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Mains IEC Connectors, I never realised !!

IWC Doppel

IWC Doppel

pfm Member
Okay, hear me out…

I’ve always used Oyaide high copper 👮 content brass IEC connectors on most of my leads as they are very nicely built and years ago I imported a box of 15 for £30 each. I’ve had many other knockoffs and some just couldn’t hold 6mm theatrical cable others broke and some I just didn’t like the lead made up with one of the cheaper ones. As I have something near 30 items plugged in to watch one film, the number of leads and cost of cabling necessitated compromise and I use 6mm^2 rubber theatre cable as its flexible enough and low impedance and use MS HD main plugs.

The system is a Hi-Fi based home cinema set up

I treated myself to another 3 at £70 each to complete the set and replace the okay but not as nice Hifi King ones as two are arguably more critical places the Panasonic Bluray player and the AV2 AV pre-amp as well as one sub that looks the poor cousin without an Oyaide IEC on the amp

It’s been months since I got around to it. A lot of it was just ticking the box of matching leads and plugs. I was also nervous that a well run cheap connection might sound better…You never know !

So yesterday I popped on the Oyaide on one of the 12” subs. So on one of the five subs, back on I thought it was actually a bit weightier but thought it was just my imagination, it was certainly no worse

I now have new Oyaide C-029 now on the Blu-ray player and the AV2 and WOW 😯

It’s a really noticeable step forward WTF an IEC plug ?!? The bass is 👌 it’s more defined much more weight and groove, way more. Voices are clearer and richer, resolution is up noticeably there is a super quiet 1,2,3 I only recently noticed. It’s now clear as a bell

But it’s the bass weight and groove that is remarkably improved

Makes my head hurt when I try and think 🤔 about what might be going on, Ive unplugged and replugged in these units and cables many many times recently as I have been upgrading the internals in both units, so it's not a loose or poor connection and I am quite considered and careful with A-B's. My hope was it would be as good and at least all match !

I't's not as if these three new plugs are significant in the grand scheme of things with over 25 other Oyaide C-029 plugged in. I await the abuse for being deaf, but trust me I'm not and am very careful in my 'internal' upgrade reviews
 
Phyztech said:
Emm… everyone knows that plugs and iec have significant impact on sq, why surprised?
Click to expand...

Actually I am surprised, I have spent 40 years upgrading and experimenting and whilst I have spent a lot of time changing clocks, power supplies, cabling and mains installations, grounding etc I have never really bought in to the IEC being that influential. I only used the Oyaides as they are well made and can terminate 6mm^2 low impedance mains cable effectively. I can't justify buying very expensive IEC's as I would need 25+ of them and about 2+ days work. £3.5k would definitely be better spent elsewhere, but still surprised.

I know many look at vibration solutions like naim. I am on the same page here and both units are already heavily damped using felt, bitumen etc and both have full copper base chassis additions, so I'm vey aware of what might have an influence, but one connection for mains still surprises me. Feels it should be more icing on the cake when everything else is done !
 
Adrian - also do a sanity check: buy a handful of new, tight-fit moulded 10A/ IEC leads from a reputable manufacturer like Volex (hint): try those.
It'll cost you absolute- bobbins, in a 3-5-10pack in the scheme of things; less than one fancy plug.

If you still prefer where you are - well: there's your answer.

ATB!
 
...actually IEC leads up to 2m long are only 6A-rated, but get a 'bye ' under the regs.

You should be using 6A or 10A fuses - the leads are still only 1.5sq.mm corsss-sectional-area, which would require 6A max: but such leads at short lengths are permitted 10A rating.

Not that it makes a damn of difference to how they are actually used.
 
Phyztech said:
you can do it for the dac/source where there is more influence usually and mains block
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I actually have 26 wall sockets and some fed direct from Consumer unit which are actually the AV2 and the Panasonic BR player, I have recently added an Olson extension internally wired with 6mm cable for another 3 sockets. I'd like to have been able to have fitted a bigger or two CU and feed each socket with a separate fused line which was terrific when I had this installation before.

With hindsight I should have specced a few more sockets to the number I thought was complete overkill and also should have specced non switch face plates

All my leads from the wall are 2.2m using 6mm^2 cable, HF07 rubber insulated cable. it is 15mm thick so 'chunky' but flexible enough and low impedance. I bought a whole reel it in 2009 and alas it's all been used up but at today's prices still okay at around £5/m if you buy a lot https://www.essentialsupplies.co.uk/6mm-ho7-rubber-3-core-32a-rubber-cable-3g6.html a bit more for cut lengths

I did A-B these home made leads years ago and a number of exotic ones were not as good but a few others did sound better, but the cost for an AV set up is crazy if you start to experiment and chase the best everywhere !

