Mr Tarun, seems that there still are issues of ground problems in equipment causing noise and hum problems. If this is an issue, it is usually internal of the gear proper in my experience. If there is nothing that can be done by a tech, the method of not connecting the ground on the IEC power connector at the equipment end as you stated in your video is the ticket for all low current draw gear like preamps, tuners, cassette decks and CD players. On the power amp, the shields and ground should be connected on both ends. I’m with you on the color of the conductor insulation rather than the two black conductors numbered one and two as these could more easily be confused if notes taken are not followed. I am unfamiliar with EU wiring other than the standard colors used for mains hot, the neutral wire and ground. Both in EU and the States, the ground wire is green. Not having all conductors hooked up on both ends could potentially end up violating equipment warranty. This may or may not apply, but it is worth mentioning to the viewers if it is applicable. Hope this may help viewers.
Hi Mark, thank you for sharing this. I appreciate you bringing it up. I have traditionally done the same as you, grounded the shield at both ends. I even mentioned this in my previous video discussing my top 5 inexpensive hifi tweaks. I don’t have a ground loop issue and was always of the view that the shielding is more effective if grounded at both ends. Grounding at one end makes the shield work as an antenna to the best of my knowledge. Paul McGowan (CEO of PS Audio) claims that grounding at both ends can strangle dynamics but he did not explain the technical reason why. He has a lot of experience in this area so I have no reason to doubt him. I personally did not experience this as a problem when I had my power leads grounded at both ends but, from the comments I received, others have experienced ground loop issues. This makes sense if there is a potential difference between the two grounded points. David Brook (MCRU) is an another expert in this area in the U.K. I did ask his advise before posting this video and his recommendation was also to just ground the shield at the mains end leaving the shield at the component end not grounded. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to explore with David as to the reasons why. It was based on this advise that I changed my recommendation to grounding the shield at the mains plug end only. I doesn’t seem to have adversely affected the sound quality and avoids the ground loop issue that I am sure some viewers will experience. I do intent to go back to David to shed some further light on this and will keep viewers posted.
A British Audiophile, I could be wrong on this, but by grounding the shield at the mains end, problems posed will be directed to ground. Bad grounds are some of the worst problems that are. I have seen many cable issues from corrosion on the grounding lugs for cable connections. I look forward to hearing what David Brook has to say. I’ve fought bad ground problems in the military and civilian worlds. These can bring much grief! Thank you for your video. If I can help, let me know!
He is connecting the ground on both. He is not connecting the RF shield drain. This is definitely in line with best practices for draining RF interference. Given the option and having both a ground and a drain, always float the drain at the destination and connect at the source.
Scott R Smith, excuse me if I was un clear on this issue. It is, as you stated, the drain should be connected at the mains end to draw interference to ground and the way to do this is as you stated. It works. You are correct on this sir! Thank you for clarifying this.
I connected my Nespresso coffee machine with an audiophile power cable. I immediately noticed a marked improvement in my coffee. Like never before, I was able to discern subtle arabica aromas and a much deeper robusta flavor.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Sounds good, please bring some audiophile power cables with you, I'd like to test them on my vacuum cleaner to check if it can suck finer dust.
I was always taught when wiring a plug, that the earth should have slack in the plug. This is because if the cable gets pulled out of the socket, then the earth wire will be the last to break off for safety.
In the UK they have already taken care of that in the design, the live wire is designed to break first if the lead is over stretched, followed by N and then E that's why they have different lengths inside the UK plug.
@@r423sdex Did you actually watch the video? Tarun explains why he doesn't do this - it can set up a current through the shielding, which creates noise. In the case of hi-fi equipment this would defeat the purpose of constructing new cables.
@@r423sdex The earth/ground wire is connected at both ends, just not the shielding to ground at both ends, just the mains end, which should still provide the same safety if you were to say accidentally cut the cable through with a solid metal knife or whatever, not that I'd recommend trying.
Thank you for a clear and good understandable video and your narrative. I am new here and you can imagine spending already weeks in watching different videos. As others might tend to mumble or have a fast wired dialect you speak clear and slow to follow each step. the international community will thank you too. Well done Tarun, I feel now confident in doing my own PC project. Best, Peter
Awesome video ! I love the diy alternative to super expensive power cables. I am an electrician from Canada and they teach us to only connect the drain wire on the mains end and NOT the equipment end. The drain wire is designed to dispose of any emf (electromagnetic frequencies) that may develop in the shield of the cable from other cables in close proximity. So just cut off the drain wire on the equipment end. This might clarify a few peoples questions. Crank the tunes and enjoy!
Many thanks Tarun. My system is worth several thousand pounds (Focal/Cyrus) so already sounds great, but due to limited space the power supply, pre/power amps and speaker cables are fairly tightly packed in. Just built 3 cables using Lapp cable from your suggested retailer and they have definitely made a difference! Voices have moved forwards with clarity and there is a greater soundstage. Presumably there was EM interference from the power cables affecting speaker and/or other low current cabling. I normally spend 6 hours a day with my music on and i can confirm this definitely ain't snake oil! Great channel, btw. Cheers, Paul. 👍
Just a quick note to say I respect the way you deliver your videos - the exlanations you give about the reasons for and against key aspects of audiophilology (is there such a word) are what most of us come here for. Thank you for the excellent videos and HowTo''s. You've helped improve my setup.
I haven't analysed this in depth. But, an earth wire is a protective earth. It will also pickup noise from the ground of the house and your entire plumbing system, which is very thick copper in the UK (compared to wires). Running a washing machine can create a lot of electrical noise in this way. So grounding to earth at the wall plug can induce more noise than it drains at that point. Then the shield would be an aerial transmitting noise into the power supply. The protective earth wire is grounded to the metal case of the equipment at that point. Any shield in the wire is minuscule compared to the thick casing of the the equipment. The live and neutral typically have very good input filtering inside the equipment. For shielding the wire, you want a 1pF capacitor to the equipment case (or a very small value). Ground loops can happen within the equipment and from signal and speaker cables, but that is off-topic.
