May I ask on the arrangement of mains cables that are connected to your mains power block or conditioner, PowerHaus M6, S6, Niagara 1200 or any other quality designs.
Does the best (costliest) mains cable go between the wall outlet and mains block? Or the cable that goes between the wall outlet and mains block is from the same manufacturer ie. Chord Signature or Sarum T to PowerHaus M6, Audioquest Tornado to Niagara 1200 etc., and the best costliest cables are used between the block to components?
I know the typical response of “try it and see for yourself”. Just curious.
If you take the Naim PowerLine as an example, it has to be connected to the hifi directly to have full benefit. The cable part itself is nothing too special. The construction of the plugs is to mechanically decouple the mains inlet on the hifi from the cable and therefore reduce mechanical microphonic vibration entering the unit.
In other words, it is going to vary according to cable and how you use it.
I can’t tell you want is right. I can only tell you what I do.
I should add that in the new place we haven’t moved into yet, the wall outlets are also Furutech models so in all cases, it is a Furutech wall outlet with a Furutech cable (from the lower cost pro audio range). So wall outlet and first cable are matched to each other. Hifi and hifi power cables matched to each other. And the distribution block bridges the two.
In my experience, the best power cable should go between wall and distribution block. In my Naim system, I have a Audioquest Tornado between wall and Niagara 3000 and then Powerlines to each component (except the Klimax Radikal that need a slimline connector).
Probably not the answers you were hoping for but…
Only the Luxman one which is both Japan only and discontinued. They are both good. It’s hard to compare. The Luxman is loopless though whereas the Furutech isn’t until much higher up the range.
The whole systems in both cases are connected to the block - source to amp. When I added the Furutech the difference was very large and good. I posted about this somewhat on the old forum. One difficulty I had was separating out the cause. I went from a 5m long standard heavy duty block that cost $20 to the Furutech on a 1.5m Furutech cable. So I had a better block, a better cable, and was 3.5m closer to the CU. The overall impact was great and IIRC felt like the system didn’t run out of steam as much as the previous arrangement.
I have a new kitchen system being assembled which also has a Furutech wall socket. In that system, there are only two boxes so both streamer and amp can go direct into the wall.
I’ve kind of avoided the more exotic audiophile blocks and cables. Even my Furutech wall sockets are neither NCF (except the main one) or Rhodium. They are decent, high contact area and pressure gold plated outlets. You can spend serious money on these. I haven’t. Instead I had a dedicated earth installed and a CU with 4 dedicated hifi circuits on the thickets core cable the Furuteck sockets will take.
I’ve gradually moved from using the highest perceived quality/fancy/priced cable from wall to the mains block to also ensuring it’s the heaviest gauge I can afford in that section. I am now using a 6mm2 Neotech for that and it’s still less the 9-10mm2 (8AWG) my SOtM MT-1000 block is wired with. I’ve also invested a bit more than before into feeding my source/DAC (currently Shunyata NR version) and using the best I can for everything else, and a solid core for the amp.
Also, have taken out all brass out and keeping an all copper path, including the wall socket to the equipment (quite a difference to my ears when All path done), which means replacing sockets and some cheaper plugs on some cables. (Even some quite expensive Chord cables which seem to be popular here come with plated brass MSHD plugs if you look closer, same for most others, including Naim own).
Takes a bit of effort but once done, should serve a very long time and stay with every system change.
