Swedish Power

During our recent plague lockdown, my mind got thinking about projects to do. I decided I wanted to make some power cables. I had some Swedish made Supra Lorad 2.5 lying around, which is a nice shielded and sensibly designed wire, so I decided to make up a few fancy pants power cables to see how they fare.

According to Supra’s site, “LoRad means Low Radiation and the design of these mains flex cables minimises both electric and magnetic alternating fields. Allow your hi-fi gear the most welcome benefit of all, the possibility to be silent, when supposed to. Only then, the tiniest details and notes will become clearly audible.

LoRad protects both from alternating fields radiating from the cable as well as from pick-up of surrounding airborne noise fields, e.g. wireless and mobile phones, wifi, radio and TV broadcasts, etc. LoRad MkII is a development of the LoRad concept, now with improved shielding, flexibility, bend-/fatigue-resistance and strength.

In addition to the physical shield incorporated in the cable design, the leads are spun in a short pitch, counteracting the magnetic alternating field that according to the physical law of inductance always surrounds a lead that carries a current.

The benefits are less noise picked up by the cable, less noise caused by the cable inside and less noise that infect adjacent cables such as low level interconnects. You will notice cleaner sound, pronounced transients, richer fine details and an improved 3D soundstage. If your equipment is installed using Supra cables, is connected with the mains power in phase, the noise floor is normally suppressed by several dB, allowing more of the content to be revealed. Low radiating cables is also increasingly important from a health point of view. Science has proven that alternating magnetic fields affects cell growth.

LoRad MkII now incorporates Supra’s unique Carbon/Nylon shield concept. Semiconducting Carbon/Nylon shield displays improved properties, bending strength, environmental immunity, higher tensile strength and less microphonic effect. The Carbon/Nylon shield is connected to a drain-wire along its total length, efficiently leading noise stuck in the shield to ground. We have tested and evaluated all known types of screens for making such a good cable as possible. Supra’s semi-conductive Carbon/Nylon shield was the only that passed the rigorous safety requirements and, moreover, its shielding properties was the best ever.”

Unfortunately for me, the cable was a light blue colour, which might look great in some situations, but I wanted mine to be a little more subtle.

I bought some soft nylon tubing in a green colour, which compliments my Shindo stuff nicely.

I’m not one for audiophile jewellery as far as connectors go, preferring things like Switchcraft RCA plugs and Z-plugs, but I managed to get hold of some Furutech plugs to complete the project.

They took about 20 minutes each to make, and they look great. They’re nice and flexible, so will be easy to dress at the back of the rack.

A shielded power cable makes sense in my view, so I will try them out and see if there are any positive effects. I’m not holding my breath, as every time I have tried an after market power cable on my Shindo gear, I have heard either no difference, or it has sounded worse. As long as it doesn’t sound worse, I will leave these ones in place, since they look pretty cool.