Thanks Tarun for posting this video, as I've been looking at replacing my power cables for my hifi gear since your video, but was a bit unsure about connecting the shielding to the plugs. Personally I love the look of the Lapp cable as it looks more expensive. Glad to see you had changed your view on wirering of the shielding, which shows your not arrogant and open to other peoples ideas. Top marks my friend for this video :-)
Hi lomes 57, it is funny how far us audiophiles will go to keep ourselves busy in lockdown. My wife has been asking me to put a shelf up in one of the bedrooms for the last 3 years. I just don’t have the time 😂😂😂
Many thanks for this - your channel is a great resources - and well done for being open to other ideas and 'changing you view' - marker of an intelligent being :-)
Thank you Neville, one of the great things about running this channel is that I learn from my audience all the time and it encourages me to ask more questions and do more research. The exchange of knowledge is definitely not a one way street 👍
The cable lengths in the IEC plug are lethal. If the cable clamp slackens off, and the cable gets pulled then the earth cable would be the first to detach. The earth cable should always be the longest one in the plug. That way, the equipment ALWAYS remains earthed. The art is to loop the earth to one side to make it the longest.
@@QoraxAudio Technical rule is to have the earth wire 1.5 times of the length of the other wires. At least with VDE regulations in continental Europe. A cable strain relief is mandatory too.
@@patthewoodboy It depends how you define “dangerous” - a burned finger tip or the last thing you ever do? If the Earth wire touches the Live terminal then all the previously “safe” Earthed metal services are now at 230v potential. All 13 amps + of it. Were you to have one hand in contact with an earthed surface when you touch the Live surface then the full 230v is across your heart - no heart can survive very long conducting 13 amps before ventricular fibrillation is induced that can kill you with heart failure. We are taught that when someone is suffering an electric shock DO NOT PULL THEM AWAY. Instead, KICK THEM AWAY. Do not risk your own electrocution. To quantify the danger, for fun, put a wire between the terminals of a 12v car battery, touch that wire and feel how much that hurts - then imagine that the voltage is 10 times higher and AC... (the human body has a considerably higher threshold to DC than to AC; halved as a simple conversion of ac to dc; and yes the wire will melt very quickly in a short circuit situation). If you want to risk electrocution personally, then fine, but don't make it optional for any one else.
Hi Tarun. I found this video last week kind of by accident and decided to try building a couple of improved power cords using the materials and supplier you named in the video. Results are good, certainly in tandem with the improved speaker cable I bought! All in, less than £100 and I didn't blow up the house!
Finally I did it 👍🏾 I built 2 power strip too 😀 I made real parallel connection and it sounds as good as my wireworld matrix 2. I even made a RC low pass filter on one plug for the TV. I can blast the volume now without eating distortion. Smooth to the max.
Great video and very concise. I started making my own power cables last year and they are very easy to do once you have the nack of trimming the correct length for the plug terminations. Is this going to give you notable sonic improvements, unlikely. But it is going to give you DIY satisfaction, visual uniformity with cables / plugs plus the ability to have cables the exact length you require. And that’s exactly why I did it.
Tarun, that looked great - good explanation. I noticed some comments on the length of the earth/ground lead and would say the way you did it was dictated by the amount of space in the connectors (or, I don't see another way to do it with these connectors). The connectors you use now confirm you are in the UK, as your accent did ;). My advice would be to look at the "domestic ring" that dominates UK home electricity cabling design, as the second "cheap" improvement option. That ring puts all devices in the same circuit - your high-end audio with your washing machine. If we ignore cynical commenters, and focus on "clean" AC, then we have a mission here. As you know too, what comes out of your speakers is AC that got rectified and next modulated by a source signal. Any !@#$%^& coming in on your AC can disturb and distort your music. Electrical companies in Europe are increasingly concerned about household and commercial appliances putting stray signals into their networks. So, with the single-side grounded shield on the power cable you now have provided for an isolation against inductance interference from other sources into the protected device and vice versa, contained some of the potential stray interference that your device might throw back in the air. As "cynical" is derived from the Greek word for "dog", the cynical puppies in all their illiteracy and lack of manners warrant a demonstration of interference. If you have (access to) an oscilloscope, nothing is more impressive than to take two test pins and walk these towards an empty wall outlet and somewhere, mid air, see the 50 Hz appear on the 'scope's display. People are surprised by that as if it is incredible magic. Well, the puppies now have to explain why these devices work that tell you where the electrical wires are, in your wall. I mean, we have to give them homework as punishment. Maybe Domestic ring. In my country, we don't have those rings, but a star architecture where the mains 3 phases coming in fan out (as a star) into leads going to distribution boxes that create new stars. It is easy in this architecture to add one or more mains fuses on the main mains switch board and have direct spurs to the stereo. Which I did. In shields. And, now revise how your electrical circuits with high power dirty devices (or low power extremely dirty devices like computers and switching power supplies) are distributed across the 3 phases coming into your house. And then look at the stereo system to consider keeping a few things apart: all switching power supplies on one spur, delicate analog amplification on another, and power amps on yet another. I have come across Brits in the past who created a direct spur to their audio. You? For viewers, Tarun, outside the UK: the UK has AC outlets and plugs with a fixed Live/Neutral orientation that cannot be swapped by inserting the AC plug of the device into the wall outlet one way or the other. Tarun stresses the "polarity" in the wiring he demonstrates. In many countries, wall outlets do not force proper live/neutral connection. However, connecting a chain of audio devices really requires that correct polarity. So, in my continental European house, the country standardized to German Schuko connectors, I replaced a couple wall outlets by French grounded ones that do not allow live/neutral swaps. Many Schuko plugs have French compatibility, b.t.w. Using the French connection really helps to keep the AC side of devices clean and protects against stray AC wandering from device to device, causing raw or dirty sound. For an electrical AC motor or a lightbulb the L/N orientation is not critical. For audio it is. If outlets from another country are not an option - for code or other reasons, then I would look at connectors often used in data centers and PDUs in there, that use IEC connectors almost everywhere (that is, on both ends of the power leads). If I upgraded to another level of cabling, I would seriously consider UK PDU and device cables, personally. Another thing I would digest on, would be to replace the spurs by longer ones that are terminated in an IEC connector, instead of a wall outlet. We have no fuses in AC plugs, nor in wall outlets, but these are centralized on the main mains switchboard. And all outlets are under ELCB "supervision".
