AudioQuest - Tornado - High-Current Power Cable (12AWG, Single)

AudioQuest - Tornado - High-Current Power Cable (12AWG, Single)

With current capacity of 20A RMS @ 125VAC 50/60Hz, AudioQuest's Tornado/High Current can withstand current transient peaks many times its continuous RMS rating. This makes Tornado/High Current ideally suited for a wide assortment of AC power conditioners, power regenerators, AC isolation transformers, and AC battery back-up devices, as well as any power amplifier, powered subwoofer, powered loudspeaker, powered receiver, or integrated amplifier.

Alternating Current (AC), is a far-from-perfect power source. AC power technology is well over a century old and was never designed to meet the exacting standards of today’s high resolution audio-video components. AC noise is present at the utility source, and is then exacerbated by radio frequency noise that is induced and coupled to the component power supplies and to circuit ground. This creates distortion and low-level signal losses via the masking effect. Further, power amplifiers can require immense reserves of transient current for their power supplies to react to and then stabilize during dynamic audio passages. Most AC power cords and power conditioner-regenerators, though helpful to a point, are simply not up to the task.

“AudioQuest’s Storm Tornado/High-Current power cord revealed so much force and
dense three-dimensional life in the sound of the Pass Labs XA25 that it would be sad to live
without it.” — Herb Reichert, Stereophile

Power amplifiers present a real challenge for any AC power source, as the transient current requirements (though short in duration) can be many times that of the average (RMS) current consumption. Power amplifiers are also unique from all other components in that the current draw is dynamic, not constant, and it changes with volume and audio signal content. Though many AC power cords may feature low DC resistance to allow for some of this requirement, the characteristic impedance of the AC cable is equally responsible for assuring uncompromised performance. Many premium AC cords constrict or compress the audio transient as their characteristic impedance restricts the transient current.

A carefully finessed combination of solid high-purity Perfect-Surface Copper (PSC) and extreme high-purity Perfect-Surface Copper + (PSC+) conductors to prevent strand interaction, a major source of ear fatiguing transient intermodulation distortion. The astonishingly smooth and pure Perfect-Surface Copper eliminates harshness and greatly increases clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N, and other premium coppers. The superior purity of PSC+ further minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries, which exist within any metal conductor.

AC Ground wires may provide protection from an electrical short circuit, but they also act as an antenna. Thus, they are subject to induced radio-frequency (RF) noise. This RF noise bypasses component power supplies and is typically coupled directly into a system’s most sensitive audio/video circuits. AudioQuest’s RF/ND-Tech greatly reduces this distortion, yielding unprecedented levels of noise dissipation across the widest bandwidth of radio frequencies possible. AudioQuest’s unique circuit topology uses a common-mode phase-cancelling array, in concert with proprietary dielectric materials which provide additional differential linear filtering. 

All drawn metal strands or conductors have a non-symmetrical, and therefore directional, grain structure. AudioQuest controls the resulting RF impedance variation so that noise is drained away from where it will cause distortion. The correct direction is determined by listening to every batch of metal conductors used in every AudioQuest audio cable. When applicable, arrows are clearly marked on the connectors to ensure superior sound quality. In AudioQuest's Tornado/High Current power cable, the arrows not only indicate the direction that optimizes metal-directionality as part of Noise-Dissipation, but also indicates non-symmetrical attachment of shield and GND in order to optimize full-system performance.