Power cords are usually treated as generic hardware, yet they sit at the front end of every component’s power suppl. Their electrical behavior directly affects how cleanly and reliably that supply can operate.

For a true reference‑grade power cable, several challenges must be addressed simultaneously:

• Current and voltage delivery over real lengths
  The cable must carry the required current at mains voltage with minimal voltage drop, even under peak demand. Undersized conductors or marginal designs can starve high‑draw components (especially Class A / A/B amplifiers, large subs, and multi‑channel amps), subtly compressing dynamics and altering thermal behavior.
• Ground conductor quality and geometry
  Ground is often treated as secondary, built from lower‑grade material or with less attention to geometry. In practice, the ground path is critical for safety and for the reference stability of the power supply. Poor ground design can increase noise, create ground‑loop susceptibility, and destabilize the reference the audio circuits rely on.
• Noise coupling and common‑mode contamination
  

Modern environments are saturated with RF, switching noise, and digital hash. Without proper control of conductor layout, dielectric behavior, and shielding, a power cable can act as an antenna or conduit, feeding noise into transformers and rectifiers, raising the noise floor and modulating sensitive analog stages.

Transmission engineers understand that controlling conductor size, resistance, inductance, capacitance, and grounding is essential for stable, low-noise delivery. A true reference power cord must therefore behave as a high-integrity transmission line for AC: supplying ample current with minimal voltage sag, maintaining a clean, robust ground reference, and rejecting or dissipating noise rather than importing it into the component’s power supply.

The XerXes Reference Power Cord is engineered as a true AC transmission line, directly addressing the current delivery, grounding, and noise issues that limit many systems.

Three identical conductors are used in a fully symmetrical geometry, so Line, Neutral, and Ground share the same high-quality materials and electrical behavior. This preserves current capacity and minimizes voltage drop under load—crucial for Class A/A‑B amplifiers, powered subs, and dynamic systems—while providing a stable, low-impedance ground reference instead of a compromised “afterthought” conductor.

To combat modern RF and power-line contamination, XerXes integrates our proprietary RJ420 noise dissipation network. This passive circuit is parasitic only to noise, not to the AC itself: it shunts unwanted high-frequency and common‑mode energy away from the component’s power supply without restricting voltage or current flow.

In practice, clients consistently report immediately audible gains: more low-level detail, tighter imaging, greater gravitas and impact, and a sense of increased speed and ease—evidence that the component is finally being fed the clean, stable power it was designed to use.