Hi JP DJ, thank you for sharing you interesting. It was fascinating and educational. Plenty of food for thought. I will look into a dedicated line for the audio but suspect I may have to wait until we are due to redecorate. In the interim power conditioners may have to suffice. Changing the mains plugs and wall sockets also very interesting. I appreciate you taking the time to share your insights 😊👍
Hi sir as a U.K. retired electrician I always recommend for those hifi enthusiasts who wish to go the extra mile To consider a dedicated supply from the main distribution board in the property. The cable should preferably be screened ie SWA or SY type with core diameter of no less than 2. 5 mm increasing to larger if the length of the run is problematic And if possible well separated from other mains cables This will achieve the best possible solution May also stress hear in the U.K. we have some of the most stringent electrical regulations in the world So any work carried out on an installation must conform to the regulations And be certified that this is the case We in the U.K. no longer consider electrical circuits other than radial or ring to be compliant ie star types configuration are not permitted on a new installation Finally any loss of Earth continuity would be classed as grade 1 defect So no attempt at isolating the Earth or changing polarity should be performed The way I have described above is the only option available in this country Obviously some form of mains filtering devices would also make a considerable improvement to achieving a clean supply Ultimately it all comes down to cost but it could be one of the best improvements you could do Best wishes and kind regards Mike in the U.K.
A British Audiophile no problem sir my main concern is for the safety and welfare of your views And on no account should anyone consider reversing live and neutral as a way to counter the effects of R F signals Yes the equipment may work but under certain fault conditions the chassis of the unit could potentially become live If I have miss understood the comment posted that seemed to in intimate this as a possible proposition I humbly apologise But I have certainly see it being suggested on other forums Best wishes and kind regards Mike in the U.K.
@@amarcy5369 Mike, Sir, excellent. As continental European, I am aware that code is very strict in the UK. Note, if you have watched the video here, that earth continuity is maintained in the cabling. Three wires are used: live, neutral and earth. The discussion is about the fourth thing, the shield. Its role is to catch electromagnetism from the air and dissipate that energy to earth. The Faraday cage principle. The cage needs grounding, as floating it, will render it inoperable. If we ground the shield (the fourth thing in the cable) on one side, we ground the shield to your continuous earth. It then catches electromagnetism straying from the inside of the cable, as well as electromagnetism trying to get into the cable through the air from the outside. That radiation, if you like, is not an earth leak, but it impacts clean power. If we ground the shield on both ends, it becomes less effective and may become a conduit for the radiation to start its own running around, introducing noise audible in the audio chain. Major culprit is the electronics design in audio devices that uses a common ground the wrong way, not from your code point of view, but from my audiophile point of view. So, all the time, in the video and my comment, one of the three insulated wires/leads in the cable provides earth continuity. As to the 2.5 mm you mention, I guess you mean 2.5 square mm cross section, or a wire/lead diameter of 1.8 mm. That can handle a lot of Watts at your 240V, but is no luxury - so I guess we agree as per your indication or “or more”. As to “Earth continuity”, in the audio trade, we must know that some devices are low powered, internally fused, and have their power consumption on the other end of a transformer. This “on the other end of a transformer” defeats our - yours and mine - ELCB and consequently, in some countries such devices have no earth/ground connection but just a L/N connection. (The ELCB monitors L and N, not ground, but will not see an earth leak on the other side of a transformer.) I only have seen the grounded UK plug when in the UK, generally fused internally and 15A, but you may have devices that, on the device end, connect the AC cable with a simple “Figure 8” connector that can have its L/N swapped because it fits either way. (maybe your code forbids such things - don’t know). As code and connector designs over here “facilitate” L/N swaps, devices that use “Neutral” as common ground in their electronics become a source of problems like ground loops and stray signal from noisy power supplies - because one of the audio channels has its neutral connected to that common ground. This can become very audible and is hard to figure out by the general public. Fortunately we have these detectors that beep when they are near a source of electromagnetic radiation like your cable following code in a wall. And fortunately, when a device has its L/N reversed, its electromagnetic forcefield becomes much deeper. So, we can use your detector to measure the field of a device powered up but only connected to AC, no other devices , measure where the detector beeps (in midair) and when code, connectors and physics allow, reverse the L/N and meter again. The shortest measurement is guaranteed the proper L/N orientation. All maintaining Earth connectivity. And no ELCB were harmed in the process. Sorting the proper L/N polarity and cleaning the AC power can have such benefits that it takes GAS impulses away for at least two years. Note that some audio circuits “float” their connections - potentially XLR-balanced - like DA converters might use transformers on either end of an interface to relay data or signal as cleanly as possible. If properly done, these devices however still maintain Earth continuity at the level of their power supplies. The same applies to expensive AC filters that are based on transformers, or completely “synthesize” AC (like a music synthesizer that creates waves). (GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome)
A lot of people don't understand cable and how they differ. most of the really good power cables that are sold use a shield that surrounds all three conductors like the Lapp cable does as the shield on that Beldon cable isn't doing anything to interfere with noise emitted from the current carrying lines. The other thing that is done is to use twisted pairs which change the phase of what is emitted and makes more difference than the shielding does.
After watching this video I just double checked my lapp power lead and I've just realised even though it's not colour-coded they still are marked, if you look carefully one has the number 1 written on it and obviously the second one has the number 2 written on it! This is another good idea from you because I can now get four new heavy-duty shielded power leads for the price of one! so thanks tarun
Good video. I have also made my own rca cables using silver plated copper teflon coated wire with great results. I don't have a problem with do it yourself projects as long as it is done properly with quality products. Thanks for great videos
Would that happen to be the military grade MIL Spec M16878/4 18 Awg wire? I used that wire inside my DIY Voigt pipe speakers, and will also be using it in my DIY power cable (along with Wattgate brand plugs from Parts Express). It's a great wire!
@@MrCantredr I have used several guages of wire for different projects. They have all been military grade wire. I have great results with it. Good luck with yours.
The MK plugs that have a large brass screw down terminal are very good as you can terminate a lot more of the conductor under the terminal. I think the question of whether to terminate the screen is not relevant to the mains it is a method of screening a "twisted pair" without the screen becoming a signal conductor, I think it is mostly relevant in interconnects, that's what van-den-hul do in the D102 cable, the screen ground is only connected at the transmitting end.
