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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
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@thyname

I don’t have $10,000 pieces of gear, but yes, wether it be speakers or headphones. 
 
If you can find a study that shows >70% confidence, I’d love to see it.  
 
Here’s one where people could download the files and play them on their own gear. This is far less scientific.
gpgr4blu
1,076 posts
 
mzkmxcv:
I have said everything relevant regarding my ability to distinguish between the cable manufacturers I mentioned above. I have no need to win an argument against alleged measurements as to why I do. But I can assure you it is not confirmation bias.It is now time for me to bow out of this thread. 
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
@mzkmxcv: If you cannot differentiate MP3 and CD with $12,000 speakers, $9,000 Amp and over $6,000 DAC, then I seriously question your hearing. I am 100% serious on this. No joke.

Over the course of a year that you have joined Audiogon (btw with zero feedback meaning no purchases or sales), based on your remarks on amps, DACs, etc., it seems like you’re convinced that only measurements define the sound quality of a component and you won’t budge. That’s fine but don’t be so adamant in trying to convince others. Nothing wrong with the measurements (and Amirm and Archimego), but if said measurements were the only criteria to assess sound quality, we would all have Benchmark products in our racks. Everyone else would be out of business.

It seems like your only purpose in forums (and possibly in life), is to pollute every single thread questioning every single product, be it DAC (other the Topping of course), Amp, streamer, cable, etc. Asking people for double blind test in 10 (ten) seconds intervals! I wonder why.

And are you sure what you listed is your equipment? I quickly googled your username, and it appears in several forums in Massdrop discussing $15 IEMs, as well as KEF and ELAC speakers. And of course, Topping DACs!


geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Those AES dudes couldn’t hear anything if their life depended on it. Cut me some slack, Jack! 
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@thyname

I’ve bought stuff on Audiogon, but they were local so I paid them in cash when I met them.

None of those people in the study who were musicians/sound engineers could either. So, if they couldn’t on >$20,000 worth of gear in a near perfect room with lots of treatment, what makes you say you can? As I’ve said, hearing a difference doesn’t mean there is one, that’s all I’m trying to prove.

Measurements do tell you pretty much everything if you were listening in a double-blind study (average joe likes more bass than a sound engineer), but once you see/know the gear, measurements are far less meaningful.

Mesurements dictate the KEF Blade/2 sounds better than anything Wilson puts out, and I’ve recommended people who were eyeing Wilson to look at the KEF Blade/2 and others, and every single one agreed and chose not to get Wilson as they sounded the worse. This is not conclusive data at all, but it is worth stating. 
 
@geoffkait 
 
Some were sound engineers, so I hope they can, for their sake.
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