Another experiment I did was to use up some old Kimber 16TC unused for 20 years speaker cable. As seems the RA mains cables are good and use this Kimber for L and N and add a 6mm^2 for earth. I used an MS HD plug and made on up with excitement. Again reputedly for digital. I tried it on my Lumagen LPS and my initial impression was no difference although I had a feeling it might actually be worse than the rubber cable. I left it in for two weeks, it was already well used for speaker cable and then when my twin brother was around we did a thorough A-B and we both agreed that the old original rubber HF07 cable was better on the picture. I did mean to try it elsewhere but lost my love for my carefully made cable. Again out of interest it used a Hi-Fi King copy Oyaide plug so perhaps the Oyaide was the reason I preferred the rubber cable !

I must admit I've started to just implement and A-B and try not to second guess the results for a number of things
 
Here’s an easy experiment for people to try if they don’t think mains cables can make a difference…

Make things deliberately “bad“ by plugging one item of your hi-fi in via a long extension reel into a distant mains socket. Can you hear any difference?



(Hint: while you’re at it, measure the AC voltage difference between the Earth of the extension and the Earth of your usual wall socket)
 
S-Man said:
Probably more accurate to say - some people think that plugs and IECs have an impact on sq, others are most surprised!
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A very simple experiment can be conducted - it’s possible to get exactly the same plugs with different coating (usually gold, rhodium, copper and silver). All the materials will sound different.
 
These are different IEC plugs with current ratings etc.

The C15 'kettle connector' is rated at 10 A and requires leads to be made with 1.0 mm2 cable. 1.0 mm2 is also rated to 10 A. The C13 is rated similarly but is specced only to 70 C.

The problem being that there are only two standard UK fuse sizes for plugs, 3A and 13A the 5A being obsolete.

en.wikipedia.org

IEC 60320 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Eoin said:
Quick Q. If these are rated at 10A why are we using 13A fuses.. 🤔
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Because people only think about putting the fuse into a “13A plug” or have hilariously misinformed ideas that changing from 3A to a 13A fuse “removes a bottleneck”

They never even consider the fact that IEC C13 connectors are rated to only 10A, or what the current rating of the cable in between might be.

As to the use of 6mm sq. cable because it has a “low impedance” - thanks OP. That did give me a chuckle!
 
Beobloke said:
Because people only think about putting the fuse into a “13A plug” or have hilariously misinformed ideas that changing from 3A to a 13A fuse “removes a bottleneck”

They never even consider the fact that IEC C13 connectors are rated to only 10A, or what the current rating of the cable in between might be.

As to the use of 6mm sq. cable because it has a “low impedance” - thanks OP. That did give me a chuckle!
Click to expand...

Chuckle away, in a previous property I fitted a separate CU with low impedance cable and individual lines as per Roy Ritchie and had the luxury of plugging into the existing ring main and low impedance star earthed non ring main to A-B. I did this on a few occasions for others to judge for themselves, some came to prove it would make no difference. There were many hypothesis as to why it might sound better, but it did, no one disputed that, some as I say came to show it made no difference because it wasn't possible it could. But all agreed it did.

I'm only sharing my experiences and I do make A-B very carefully and many, many times I have realised an upgrade is nothing of the sort and in some cases just a minor downgrade. I'm glad others share there experiences in spite of those who never experiment and seemingly know all the answers.

I did more listening today and my findings are the same, so I'm happy, I might even chuckle :oops:

In the case of my previous installation I had no 13A fuses as each as on a specced MCB
 
All this stuff sometimes makes a huge difference if you have a good amp and speakers. The only people who think it can't have a very rudimentary working model of what the universe is. I just hammered a 4ft copper rod into my garden to connect as a ground to my DIY mains conditioner. Can hear the difference there too. The resistance of the mains supply to the transformers in any equipment will affect how fast changes in power demand can be met. Dynamics rely on being able to suddenly grab more power and so bigger cables that conduct better and have a lower overall ESR (equivalent series resistance) are going to allow a better performance. Each of my mono amps has a 1000W isolation transformer feeding them which basically gives a reservoir of power to allow faster response to changes in dynamics. My isolation / conditioner box is an essential part of why my system sounds so good.
 
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