Hi. After watching the previous video I decided to knock up a couple of these cables. I used 3 core 2.5mm SY cable that I had on the van (I am an electrician). The Lapp cable looks to be what we call SY. I would say though that I did not attempt to terminate all the shield strands as well as the 2.5mm earth at the plug. I pulled all the strands back and cut them out but left 3 in (3 x 4 strands) and twisted them together then heat shrinked them. Just waiting for the IEC plugs to arrive so I can finish them.
I've just got some of this sy cable to try 1.5mm to make a 5metre cable to projector & a few others with figure 8 plug to my tvs worth a try at £11 for 10 metre.got silver connectors to put on.but on my pre amp & dac got supra 1.5mm with there gold connectors made up for £36 each worth it they better then belden and lapp on amp got the 2.5mm belden.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 the supra cable made up yourself with supra gold plate 13amp plug and iec is definitely work a try seen a review where he says the mk2 supra as good a premium isotek cable.i like van damme interconnect and speaker cable always sounds good an not silly money within most people's budget a good upgrade.
I invested in a soldering iron a long time ago and for me it pays to solder the braids of wire. Coloured heat shrink is also a good identifier and better than tape. The rest is up to individuals choice.
As far as I understand it, BS 7671 says solder is not permitted if screw terminals are used, because the solder can ‘cold flow’ around the screw head, resulting, over time, in a loose joint.
Thanks for the video I will try and do these for my amp and cd player. Also doing the anti vibration pads. Will try surge protector later. Love your presentation
Another good find on your channel! Didn't know you dabbled in diy portion of the audio hobby. I hope you make more like this. Perhaps some diy interconnects or speaker Wire? Or perhaps some diy audio pass labs amp camp 1.6 class a low powered amps? These do require soldering but the kits are shipped with 24 volt 5amp linear brick power supplys . So no messing with live mains voltages. Still have yet to assemble my mono 1.6 amp camps. They sell out quick at diy audio! Been collecting parts for a diy pass labs first watt aleph j and recently bought a entire parts kits for a f6. All the first watt amps use the same power supply. Only have to do that once. You can buy the input boards for say a f5, f6, aleph j or a mx2 and swap them for a different amp. Also bought the parts for a whammy class a headphone amp/preamp from nelson pass right hand man Wayne at pass. He does the all the low powered stuff such as preamps. Also bought a korg nutube b1 preamp kit that is supposed to be terrific and easy to build. No high voltage mains with this kit. Just some ideas I thought I would toss out there for future content. Steve will be doing a review of the amp camp amps mono here shortly, though he has somebody else doing the soldering/assembly in a time lapse. I wish someone would go more step by step in a series on some of these wonderful amps that neslon has been so generous to provide. Their are terrific but not for everybody as they are lower powered.
Thank you Brandon for sharing this. It will encourage many to take the leap. Nelson and Wayne are legends in the industry and I personally would love to build one of Nelson’s DIY amps. Just need to create the time to do it. Thank you once again 😉👍
Thanks for the tip Tarun. I had not really thought of upgrading generic power cables before watching your video. Father Christmas just bought me some Belden Cable and a Schurter IEC plug from MCRU (he is used to weird stuff on my Christmas list). I have just made up the cable for my amplifier and had a bit of a listening test. I am really pleasantly surprised, it has made an obvious difference to the sound of my HiFi in 2 ways. Firstly the music, immediate difference, no question, more open sound, separation between sounds, punchier mid range, I would not have believed it. It’s quite a thing. Secondly my amplifier, it’s 30 years old and had developed a bit of a hum ( the transformer I assume) you don’t hear it when you are more than a meter or 2 away from it but close up it’s there. With the new cable it is significantly reduced. That can only be a good thing. For £15 this is a bargain upgrade. Due to the large size of the Belden Cable and the conductors making up the cable was tricky. I had to cut back the grommet on the IEC plug to get the cable through and fitting the conductors into the wall plug was tricky but I got there in the end. But now a question for you. Based on this success I would like to repeat for the power cable on my CD player, however that is hard wired in to the machine. Any recommendations? Thanks again, all the best for 2021.
That is great buddy. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I would leave the CD player’s captive power cable alone unless you can replace the cable all the way to where it is soldered internally. This is only recommended if you are really confident you know what you are doing. Chopping the cable externally and replacing it with a shielding cable will add connectors. This is a potential for increased EMI. The shielded cable is solving one problem whilst creating another one.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Thanks for getting back to me. Hmm, I think you right, I am not up for opening my CD player so on balance it is probably better to leave as it. 👍
A simple tip to make sure you wire a plug correctly is - holding it with the pins down, as at 6:09, the *BL*ue wire goes to the *B*ottom *L*eft, and the *BR*own wire to the *B*ottom *R*ight.
Just a point as a retired electrician you should use a small bit of Earth sleeve on the screen cable to be compliant Plus tape can fall of over time Hope you don’t mind my comment Great video as always Best wishes and kind regards Mike in the U.K.
Gerald Holley yes of course but technically it should still be colour coded green and yellow This is I stress purely from a professional standpoint it’s highly unlikely that the average person will have to justify their work to a governing body such as the NIC you’re heat shrink will be just fine certainly better than tape wishing the very best with kind regards Mike in the U.K.
that braided cable is just known as "SY" cable - it's used to wire industrial equipment such as motors (machine tools etc) to a power outlet - they are more often multicored, so the cores are just numbered rather than colour coded.
