[DaveC113]

IME star quad geometry seems to work especially well for power applications, probably due to the low inductance.
 
Audioquest SLiP DB 14/4 wire is 14 AWG x4 star quad cable meant for in-wall speaker cabling and CL-3 rated.
It works out to be 11 AWG per leg of long grain copper, and an external ground wire can be added.
$14 for 5 foot length, add Viborg "red copper" plugs (about $28 from Amazon), and you got yourself a neutral, smooth, detailed cord with right amount of midrange richness without bloat and great treble and bass extension.  This avoids the often zippy sound of silver-plated copper in teflon and often dull, ponderous sound of heavy AWG finely stranded copper in thick PVC/rubber, in parallel or twisted.     

https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AQSLIP144

Agreed, nice value for that cable!  Also agree lower inductance is an asset of star quad vs twisted pair and many other possibilities. It's a trade-off vs a 4-strand braid though, star-quad's downside is the conductors are parallel to each other over the entire cable, where braids have the wires crossing over each other at an angle. Both work well for PCs, I'd take the braid for SCs though for sure, less capacitance... A PC is very specialized in it only needs to transmit a 60 Hz sine wave, and capacitance that might not be good in an SC may be good in a PC.

I also agree silver plated wire can be a crapshoot. I tested and re-terminated a power cable made with a couple dozen twisted pair of light gauge mil-spec solid-core wire... you can buy premade twisted pairs. It was one of the worst cables I've ever tested, providing my system with the worst attributes silver can add to a system. One PC was enough to ruin the sound of my system. However, the cable made from 12g stranded as I detailed in previous posts has none of that, and it's more neutral sounding than any inexpensive copper cable I've ever tested as well. Mil-spec also makes good ground wire for ICs somehow. I really don't understand exactly why mil-spec works great sometimes but sounds bright, harsh and splashy other times.

[MTVhike]

I believe that the power cables supplied by the equipment manufacture are perfectly fine. The only reason to replace them is to get a longer one and, perhaps, one more flexible. Also, do you want a right-angle plug?

[Creed]

I've built cables from expensive store bought wire to cheap Home Depot wire. To stay cheap I have had very good luck with cheap 6 gauge to 8 gauge solid core and stranded. I bought some 6 gauge solid core from electrical supply used a buffing compound from auto parts store and cleaned with compound followed by rubbing alcohol. Then cover with shrink wrap. Insert 6 gauge wire in plastic/rubber tubing bought at Home Depot leave wire sticking out 3 or 4 inches take a glue gun and close off one end of tubing with glue gun. I bought some fine brass powder of eBay but you can use sand blasting from harbor freight. Fill tubing with powder and then run a palm sander up and down tubing it will compact powder add more powder till it is tight. Take glue gun and seal other end of tubing. Make some clamps from Corion, wood, brass or any hard substance you prefer. Place a clamp at each end of wire and middle, and tighten down tight. It is same concept as JPS Labs. I found the stranded wire sounds smoother and more relaxed and solid core has better detail and bigger bass. The better the wire doesn't always mean better sound but I have found the better the connectors the better the sound. You can build a cable for under $100 that can sound as good as some $1000 cables, your mileage may vary.

[ric]

Creed, if you want to experiment, try getting some N52 (I use 1/2" x 1.25" cylinders) magnets and make a pigtail (male end one side, female end other side) and put 3 magnets in the pathway of the hot, neutral and ground with all three magnets oriented in the same direction. If the pigtail sounds smeared, reverse the magnets.
I have been using these for a few years now and now use magnets in the pigtails, as well as pigtails for IC's and speaker cable. What I like about using pigtails is they can easily be removed. I also use some of the High Fidelity products. If wary of using them, try using one on your phono ground. Good luck!

[sarora9]

Krustycat's response above pretty much captures my experience in the past few months. Tried chi-fi ( waudio brand on amazon) and found it slightly better than stock. Made my own PCs (flavor 1 and 2 PC's from vhaudio) with Furutech FI-11 connectors and they were a huge improvement over chi-fi.  It stands to reason that  more improvements can be wrung out by investing more  $$$ but I am just sitting back and enjoying the sound. 

List of useful resources: vhaudio is a good resource for DIY-ers (also for interconnect and speaker wires) with prices competitive enough that you don't need to search for good deals on Furutech, WBT etc. in shady corners of ebay.   The owner responds to emails and gives good advice. Takefiveaudio and avoutlet are also mentioned as good resources for but I have not tried them. Takefive will sell you finished versions of some popular DIY recipes. 

Viborg (china) and aeco (taiwan) connectors have a good reputation on the forums.

Dave of zenwave on audiocircle and "Duster" on audio asylym seem to be willing to share their extensive knowledge and made a lot of sense. 

Hope this was useful for you.

System: Roon -> Bricasti M5 streamer -> Bricasti M1 SE Dac -> Folsom 7293 amp -> Spatial X3 speakers

[Creed]

Ric, I wish I understood how to use pigtail. How do you put magnet in path way and does it need to be shielded? Thanks for any help sounds very interesting.

[rtate]

I have used this Belden 8303 cable for mains cords with a VH Audio "flavor 2" recipe based on others recommendations and find them to be good but often wonder if a 4 wire braid would be better
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BELDEN-83803-AUDIOPHILE-MAINS-POWER-CABLE-PER-METRE-FOR-DIY-/150869246453

https://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/diyMains/
 
Any thoughts on this cable ?

[timind]

I recently followed this example from Russ Andrews web site and built a few power cables with Marinco connectors. Wrapped them in tech flex, which was the most difficult part of the job. Do they improve the sound over the OEM cables? If I ever spend time comparing, I'll let you know. But they sure look the part. 

[rtate]

Does anyone have an example of a 4 wire braided PC ?
I would really like to try to build one   

[DaveC113]

Does anyone have an example of a 4 wire braided PC ?
I would really like to try to build one   

You can do it 2 ways... use 2 of the wires in the braid for ground and the opposing 2 wires for hot and neutral. Or use the 4 braided wires for hot and neutral, then wrap ground wire(s) around the braid much like the pic timind posted, the green wire is the ground wire and instead of the complicated braid shown just use a 4-strand braid.

[Speedskater]

That pictured Russ Andrews cable can't be a safety agency approved AC mains power cord.

[krustykat]

Dave recommended using star quad cable for amplifier DIY power cords a few weeks back and I made one for my amp using VHAudio's star quad wire.  I fed the star quad into a rubber hose and wrapped the hose with 10 gauge ground wire.  This is essentially VH Audio's Flavor 4 cable.   I terminated the cable with Furutech FI-11 AC connectors.  Total cost was about $175 for a 6ft PC.  This is a professional quality cable and makes my amp sing - it doesn't restrict dynamics, has a very solid soundstage and tonality is spot on.  I was very proud of myself that I could actually make something that sounded this good!   To reduce the cost further, one might get the milspec copper cable Dave recommended and create the braid yourself, it wouldn't be too hard.

As a side note,  Dave was kind enough to send me a couple of his ribbon based PCs to try out. They are definitely not cheap and cheerful, but they are very eye opening as to what state of the art power cables can do for your system.  It is great that Dave is so willing to share his knowledge and help the DIY community, he's a valuable resource to the Audio Circle community!

[rtate]

Thanks Dave, what is your preference for the ground ?