DIY BELDEN 83803 POWER CABLE
Giovanni Militano 
DIY 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 my recipe to construct a high quality shielded diy 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 CABLE CONSTRUCTION
Belden 83803 is a high quility cable. The 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 cable. However, any industrial shielded cable with three twisted conductors and a good shield will suffice.
Photograph 01: Belden 83803 Cable
The shield is connected to the ground wire at the end of the cable that goes into the wall socket. The shield at the other end (IEC) is not connected. The idea is to use the shield to capture interference traveling through the cable and to ground them to earth. The schematic for the cable is shown in Drawing 01. Note, due to the wrong color coding of the Belden 83803 cable, I arbitrarily chose red for ground and black and white for hot and neutral.
Drawing 01: DIY Mains Cable Schematic
You will want to use good quality plugs for the cable. I used Marinco plugs, but any good quality plugs will do the trick.
Photograph 02: Marinco Wall Plug
Prior to attaching the IEC socket, you slide on some TechFlex and hold it in place using heat shrink tubing. The final touch is the addition of a ferrite clamp or two.
Photograph 03: Finished DIY Mains Cable
CONCLUSION
There you have it, a high quality shielded power cable. Do not get hung up on brand names. Any good quality industrial shielded cable and plugs should work well. For a ferrite clamp, you should be able to find some on old USB or camera cables.
Please don't email me with lectures about how a mains cable can't make any difference. On the other hand, don't expect a mains cable to make a huge improvement to your system.