First remark I would use correct heat shrinking tube (voltage current) for PE +shield isolation than ferrules to fix all naked wires before placing them to connectors. This is nicelly presented at SUPRA LoRAD assembly movie (by SUPRA). Shield discussion - as many audiophiles as many opinions. I would stay with SUPRA idea so shield connected only at source side (wall plug) This is more to move all collected electricity down to ground not to amp or other "users". But that is my opinion. SOme are not recommending using shielded cords to prevent heat cumulation from power L/N but here cable has to be selected correctly Gauge vs power consumption - no downsizig reccommended.
waiting for parts to arrive to make a Lapp cable. already have a tough perma plug which i dismantled and used various grades of wet/dry paper to smooth down the pin and the fuse holder then buffed with fine wire wool and cleaned with brasso and treated with 3in1 oil (i'm not buying deoxit, i'm not made of money). this gives a smoother, cleaner surface for the electricity to conduct into the plugs to give a cleaner current
Both floating shield and shield to ground are viable options, depending on the circumstances. If it's connected to ground, all the noise that hits the shielding flows away to ground. Because of that, more noise will be present on the ground, but that's no issue as long as the impedance of the ground to the wall is lower than that of the equipment. It also increases the cable capacitance, luckily this is no problem for power supplies, but when making signal cables, that can be detrimental to the higher frequencies going through (phono cables connecting MM cartridges in particular). Even when the shield is only connected to ground at near the power outlet. Good advice to only connect the shield at the mains plug ground to prevent ground loops; that's often overlooked 😉
Thank you Qorax. What is your view on shielding power leads at both ends? I know it can introduce problems due to ground loops but is the shielding more effective if you don’t have ground loop issues?
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Well... A connection is a connection, but the closer to the power socket, the better. AFAIK, the only real benefit of connecting ground on both ends is redundancy. That can be useful in harsh environments, where there's a chance that one of both ends gets loose. Connecting both doubles the chance of a good connection (more or less, the chance of disconnection is probably higher at the IEC plug then the UK plug). But this doesn't really matter in home applications, especially since the cables are installed in a static setup and not moved around all the time. Firmly screwing down the wire terminals and firmly mounting the strain relief comes a long way. Also, using crimps on the wires helps the reliability of screw terminals, but the right crimping pliers and crimp diameter needs to be used in order to be sure of that. Instead of crimps, some people use the soldering iron to put tin on the wires, so that it's more easy to insert it into the screw terminals. This is one of the worst DIY ideas possible, because tin has the property of cold flow when it's under pressure like a screw tightly mounted onto it. If you have bad luck, the tin will be squeezed too flat in a matter of weeks or even months. The tin will get flat enough to cause intermittent connection issues and eventually get loose. Because the issues are intermittent at first, it's very hard to troubleshoot.
Interesting to learn the different schools of shield grounding… I think you will get an effect (voltage differential) when two distinct metals are in contact, as in the case of the Lapp. Curious if anyone would know if this effect persists with the Oyaide Tunami, which has a copper shield.
The "Lapp" cable looks like generic SY cable to me, which has a braided sheath, not for electrical screening, rather mechanical protection. If it is, the braid is not tinned copper, but steel, which is not a great quality conductor. The open weave and the fact that all the strands are not electrically bonded to one another, so contact resistance is unpredictable and termination is not easy, all means its not a great option for an electrically shielded cable. Also I think the Belden cable is a properly screened/ shielded cable with a complete electrical envelope in the form of a foil with drain wire, that is more easily terminated. Thanks for the video, rolling our own can save a lot of money!
I also make my own mains cables, but they are slightly more involved, though still reasonably doable for DIY people who can wire up a standard UK mains plug: You will need: two core lighting cable (0.75mil) Earth cable (nothing fancy, but thicker than the lighting cables What you do: Strip the lighting cable so you have individual blue and brown wires (N and L respectively. Cut lengths roughly 3x as long as you need. Stick blue and brown wires in a vice at one end and the chuck of a cordless drill at the other. Pull them tight and start up your drill in the clockwise direction to twist them together. Maintain a little tension as you to to make the twist nice and even. Stop when the twist is 1.5-2cm per full twist. Now cut the twisted pair in half. Cut an earth cable the same length as the two live-neutral pairs. Now stick the two pairs of LNs and the earth cable in a vice and electric drill as before. This time twist them together anti-clockwise. The rest is just finishing. I normally use a bit of heat shrink at either end and every 30cm or so to hold the twisted bundle together, but insulation tape works just as well. Then I put some nylon braiding round the whole thing to make it look nice. Attaching plugs is easy - a blue pair to neutral, a brown pair to live and the green/yellow single wire to earth. The twisted pair concept comes from Ethernet cable, which runs very long length without picking up radio interference because of the twist without shielding. You can make the cable for (literally) a couple of quid a metre, plus the cost of plugs. I’d love to know if they are as good as yours, but I like them, and I’ve tried them against very fancy branded cables for audio with some very nice kit and they are easily as good.
A British Audiophile I’m better in writing than on tv... but maybe you have a go, see what you think and if you like the results, make the video. I’d really enjoy that!
Good video as always! Additional comment to avoid accidental shorting. This is relevant for any diy cable. Buy a cheap multimeter and use the 'beep' function to check conductivity across conductors before plugging it in. I bought some cheap aliexpress connectors and I discovered there was a short in the connector. Glad I checked before plugging it in! The check is a bit over the top of you have good connectors and good skills/eye sight. However it only takes seconds and might save you an expensive mistake one day 👍
Excellent! Well this is indeed timely. I am waiting for four of these kits to come from MCRU and was looking for a decent RU-vid video; yours exceeded my expectations 😊
I built a pair of the Belden power cables. The uk plugs I bought came tarnished from manufacture. I gave them a polish to clean up the contacts and fuses before assembly.
Well presented and clear on the How To. Some folks make the wire look pretty with a cover and shrink wrap at the ends which keeps it "clean" looking. Going for the Oyaide cable with their connectors. Thanks Tarun.
The presentation was interesting, but missed a few points, to my mind. Firstly, some links to the actual products used would have been helpful. Secondly, there’s the issue of fitting 13A fuses. They may sounder better (if you buy into the Russ Andrews philosophy) but I would always fit the lowest rating fuse suitable for the equipment. Fuses are an imperfect solution at best, but far better to use them to protect the connected equipment. Fuses can be had in 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 13A ratings, and for low current demand devices I use 1 or 2A. Next, the video didn’t cover how to connect cables to a figure of eight connector. These are tricky to work with, so a mention of IEC to FO8 adapters would have been useful. Finally, there’s the shield/ground connection. I’m of the opinion that it should really be connected at both ends of the cable, or not at all.
