Qua-Draad

Luxury Power Cord

last updated 25-Jun-2004

Introduction

As usual I start my pages with an introduction which contains my requirements, the do's and don'ts. This the the fourth power cable project and it almost was the fourth project where I became aggravated about the IEC320 connector.

It is reasonable easy to get a good Kopp mains plug, every home depot (like) store has one, and its quality is OK since vandenHul also uses these connectors. And a 5*1.5mm LAPP cable does fit in these connectors both in the terminals as in the clamps for the cable. For Conradsel and other thick cables these connectors are OK.

The IEC320 connectors however doe not nearly contains enough space to work with these cables. I do not understand how these plugs are rated and approved for 10A current usage.

In the remainder of this story I will explain how a better IEC connector will make all the difference. Apart from better connectors I also made use of a different braiding technique for making high quality power cables.

IEC 320

Fortunately, when surfing the internet it became clear that there are high-quality and so-called hospital grade alternatives. And unlike the mains connector itself (the wall side) the IEC320 connector is standard for most parts of the world. In the USA several connectors are available which by-the-way look alike a lot. Well know types are:

I bought my IEC 320 connectors in the USA with partsdirect prices are OK, but for Europeans shipping will kill you. Princing for Marinco connectors is about $17.00 a piece with Partsdirect, shipping and handling is $19.00.

Pricing in the Netherlands is about €30.00 a piece excluding shipping. So it is quite easy to calculate the turnover moment which is for two or more connectors in one order.

Braiding

I use a new type of braiding for the power cord, a ground/earth wire which is contained in a braid of several wires seems to be a good method which is also used in commercial models. I used one wire for ground and two wires each for live and neutral.

As we have two live and two neutral wires this is the name I gave to the cable: QuaDraad (quad=4, draad = wire).

The braiding scheme is difficult to put on paper; although once your fingers "know"how to do it is is really simple. I'm going to make an attempt here, but look at the picture below which contains a readers impression of the braiding process. I myself rather look at the photo since it gives to my eyes the best information about braiding.

This is how to do it: Take the earth/ground wire as the middle wire and wrap the 4 others wires around it in alternating colours (blue-black-blue-black). Try to hold the wires so that noth and south are black and east and west are blue and use a tie-wrap for fixation.

  1. Stap 1 starting position: All wires are fixated with a tie-wrap in you hand and your holding them like "stap 1". Wires are folded away from the center.
  2. Stap 2: Take wire 1 and cross it on the east side of the central wire and between wire 2 and lay it east of wire 3. Same for wire 3, pass it between central and wire 4 and hold it west of the original position of wire 1.
  3. Stap 3: Take wire 2 and pass it north over the center wire. Same for wire 4, pass it close on the south side from the center wire.
  4. Stap 4: this step is essentially the same as Stap2: Pass wire 3 on the east side of the central wire and pass wire 1 on the west side of the central wire.
  5. Stap 5: Same as Stap3, now cross wire 2 from west to east on the south side of the central wire (but inside of wire 3) and cross wire 4 from east to west.

the picture suggests maybe that the wires are passed on the outside, but in reality they are braided very tight and cross over to the other side really tight next to the central wire.

In the end, the central wire is more or less "loose" in the middle, since the are no knots or braids involving this wire.

<some photos to follow>

So what do you need?

This is the shopping list for building your own QuaDraad:

Of course you need more to make the cable: soldering iron, screwdriver, hobbyknife, crimp sleeve and various other materials.

Construction

the rest of the construction is more or less identical to the other power cable projects. Only be sure to connect the two live wires (coloured black) and the two neutral wire (coloured blue in my example) as a mistake would result in blowing fuses or worse.

Depending on the manufacturer of the mains connector (which may be dependent on your geographical location anyway) it may be simple or difficult to combine two wires of one color in one terminal. As you can see on the photo on the right I used crimp sleeve to keep them together.

Anyway, it is no problem at all to combine two wires in the terminals of the marinco IEC320 connector.

Listening impression

I used the QuaDraad a while on my HiFi set for connecting the amp, and I must say I liked it. The IEC connector makes a very good connection and the whole thing looks and feels very convincing.

After a while I upgraded the QuaDraad to the Quadruppel and that one has been on the Marantz amp for the last two years. So you could say I'm highly satisfied with the sound of braided power cable.

Conclusion

As far as I'm concerned this is a very succesful project. Still there are (and were) a few areas for improvement.

Anyway, I'm convinced that this is a good power cable with suffient capacity for large amps. On the HiFi set in my study I preferred it a little over the Net-3. Since I'm translating this page from the Dutch version, I can say by now that I like this power cord better than the Net3, but differences are waaayy to small to really notice in most circumstances. The Marcinco IEC320 connector is a better choice anyway, it makes a better connection and is fun to work with.

The areas for enhancements such as shielding will be covered in the other project "Quadruppel".

version 1.0
© Maarten&Annemarie, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006