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
I am new to this site and trying to learn as this is a hobby for me.  I am curious how the power cable makes a difference when the copper wire running from the fuse panel is low grade copper.  I think 50 feet cost me $33.00. I ran a dedicated line and breaker for my home theatre. Wouldn’t that be the weekest link in the system?  The only thing I can think of is everybody must be using some sort of power conditioner and this power cord is after the conditioner.  That is why the new cord would make a difference.  I am wanting to try this to hear the difference, do I have to have some sort of power conditioner first?  Sorry for my ignorance as I am trying to learn so I do not make costly mistakes.  I can tell there is a lot of knowledgeable people on this site.  Thanks for the input and I hope this is keeps with the topic of why power cords make a difference.
n80- 

Why would multi-thousand dollar components come without adequate power cables?


See Caelin Gabriel's #5 at the link posted at 12:46PM today.
In my system different power cords make the system sound different. This is my observation and is not my imagination.

I hypothesize the difference is due to the “skin effect”. Apparently higher frequencies of A/C conduct more readily over a thinner layer at the surface of a conductor, while lower frequencies conduct over a thicker layer from the surface to core. Based on this, the proportion of conductor surface area (high frequency preference) to conductor volume (low frequency preference) will change the frequency dependent conductance of the power cord.  

Or something like that. 
Sorry to inform but there is no electron transfer through wire. Electrons are for all intents and purposes stationary. What IS traveling through the wires is photons, which makes sense, right?
Dude, really???

I know that this is Audiogon but bad science is bad.  FYI, current is not composed of photons.  Electrons and photons ARE NOT the same:
1. Electrons have mass.  Photons have no measurable mass.
2. Electrons are negatively charged particles.  Photons have no measurable charge.
3. Electron mobility (speed) can vary from (effectively) zero to almost (but never reaching) the speed of light (c).  Photons always travel at c in a vacuum and very close to c in other media.
4. Spin (s) for an electron is assigned at 1/2.  s for a photon is assigned as 1.
5. Electrons have an associated antiparticle, positrons.  Photons do not have an associated antiparticle and are created by the annihilation of particles and antiparticles.

Current is composed of electrons, not photons.  It's true that electrons do not travel very far or very fast in a conductor, but they do travel.