At risk of offending the purists, what is the best way to improve the mains cable for an amplifier which has an annoying fixed cable length i.e. no plug socket into unit? Also what make is the hi-fi rack you are using? Have tried for ages for one of these without success. Enjoy the videos, a much needed breath of fresh air.
I have captive mains leads on my Exposure Preamp and monoblock power amps. I removed the plug, wrapped a tinned copper braid around the cable, secured the ends using shrink wrap, got some extra earth wire (green and yellow in the UK), connected it from the braid to the Earth pin of the mains plug. Voila, I now have a screened cable with the shield connected to the earth pin. Disclaimer, only attempt to do this if you are certain that you know what you are doing or get it done by a qualified electrician.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Thanks Tarun for detailed response, seems straightforward enough - although it begs the question why some manufacturers opt for captive leads? Do you have details of maker of hi-fi rack? I have a feeling these may not be current now, but here's hoping. Thanks again.
In AC power cables, the electrons vibrate on the OUTSIDE of the cable jacket. That is why you get hum next to a poorly shielded unbalanced RCA cable. Electrons flow inside the cable jacket in DC power, outside in AC power.
its all about whats before and after any form of"upgrade" . fancy speaker cables....`?check inside speaker and see what they use !! same for amp etc etc . best ever upgrade will be dedicated "radial" supply from the consumer to feed the hifi , or a few radials if its a mega system
Nice video, my recommendation would be a better quality plug as that one is pretty pony, something by MK or Crabtree would be much better, they have a better cable grip and much more effective terminations. Not expensive either.
Was an electrician for 40+ years. Measure the voltage at the end of a factory provided cord and a fancy 100 dollar job and tell me how it is going to affect the sound. Other than placing a power cord to close and parallel to a signal carrying cable, raw AC power is AC power. By the time it goes thru the transformer and AC to DC rectification and filtering, there is ZERO difference as to what the internal components see. They do look nice tho, and a lot of hi end audio is looks. Like spending boo koo bucks to have your car gold plated, doesn't make it run any better. Listen to audiophile music and you know it's not about the music. But I'm OK with all that, it's a hobby, and well that's what hobbies are for. Just taking peoples money making them think a power cord affects sound quality bugs me. Don't mean you, just in general.
Good that you looked into how to conect the sheald. In Europa our wall plug we are able to turn it 180° aruond. And we have also 230v and 50hz. so 50% of the time when we plug it into the wall, we either get L or N and or vice versa (the ground is alwas the ground). So it is not that important here and we do not have the fuse in the wall plug that England has either.
You’ve inadvertently placed your speakers wrong way up. Ha ha after seeing this... I’m reticent to take audio advice, or electrical instructions from you. Lol. I hope you can see the fun I’m having with you... and are not taking me seriously. I’ve often been disappointed buy the power cord I’ve been given, even with very high powered systems, in the past. You see them and wonder if they can even pass any power without getting very hot. Sheesh! Oh! I like the fuse being included in the mains plug... here in the US you very rarely see that, if ever. Having dealt with hundreds of volts in tube amps in the past, I’m ok with working on this kind of thing. Sorry... I like to talk about my having built tube amps, as I’m proud of it. Thanks for the video, even if where I live everything looks completely different. Ha ha I enjoy your channel a lot, considering I’m not an audiophile and only a Musician. ✨😂😝✨All my $ 💸💸💸💸 wings away on musical equipment at the front end of the business. Ha ha!
Hi BadChizzle, I don’t mind people poking a like fun. I think if you put yourself out in the public domain it helps to have a thick skin and a sense of humour. Thank you for watching and sharing your experiences. I enjoyed reading your comments 😉
Hi. I have just bought some Audio Technica LP140XP turntables for some occasional home DJ work after several years away from Technics. I have upgraded the phono cables with Sommer cables and upgraded RCA connectors. Is it worth doing the power cables with the Belden? Having a lot of debate with my friends who say it’s just a huge waste of time!
For this application you should connect screen on one end of the cable, it has nothing to do with ground loop. Actual explanation is quite a bit more complex than you would expect, for low frequency like here there are two basic reasons for that, one to avoid equalizing current flow thru screen, and second that thru impedance of loop connection between screen and PE wire connected on both ends this would act sort of like antenna and pick RF noise. Also screen drain wire should have proper isolation not just this bit of tape that can fall off, the PE wire should always have some slack, in case of pulling it out from plug it should be the last one to disconnect.
Throughout your house many houses have unshielded cable inside the wall of very ordinary quality that can also have noise and then you use extra good cable 2 meters from wall to amplifier! I do not understand why it should help? You have many things connected that can cause noise!
@@djbeatroot If you've got decent interconnects, proximity to mains cables should make no audible difference. It's very unlikely that you'd hear any difference if your speaker cables are near to a mains cable feeding your audio system. Maybe if the speaker cables are wrapped around the mains cable, but even then I'd be surprised if the induced current would be enough to move a speaker coil.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 "Contentious issue" is putting it mildly. Straight talkers could justifiably call it "complete bollocks". At least you are not suggesting oxygen free copper!
I made this with Belden yesterday and installed it on my NAD M32. It really makes a difference. Not big,but surely there is more control. Very curious if a more expensive cable will make more bigger difference.
Hi Rick, that is great to hear. I was auditioning the Iota VX SA3 and I switched between the standard IEC and the Lapp one I made. The was a subtle but definite improvement in the sound quality with the Lapp cable and that is a £400 amplifier.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 I was a hardend not believer in the cable story. Now I tested my speaker wires myself. Switched from QED XT40i to Supra 3/4. What an improvement!! I directly ordered the Art Speak silvercore wire(yes,silver but soft silver so no sharp edges in sound and awesome). This wire is handmade and not known very wide,but I think one of the best kept Dutch secrets and worth the money(you should test one!). Now I tested the Belden selfmade and again a noticable difference! Now i also ordered an Art Speak powercable. The Art Speak site sucks....he's a real technician/musician and no nonsense kind of person. Just call him. Really worth testing!
Thanks for this. Can you comment on sensible wire gauges? You use 14 in your example, why not 12, 10 or even 8? I guess one issue is what a plug will accept. But can you have too thick a cable from an audio perspective? How about length? Making your own gives opportunity have neater cables. I agree, I've been put off by the silly prices audioquest et al. want to charge for power cables. Just looks like highway robbery for a modest system.
