The "Wire we Here?" Blog and Forum
A place for BAV CORDAGE discussions.
Sevel questiions on power cord philosophy.
Go here- https://www.iconoclastcable.com/techpapers/bavpoweranalysis.pdf
To summarize the paper, we use an EPDM dielectric that is simply awful for RF, it is attenuated out passively. You don't need the expensive shielding, and the current in the cord itself emits a MAGNETIC field, not an ELECTRIC field and the foil or copper braid shield won't attenuate magnetic interference out. Power cords used with VFF, variable Frequency Drives, emit large amounts of RF and need shielded cords. We don't have that on our analog systems.
The second issue is how "fat" should the cord be? This is as simple as voltage dropped on the cord (loss) = current in the cord times the resistance of the cord. If we have a turntable with next to nil power draw (that little synchronous motor or digital drive) will drop next to no voltage across a 14 AWG power cord. A large amplifier will pull many, many amps and need that larger size power cord. Will it hurt to use a 10 AWG on a DAC or T.Table? No, just maybe your wallet.
Our power cords are designed to optimize the analog performance at a reasonable price and use industry standard Rs (swept resistance) measurement techniques to evluate their performance across frequency.
Galen