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Why Power Cables Affect Sound

I just bought a new CD player and was underwhelmed with it compared to my cheaper, lower quality CD player. That’s when it hit me that my cheaper CD player is using an upgraded power cable. When I put an upgraded power cable on my new CD player, the sound was instantly transformed: the treble was tamed, the music was more dynamic and lifelike, and overall more musical. 

This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:

I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe. 

That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter. 

If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please. 
128x128mkgus
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maritime51's avatar
maritime51
1,288 posts
 
Kat a mite. 😻
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n80
2,100 posts
 
@geoffkait  said: " Nobody accused them of being stupid. I accused them of being either ignorant of high end cables"

Okay." Ignorant" then. Why buy gear from ignorant manufactures who don't know that a different power cable will make their gear sound better.

"or not wishing to spend money on an expensive power cord that would be replaced anyway."

What? Why in the heck would they care what you do to their component after you buy it? 

" Follow?" 

No! Your explanation is pure nonsense.

"For example, and I have no idea how much the top of the line Pangea power cord costs, but if a high end amp that I purchased came with a Pangea power cord the very first thing I would do is replace it with a real high end power cord."

Bingo! This is probably THE finest explanation of the phenomenon of high end power cords. It basically states that no matter how good the OEM cord is the true audiophile (insert gullible rube there if you wish) is going to change it to something else.

Now I get it. Thank you.

"  The cost of really good power cords would place the amp maker completely out of the market."

That logic does not follow. In a world of $24,000 interconnects and $40,000 speaker cables and $500,000 home audio speakers there is NO SUCH THING as pricing audiophile equipment out of the market.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
@geoffkait said: " Nobody accused them of being stupid. I accused them of being either ignorant of high end cables"

Okay." Ignorant" then. Why buy gear from ignorant manufactures who don’t know that a different power cable will make their gear sound better.

>>>>Agree. Although, they might be really smart about circuits and topology. Just because they don’t know about audiophile power cords or fuses or directionality does not prevent them from having a product that people will buy. I won’t but someone will. The amp wil still work. It’s a question of why are amp designers so slow on the uptake? They are probably nice people. It’s why I sometimes say amp designers are hyper-focused on circuits. When you have blinders on you miss the big picture. At least you seem to grudgingly admit the word stupid has a different meaning from the word ignorant.

"or not wishing to spend money on an expensive power cord that would be replaced anyway."

What? Why in the heck would they care what you do to their component after you buy it?

Because they have to pay for the aftermarket power cord. Every cost gets multiplied. If they were trying to win Best of Show and they were aware of audiophile power cords you’d think they would use one at the show, but they don’t. They don’t even burn in the speakers or electronics before show time. Does that make any sense?

" Follow?"

No! Your explanation is pure nonsense.

Oh, well. At least I tried.

"For example, and I have no idea how much the top of the line Pangea power cord costs, but if a high end amp that I purchased came with a Pangea power cord the very first thing I would do is replace it with a real high end power cord."

Bingo! This is probably THE finest explanation of the phenomenon of high end power cords. It basically states that no matter how good the OEM cord is the true audiophile (insert gullible rube there if you wish) is going to change it to something else.

>>>>You should probably stick to photography. No offense.

Now I get it. Thank you.

Yuk, yuk!

" The cost of really good power cords would place the amp maker completely out of the market."

That logic does not follow. In a world of $24,000 interconnects and $40,000 speaker cables and $500,000 home audio speakers there is NO SUCH THING as pricing audiophile equipment out of the market.

>>>>High end manufacturers have to know a priori what the market is for their product. If the don’t have a finance/business guy on board they won’t survive long. It’s not a world of $24,000 cables and $40,000 speakers. That is perhaps 2% of high end products. Besides $250,000 speakers would have made a better argument.

- your friend and audio insider,

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
Advanced Audio Concepts
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