Hi Daniel, you can make your own power cable for not much cost as you see in this video. You are probably okay with your 14AWG speaker cables. If you are running big amps and speakers and have cable runs more than 5m you may want to upgrade to 12 or 10AWG. In theory, if the cables get really big (e.g. 3AWG) the skin effect becomes more prominent. However, these effects are normally outside the audible frequency range even with the thickest speaker cables.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Thanks again for reply! No big amps at all. Re power cables, found that the C13 connectors are limited to AWG 14. So power cable gauge is limited by what the plugs can accept. Re skin effect, I thought that is for speaker cables, not power cables.
This is all rather odd. Just what difference a metre or two of thicker wire shielded will make when there will be several tens of metres of the ordinary stuff buried in the wall, under floors and across ceilings I simply don't see. The thing that actually supplies the DC current that your electronic components use is the power supply, and that contains all the regulators, smoothing and input filtering to provide amplifiers and other electronic components with the stable, low noise output that they require. That power supply is what really matters, and it also has to be designed so that it is not a source of EM interference itself. There's not much you can do about the power supply of course, but if it's a good one, and I'd expect those in high quality equipment to be excellent, then it's not going to make the slightest difference making a highly marginal change on the power feed from what is an inherently very noisy source; that is the mains supply. Put a scope or a frequency analyser on that, and it's very noisy indeed. It's the power supply that isolates the audio equipment from this stuff in its DC feed.
remove the mains cable , take it apart , includes undoing the connections in the plugs and replacing the fuse , put it back together , plug it back in ... instant upgrade.
So I'm making my own using all totl furutech. Now I read that the power amps aren't to be shielded? Wtf as In don't use a shielded cable at all for them? Is a cable shielded if it has a shield or only if you connect the shield to earth ground?
I am a bit unclear on the remark of leaving the shield disconnected on the device side. Does that include the green/yellow ground wire? If not, then groundloops are still possible. But if shield and ground wire are both left disconnected at the device side, then that's a potential hazard. Should a fault somehow short a live part to the chassis, worst case situation would be that the return path for the current becomes the human touching it. What's more, all devices connected to the defective device now also become live through the interlink shields. This is the case for class 1 devices which must be earthed. It is not the case for class 2 devices which must not be earthed.
The worst components in the mains supply chain are the 13A plugs , crappy 4way distribution strips and a proper ground for the overall system. Spend not a lot of money and get a POWERCON distribution strips . POWERCON is a mains version of SPEAKON connection. Very safe , good contact performance etc. In the UK the SY series of cables can be had from CEF , branches all over the country. In the US any Anixter branch , Belden brand. Easily found in Europe. In the UK VDC Trading is excellent for HQ cable requisites. No affiliation BTW
It depends on too many factors to make a blanket statement like that. There are situations where it can. Also, imagine a scenario where the insulation fails and the drain contacts the active (or neutral) terminal. If it's connected at both ends, then what happens? BANG. In a worst case situation the cable can catch on fire and/or it takes out the amplifier power supply circuit as well. Fuses don't work if the short is on the earth line - I've seen it happen. I worked as a cinema audio tech in Australia - we made all our own cables. With a long cable run it absolutely can create audible noise if the drain is connected at both ends. Also, Australian, American, and European plugs do not have fuses in the wall plug, so connecting the drain at the wall plug only is risk mitigation if nothing else. A lot of the cinemas we did installations in were very old buildings with questionable wiring so trusting the fuses in the meter box was foolhardy. A lot of houses are old too so the same applies. We had to use shielded cable because the transformer rectifiers and the the xenon arc lamps can create a lot of interference - particularly the older ones. And with the amplifiers being several hundred watts per channel any noise is easily audible. I'll grant you that cinema auditoriums are a different prospect to a house because the challenges to overcome are greater, but the theory is the same. We lost a $15,000 Dolby CP-65 Processing unit once because a short came up the earth line - and at no point did any of the fuses blow. We knew that was what had happened because the earth lead inside the units power supply was fried and two of the contact points on the chassis were welded together by the current. Admittedly this wasn't caused by the shielding, but it did demonstrate the possibility. It was lucky no-one was touching the rack when it happened. Cheers.
Great stuff Tarun! Just two things a klutz like me would like to know (a cursory look below did no illuminate me): with the LAP cable, is conductor 1 = Live and conductor 2 = Neutral, or vice versa? How is the LAP shielding made into a wire to join to the earth conductor? Otherwise, foolproof; and no nonsense!
I don't think going from a cable that is tested to be electrically and fire safety sound to a cable that has been hand made and with questionable cables is a good idea, especially considering there are miles of unprotected cable going from the outlet back to wherever your nearest power distributor is so even if this did make any difference after the outlet it wouldn't matter because there is already noise present, plus any well designed full bridge rectifier shouldn't pass on the noise to the ADC and a well designed ADC circuit should be able to produce a consistent noise floor even with noise on the power rail. This is just a fire risk really and won't make a difference in terms of sound quality to a well constructed system. You're much better saving the money you spend on things like this and investing it into balanced cables to go between devices, well built equipment and a pack of tissues to wipe up the snake oil.
I'm interested in your opinion of using a ferrite choke on the LIVE / Active incoming electricity supply and NOT on the Neutral / Return cable. An electrician told me that there is no point using a ferrite choke on the return / neutral wire, and that doing so actually results in (can't remember) ATTENUATION issues. ie: only the LIVE / ACTIVE wire should have a ferrite choke used on it to smooth 'ripple' in the power supply. Is this correct? What is your opinion on this 'wives tale' re use of ferrite chokes. I'm not an electrician, and don't have any qualification as such.
Hi Trauma 2000, here in the U.K. the brown wire is the “hot wire” carrying power from the outlet to the component. Neutral wires carry currents back to power source to better control and regulate voltage. Its overall purpose is to serve as a path to return energy. Ground wires are electrical paths designed to carry fault currents when a power abnormality occurs. They don't carry currents, their purpose is to provide operator safety. As a result you could argue that you only need to filter RF on the hot (brown) lead as it is the source of power to the component. I am not sure about the sonic differences between having the choke on both leads as compared to just the hot lead. If you are using a ferrite choke on ac power lead, you need to place it at the component end of the lead where it is not possible to isolate individual leads. This is due to them being wrapped in a PVC jacket. It is not advisable to gain access to individual leads at this point. Hope that helps a little.
