DIY Belden 83803 Mains Power Cable
Giovanni Militano 
DIY Belden 83803 Mains Power Cable
If you are reading this, chances are you have been into a Hi-Fi store and have seen "audiophile grade mains cables" selling for several hundreds of dollars. I will leave it at that. Below you will find a simple diy recipe to construct a high quality shielded power cable at a fraction of the retail cost. The following materials are used for the DIY Mains Cable and are available from Parts Express
| PARTS EXPRESS PART # | ITEM DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
|
100-790
110-406 110-400 082-348 080-674 110-452 |
Belden 83803 12 AWG 3 Conductor Power Cable
Marinco 15A/125V Straight Blade Wall Plug Marinco IEC Connector Plug Techflex 1/2" Expandable Sleeving 12 mm Heat Shrink 3:1 Ferrite Core 3/8" Cord Noise Suppressor |
DIY Power Cable Construction
Belden 83803 is a high quility power cable. The Belden 83803 cable features 12 AWG tinned copper conductors, teflon insulation, foil shielding with 85% tinned copper braid shield and a Teflon jacket. The photograph below shows the Belden 83803 power cable. However, any industrial shielded cable with three twisted conductors and a good shield can be used and should provide good results.
Photograph 1: Belden 83803 Cable
The shield is connected to the ground wire only at the end of the cable that goes into the wall socket. The coaxial shield at the IEC end of the power cable is not connected. The idea here is to use the shield to capture interference traveling through the cable (in or out) and to ground them to earth so they do not cause any unwanted noise. The schematic for the cable is shown in Figure 1. Note, due to the unusual color coding of the Belden 83803 cable, I arbitrarily chose to use red for ground and black and white for hot and neutral. As a safety tip, I suggest you make the ground wire lead slightly longer than the hot and neutral wires. This way if the cable is ever tugged on with great force, there is a better chance that the hot and neutral wire will come disconnected before the ground wire.
Figure 1: DIY Belden 83803 Mains Power Cable Schematic
You will want to use good quality power plugs for the cable. I used Marinco brand power and IE plugs, but any good quality plugs will do just fine.
Photograph 1: Marinco Mains Power (Wall) Plug
Prior to attaching the IEC plug you slide on some TechFlex and using heat shrink tubing tubing to get a nice looking finished cable. The final touch is the addition of a ferrite clamp or two. For a ferrite clamp, you may be able to find some on old USB or camera cables.
Photograph 3: Finished DIY Mains Cable
Conclusion: Audio Power Cables
There you have it, a simple high quality shielded power cable that won't set you back $500. Do not get hung up on the brand names. Any good quality industrial shielded cable and plugs should work well.
There is likely some 30 to 150 m (100 to 500 feet) of power cable from your home power outlet to the transformer on the power line. It is hard to imagine that ANY 1.5 m (5 ft) length of power cord inserted between the outlet and your Hi-Fi equipment will make any audible difference. This project documents the construction of a shielded power cable using quality components. This power cable will be able to deliver a lot of current with low losses and the grounded sheilding will help reduce the potential of picking up stray RF or injecting unwanted noise into nearby interconnect cables.