The sound of Silent Power

iFi have made a number of ‘clean power’ products in their nine-year history to date, but one thing they haven’t made is a specialist IEC power cable for home audio components – until now! The Nova is a specialized power cable with a high-end construction that belies its affordable price point. It delivers a serious upgrade over standard mains leads that imbues sound with greater clarity, space and definition.

The Nova incorporates five conductors, each made from heavy-gauge, continuous-cast OFHC (Oxygen-Free High Thermal Conductivity) copper, arranged in a geometrically balanced configuration. Two pairs of live and neutral conductors are arranged either side of the earth conductor, which is positioned at the centre of the cable. The ground conductor is arranged in a shotgun configuration and not twisted around like other mains cables. The live and neutral conductors are arranged in a truly balanced configuration, hence their magnetic fields cancel each other out perfectly. As a result, there is no residual magnetic field being applied to the centre ground conductor, and no unwanted induced voltage on the ground conductor – they call this design: Ground Zero.

The result of this sophisticated mix of materials and construction is that the Nova power cable offers constant impedance and superior rejection of EMI/RFI, maintaining the purity of mains electricity feeding each component in an audio or A/V system.

While the effect of this cable on sound quality is significant when used on its own, it combines brilliantly with the iFi PowerStation mains-conditioning bar – the PowerStation filters out common mode and differential mode noise from the mains supply, while the Nova maintains optimum purity right through to the connected component.