I am not, and never will be an 'audiophile', especially with my poor hearing. However, if I was making up a power cable of any importance, whether for audio or not, I wouldn't bother with a £1:50 plug from the local DIY shop. I've always tended toward plugs made by MK as they have a screw down nut with the core looped round the thread. It gives a greater contact area and better current carrying ability. But that's just me.
Really useful video thank you so much! I just made 3 of these using the LAPP cable and Martin Kaiser plug etc from MCRU and they cost me about £20 a pop. After I’d made them I realised that Ideally I wanted at least one of them slightly longer than the 1m length I made so I’m going to make a 1.5m and 2m cable as well (for the subwoofer and AV amp) and use the shorter ones for my CD player and phono stage. Then pretty much all my kit will have these awesome power leads. It’s a shame that my turntable (it’s a Rega P8) and my DaC (Cambridge Dacmagic 200m) have those hideous wall wart power supplies ideally I’d change those out for these or something similar but I don’t know what’s possible atm - I will look into it! Thanks again and Take care
Did you notice any difference between the Kapp or Belden cable for sound quality or did they sound both the same. Slowly getting through all your videos, again another great video.
Hi I'm guessing the extra cost on silver or even gold plated plugs or IEC connection plus fuse to match would or wouldn't make a significant difference? Great videos by the way, very informative 👏
Great informative video Tarun, bought a 0.5m belden cable ready made for £20, it's twice as thick as supplied marantz cable, don't hear much difference on my low end amp but the belden 8402 RCA cable I bought definitely improved bass clarity in my system, that's a relatively cheap upgrade cable, where it was murky sounding, it's now tight & clear!
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Hi Tarun. Was this a 19364 Belden cable? If so I believe I maybe in luck like bigambientdeath with a similar 1m ready made cable (keiser connector) albeit a few extra quid. Cheers
@@abritishaudiophile7314 cheers Tarun. We had ours wires crossed ('scuse pun). I meant the power cable in you're vid. It's OK. I've ordered one. Half way on the tweaks you've recommended. Cheers.
That's very useful, thanks. I make up my own similarly by getting the parts independently, but probably no cheaper than those MCRU kits which look good. The way I look at it is that it's so cheap to make up your own that you're really not risking much by having a ago - well, other than perhaps your life if you're not competent at electrics :-)
And thinking about the LAPP cable that came with live and neutral both coloured black, I have a commercial "audiophile" mains cable (which came with an amp I bought second hand) with all three wires yellow.
Thanks Alan. I think you've answered my previous question to Tarun. Its MCRU I'm looking at for the belden cable. Must be the one you're talking about. I could add the electrical tape round the earth myself.
Thank you for this video and your video on 5 good value tweaks. I purchased the Tacisma power block as I needed a power block anyway. I was amazed at the improvement on my system. I have a high end system but I have neglected the power side of things since being lent some power cords a number of years ago which, with a different system, made the sound slightly worse. I have ordered a very low (£25) and fairly low priced (£60) items to put together my own power cords with a view to assessing whether there are any benefits ( which I think there will be) and if so how much benefit will I get from each. I've also ordered the Tacisma mains conditioner so you've really got me going down the rabbit hole with your recent videos!
I have the Cambridge AX81, CXN & CXC. I made contact with MCRU who suggested I needed to spend something nearer £120 per cable on the their no 75 set. Given I need three cables, this is a almost £400! I’d be very interested in your views and appreciate your help
I have used the MCRU Lapp mains kits. They look substantial and have the benefit of the screen. Like you only connect the plug top screen to earth with sleeving. Question, does it make a difference? Don't answer, please don't answer 😬They look nice though.
Could I just ask about not grounding at one end, I was always led to believe that it was dangerous and that it could cause a house fire or you could be electrocuted and you circuit board might not trip.
The earth cables should be connected at each end for sure 100%. Its the cable screen which only needs to be connected one end for the reasons Tarun described.
I wonder how much such a fuse is adding to the resistance of the overall cabling. How much is the resistance of this cable itself and how much is the resistance in the resistor?
Some of us are very tempted by the many cables and plugs offered on Aliexpress. It's clear that a few UK cable brands are actually just importing from China, adding UK plugs and some nice shrink sleeving. Are you aware of this activity Tarun? I'd value your take on the subject.
Hi legrandmaitre, I haven’t really come across Aliexpress. When buying hifi equipment, even cables, I always prefer to deal with people who have built up a reputation you can trust.
snake oil ! , the wire in the wall of your house is not shielded why put 2 meters of shielded wire when the rest of wire from the power distribution up to the outlet on your wall is not shielded . just good to impress the visitor by stating hou much you pay
Hi Carl, I understand where you’re coming from. These are contentious issues and not everyone is going to be on the same page. Not tempted to give it a try for £15?
From a safety standpoint some things are not that great: - Earth cable should always be longer thatn the rest, such if someone rip out the cable out of the plug, by tripping the line for example, earth will disconnect last! - You should use ferules to keep the copper strands bundled inside the connector.. Otherwise there is a chance that single ones break over time due to motion on the cable, some might corode and they might slip out of the clamp holding them in the connector. For style purposes / street cred i fully agree with this mod, regarding sound quality: No no change at all, except for placebo effects.. Even if you mains cable had 1Ohm resistance you would expect any change in sound probably, as this is purely ohmig and does not change the shape of the waveform + the powersupply in you speaker will just draw more current or your speaker might be just a tad less loud.
I phoned MCRU who dismissed their Lapp cable out of hand when I was asking about power cables. They recommended one costing about £130 I think with a cheaper option at £75 but because I wasn't at all sure and need 3 I didn't buy any. Do you think they were exaggerating somewhat in a bid to promote their more expensive and probably slightly superior products?
@@abritishaudiophile7314 Thanks I'll do that although it's mostly an insurance in case I might be missing out on something I didn't know I was missing! They've now added a 4mm2 Lapp cable so I'll try that. Cheers
