Power Cord Challenge


I've got a couple of weeks off before starting a new job. As I clearly fall into the camp of those who suspect no purely audible differences exist (except in pathologic cases of too-small cords or RFI interference), here's a challenge:

If you live in the San Jose, CA area, let's get together and put this to the test. Your system, your choice of music, I supply a stock power cord to test against your exotic. We play both cords blind (identified as A and B) for a reasonable amout of time; I then play one of the two (randomly chosen through a coin flip) for a reasonable amount of time and you identify it as either A or B. We'll do 10 trials for some statistical significance.

Given that some claim drastic and easily heard differences ("blacker background", "music is more alive", etc., etc., etc.), it should be trivial to get right and shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes per trial. The kicker: you get 9 or 10 right and I'll give you $500! The downside: 8 or less correct and you donate $250 to the Red Cross. Hey, I'm even giving you 2 for 1 odds!

Regardless of the outcome, we post the results to this site. Any takers?

Cheers,
JHunter
jhunter

Showing 3 responses by kevperro

Great idea... this topic is never ending on this forum. :) I like the fact that there is money riding on it. I'd love to send a cable for the test. I will say this...9/10 is a pretty tough goal. My audio memory is like 3 seconds at best so I wouldn't put my money up. I think if you could do 7/10 on several different occasions on some kind of regular basis it would say more about the validity.
Dekay: I'm willing to supply you with one of our cords for the test. Let me know and I'll put one in the mail as I would like to see how it stacks up against all these "big dogs".

www.diycable.com
I had a broken-in one around here for awhile but I shipped it. I'll put another one on my amp and let it run. I have a MOBIE for the interconnects but the power cables are useless to break-in before shipping. All that agitation during shipping does something to them. Keep them off the ground for listening and it helps to run them on the equipment you want to test for awhile before getting into listening mode. If all of this isn't unscientific enough for you then try some yoga and meditation before listening. :)