8) on my main setup. I have a second, smaller listening setup that I use a Tripp Lite ISOBAR8ULTRA Isobar 8. Before getting the Furman I used these with all my headphone setups, and for the money I thought they worked really well. The Furman is just much nicer (not sure if it sounds better, but looks way cooler, and I feel more “audiophile” with it).
I had a very noticeable improvement in noise floor with my ifi isilencer+. Those things are absolutely not snake oil.
I would actually avoid power conditioners if possible. I have found that it removes a lot of dynamics to my music and its a bit lifeless. It sounds much better when plugged directly to the wall, unless your area has significant power problems.
Other than that, like what @elementze mentioned, Pangea power cords is a great value buy/sweet spot quality cable. In the future, you can prioritize it a bit more if you have a highly resolving system.
I have a love-hate relationship with iSilencers. I used two of their power conditions for a while, and liked them a lot. After some other changes in my system I pulled them out and noticed a big improvement in music dynamics. It felt like the music had more life or energy to it. Hard to quantify, but I ended up returning the power conditioners. For a given setup I can see how they help, but when my setup changed I needed to remove them.