Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Chris VenHaus DIY Cables DIY Mains Power Cables Cable by zosocincy

Dilemma: (skip to Sound if you don't like babble..)
Though the years as I've assembled my system, I've always wanted to take the plunge and do my system up with some cool power cords but I always managed to convince myself to do some other upgrade. Well, the next thing I knew I had 7 component in my audio chain that needed premo-power (only amp had high-end PC cable). That's like $1400 on power cordsâ€¦.OUCH! Sorry this one income family shouldn't be in this hobby to begin with..that's not going to fly.

Solution:
I was looking on www.AudioAsylum.com and notice some folks talking about DIY power cords. Hmmmm, there's an idea. Awhile back I did some DIY XLR cables with good resultsâ€¦So I read some of the formulas and one made a lot of sense to meâ€¦ ChrisVH Flavor 1. â€¦check it out!

http://www.geocities.com/venhaus1/diymains.html

It's great when someone does all the hard work to find the right recipe and you just come in and make the dang thing! Thanks Chris!

Cost:
A 6ft cable cost me about $35. Yea, I have some extra left over (actually a lot) so if you're interested in some wire at custom lengths and don't want to buy 100' of 83802. I can helpâ€¦ please no low-ballers , I'll just keep the stuff and make more cords! The other nice thing about DIY is you can make your own lengths. Most my equipment surrounds my Power Plant so all the stuff hooked up to that only need to be 4'. Ohhhhh the savings!

Some other place to shop for parts: (found some deals at these places)
http://www.cabletiesplus.com/
http://www.calinet.com/rogers/

Sound:
Out of the shoot I wasn't too impressed. The first one I put on was on my P300. I thought it made senseâ€¦it needed to power my whole front-endâ€¦ it needed a good source of juice, right? Well, it doesn't make sense cause the P300 regenerates the power- me stupid! Only minor improvements here but nothing to write home about. Of course I thought it was my power cord. WRONG! After that I made 3 more so my whole front-end which plugs into the P300 was juiced with new cords. Incredible! How incredible? Well, it made such a difference I had to adjust the toe-in on my speakers. It allowed me to setup my speaker to fire (closer to) straight out and still keep the pin-point imagining I had (while toed-in) plus expand the width/depth of the soundstage (because of toeing out!). I also had to turn my subs down a notch. Pretty cool for ~ $130 worth of cables! It seems the system is a little more relaxed, less tizzle-sizzle on the highsâ€¦. Now it didn't have much of that before but some recordings I have are well..CRAP! So it did seem to improve the CRAP and sound better on the good stuff. The background did seem to get a little darker/quieter. It wasn't a Power Plant improvement but it was still thereâ€¦ The most noticeable improvement in sound was that my system just sounded more powerful with less effortâ€¦ One note on the Marinco Products, Top Notch! I do have a $500 power cord (well regarded) and it doesn't hug my components/wall outlet like the Marinco's products doâ€¦makes me wonder why it lists for $500â€¦hmm?

I have made a total of 7 the Flavor 1 cables so farâ€¦. I haven't done a direct comparison to my high-end PC yet but that will come. I too busy enjoying the music!

Music listened to before/after install of PCs:
Wilco - Being There
The Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
RadioHead - OK Computer
Beatles - Abbey Road
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Holly Cole: Dark Dear Heart

System:
Theta Data Basic
Perpetual Technologies P-1A (with SOCS for Genesis Speakers)
Perpetual Technologies P-3A
Monolithic Power Supply for PT Stuff
Sonic Frontiers Line 2
Sonic Frontiers Power 2
Genesis APM-1 with 500 watt servo amps.
PS Audio Power Plant P300
PS Audio Ultimate Outlet 15 & 20 amp (Evaluating)

REVIEW: Chris VenHaus DIY Cables DIY Mains Power Cables Cable Review by zosocincy at Audio Asylum