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Still mystified by mega expensive power cords

AC travels miles from the substation, enters my house, goes into a panel, then runs to my hifi equipment. Once inside the equipment it goes through whatever wiring the manufacturer used. I don't understand how the few feet from the outlet to the back of the gear can make some of the dramatic changes claim (low end goes down another octave, deeper wider soundstage, etc). My thought is that as long as the power cord is shielded so that it's not working like an antenna, properly grounded, and of sufficient guage so that you're not loosing juice to heat, and has contacts that make a solid connection, any power cable should sound like the next, especially since the AC coming in is rectified and smoothed.

I'm not looking for flames, but for those that believe in power cables, enlighten me. Or said another way, can that $11,000 plus power cable I saw today possiblet do more than fatten the manufacturer's wallet?
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Showing 2 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
Different power cords may well make a difference in sound as a result of their build quality and electrical properties.

But my mindset on this is that this part of getting good sound is not rocket science, and most differences are splitting hairs. Just get a good quality power cord from a reputable vendor, not necessarily and audio "boutique" or high end audio specialist that talks about "the sound of their wires" as if that is anything that you could bank on, and you should be in pretty good shape. SHould not cost very much. Then move on to bigger fish to fine tune the sound as needed. Other power tweaks may or may not help as well but the results are hard to predict, so address the things that are known to result in good sound first, and deal with the bigger gamble factors later.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,838 posts
 
I tend to view a power cords role of delivering power as separate from filtering or purifying the power. Not to say a power cord might not do both, kind of like how an integrated amplifier serves dual roles in one package.

Lots of ways to skin a cat.

In some cases, the cat may not really need to be skinned in the first place as well, but sometimes hard to tell, in which case a true audiophile will erron the side of caution I suppose. :-)
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