I thought I started a thread on this before, but damned if I can find it. As some of you know that read my "Krell Saga" thread, I bought a KSA-250 amp that was DOA and I sent it back to the factory to be repaired and recapped. When it came back to me, there was a hum from both speakers and I had to send it back again. Before the Krell came back to me from the factory for the second time, I asked them to send me a new power cord for it. What they sent back looked like a cheap power cord you would get with a computer. The power cords for both my Krell KRC-HR and Krell KPE Reference phono pre are way more beefier.
I bought the Pangea AC-9 which is a 7 gauge power cord to replace the cheap power cord that I was dubious could even pass 15A let alone 20A from the dedicated 20A circuit I have for the KSA-250. The Pangea is a monster and weighs a ton. It makes the other cord look like a joke. The cool thing about using it so far is that even though Krell had fixed the hum problem I had with the KSA-250 that was coming through the speakers, you could still hear the transformer itself making some noise if you got up close to the amp. The new power cord has stopped that noise completely. I thought the noise was inevitable due to how big the damn transformer is (4.3kVa). I don't know if the transformer was making some racket due to being current 'starved,' all I know is that with the new Pangea AC-9 the noise is gone and that alone is worth the $100 or so I paid for this PC.
All of which leads to another discussion on dynamic range. Every time you lower the noise floor of your room and/or your gear, the overall dynamic range of your system increases which is always a good thing in my book. There is no doubt in my mind that buying the Pangea AC-9 was a solid investment. There is also no doubt in my mind that the cable elevators I purchased recently and wrote about was another positive investment as they brought about a slight reduction in the noise floor. We can argue whether that slight improvement was due to getting the speaker cables away from power cords laying across them (my guess) or whether it's due to preventing the interaction of synthetic fibers from the carpet messing with the speaker cables, but I do believe the cable elevators make a positive impact on lowering the noise floor of your system. Is it huge? No. Does it count though and bring a beneficial change? I certainly think so. And remember, once your system reaches a certain level, meaningful increases in sound quality are usually quite costly.
I bought the Pangea AC-9 which is a 7 gauge power cord to replace the cheap power cord that I was dubious could even pass 15A let alone 20A from the dedicated 20A circuit I have for the KSA-250. The Pangea is a monster and weighs a ton. It makes the other cord look like a joke. The cool thing about using it so far is that even though Krell had fixed the hum problem I had with the KSA-250 that was coming through the speakers, you could still hear the transformer itself making some noise if you got up close to the amp. The new power cord has stopped that noise completely. I thought the noise was inevitable due to how big the damn transformer is (4.3kVa). I don't know if the transformer was making some racket due to being current 'starved,' all I know is that with the new Pangea AC-9 the noise is gone and that alone is worth the $100 or so I paid for this PC.
All of which leads to another discussion on dynamic range. Every time you lower the noise floor of your room and/or your gear, the overall dynamic range of your system increases which is always a good thing in my book. There is no doubt in my mind that buying the Pangea AC-9 was a solid investment. There is also no doubt in my mind that the cable elevators I purchased recently and wrote about was another positive investment as they brought about a slight reduction in the noise floor. We can argue whether that slight improvement was due to getting the speaker cables away from power cords laying across them (my guess) or whether it's due to preventing the interaction of synthetic fibers from the carpet messing with the speaker cables, but I do believe the cable elevators make a positive impact on lowering the noise floor of your system. Is it huge? No. Does it count though and bring a beneficial change? I certainly think so. And remember, once your system reaches a certain level, meaningful increases in sound quality are usually quite costly.
