I posted this response back in 12/10/2013 and get negative feedback so I politely apologized and stopped contributing.
It is my hope that we share information and experiences and not argue and be adverse with each other. I hope I don’t regret posting this.
Something that wasn’t addressed in my original post (which is pasted below) was where to try a power cord. Simple answer is where ever it makes the most improvement :-)
Yes I realize it may sound like a slight handed comment but there are many variables that effect the outcome. Such things as incoming electrical power (how clean or contaminated it is and with what type of contamination it has), the individual power cord itself (what has it been designed and constructed to accomplish and to what degree have things been executed), the piece of equipment being powered (specifically how well designed is it’s power supply), the time of day one is listening to their system (incoming power can be affected by users on the power grid) - are just a few things that immediately come to mind.
Most certainly - power cords are a precise science. Things are measured and tested. Sometimes we find test results are different then predicted results which requires us to examine and determine the cause for the actual performance and gain a better understanding of how things actually work.
Here’s my original 12/10/2013 post, I also added to it as stated:
Reading these responses really covers a variety of issues. And the previous guitar amplifier comparison was a great explanation - thanks Lacee!
I’d like to explain why power cords are important. I’ll be using a minimum of technical terms and I’d like to over simplify things - so we can identify what is really important. Please realize I’ll explain things without being too detailed - using simple assumptions to make getting to our conclusion easier. So please don’t reply and invalidate something said - I’ll ask everyone to follow along to the end.
For the record, I have an engineering degree - but I will humbly state there are MANY individuals who know SIGNIFICANTLY more than I do.
Here goes;
Power stations generate electricity and distributed it through miles of power lines, switching stations and transformers. These power lines, switching stations and transformers are called the power grid. Relatively to our audiophile use, electricity traveling through the power grid gets SEVERLY contaminated. In this instance, contaminated means the electricity is no longer pure, but has many other parts or components in it that cause problems.
Many things using electricity can crudely filter out some of the contamination and / or operate without removing the contamination without a problem. Simple on / off electrical motors (like attic fan motors) are a great example, and operate fine using contaminated or "dirty" power.
Oversimplified, electronic equipment is more sensitive to contamination and requires more filtering - and digital electrical equipment is the most sensitive and requires the most filtering.
How does the electrical power become contaminated?
The electrical power grid’s power lines act like antennas and experience Radio Frequency (RF) and Electro Magnetic Induction Interference (EMI) and these are two things that contaminate the electricity. This contamination becomes significant over the many miles of a power grid. This contamination also occurs in our house.
Electricity also becomes contaminated from electrical devices within the house. Light dimmers are a good example - a light dimmer being used in a house can contaminate the electricity within the house. The same goes for the neighbors in your community, especially commercial and sometimes industrial neighbors.
So, now that we’ve explained how we have contaminated power at the plug we use for our stereo - how do we fix the problem? Power conditioners and / or power cords.
Power conditioners seem obvious but designing and building one to perform well is tricky - very tricky! The same can be said for power cords.
First, we’ll need to understand a few things about electricity to understand how and why power cords will or won’t work well. To keep things simpler, we won’t consider the metallurgy, configuration and insulation of wire and plug.
The job of the power cord is to deliver power. In theory, a perfect power cord will eliminate all the contamination and the worst possible power cord will add more contamination to the electricity it delivers.
A perfect power cord will use wire and plugs that are designed and constructed to eliminate contamination (in our example Radio Frequency and Electro Magnetic Induction contamination and contamination from within one’s own house). Doing so isn’t impossible - it just requires applying proven scientific principals and being able to identify and measure the specific parameters that are critical to eliminating the contamination so pure electricity can be fed to our audiophile equipment. It also requires repeated iterations and testing of a design until the desired performance is obtained. The finished power cord product allows electronic equipment (especially digital electronic equipment) to operate at peak performance.
Many people consider the ability of the wire to deliver a larger amount of current, which leads to the "bigger is better" mantra or "size does matter" view, but this is only one role of the power cord. Providing LOTS of contaminated power isn’t what we want. Providing reasonably more pure power than necessary is what we desire, and is exactly what a quality power cord is designed to do.
Creating a good performing power cord is reasonably easy. As we strive to improve performance further, more issues become critical - and executing each successive stage becomes more difficult, complex and expensive. Periodically, technology makes leap advancements, sometimes cost effectively - which result in a significant performance improvement becoming available to more people.
Similar to other commodities, our audiophile industry has a point where spending more yields significantly better performance. Continuing to ascend the performance ladder, becomes more difficult, complex and expensive - there’s usually a price / performance point that provides exceptional performance at an "acceptable" expense. At the pinnacle of performance, subtle gains may be extremely expensive yet make the dramatic difference in the illusion (of a real performance) we strive to create.
Something I’m adding today (2023) to help clarify things:
We all realize anything with weight (mass actually) has inertia. Inertia is the resistance of anything with mass to change it’s current state. An example is if we attach a weight to a string and twirl the weight on the end of the string in a circle - if we let go of the string, the weight will go off in a straight line at the point the string is let go. The weight wants to go in a straight line and the string keeps the weight traveling in a circle. Another example of inertia is a spinning wheel will be difficult to move off it’s axis of rotation. These 2 inertia examples are the principals used to create a gyroscope, and gyroscopes were previously used to guide rockets. Such practical things as size and speed of the gyroscope wheel, material of the gyroscope wheel’s construction, quality of the bearings, control of manufacturing tolerances, etc. - all affect the gyroscope’s performance. Guiding a rocket to the moon would require an extremely precise gyroscope, while a rocket that merely goes up to reach the outer atmosphere wouldn’t have to be as critically precise.
Now, let’s discuss some common principals of electricity. When alternating current (AC - which is used in our homes here in the USA) flows through a wire, it creates a magnetic field which expands and collapses around the wire with each alternating cycle. Inversely, when an electrical wire passes through a magnetic field, a current is induced in the wire (this principal is exactly how electricity is generated at power stations).
Electrical wires that are run in very close proximity to each other induce each other with very slight signals (what we referred to earlier as Electro-Magnetic Induction or EMI, which this slight amount is critical in our audio wires).
The other type of contamination identified earlier is radio frequency interference. This is when the energy of radio frequency waves interferes with the signals in our stereo system wires (especially low level signals in our interconnects).
A common remedy to protect from these 2 examples of interference is to shield wires to protect against this type of interference / contamination. But shielding has a negative effect on the actual signal being transferred in wire. Let me explain.
The signals traveling in the wire have their own expanding and collapsing magnetic fields. Because these are low level signals (in our interconnects) they induce very weak magnetic fields. All induced magnetic fields expand and collapse at a specific speed or rate - they have what I’ll refer to as an electrical induced inertia. When low level signal wires are shielded conventionally, the induced magnetic fields are impacted - and they are not allowed to freely expand and collapse at the same rate that an unshielded wire would demonstrate.
Anyone ever listen to wires that are identical in every exact way except with one being shielded and one is not (in an environment that does not have lots of RF or EMI interference)? I have - done as a test. The shielded wires are noticeably less dynamic. This is because the induced magnetic fields around the wires are being restricted by the protective shielding.
Does this mean all shielding is bad? Absolutely not. Shielding can be designed to protect from external interference while still not compromising the signal the wire is carrying. But using "regular" shielded wire isn’t the solution. A special wire with special shielding is needed for our audiophile wire.
In this instance, I’ve attempted to explain one simple part of what’s involved in designing and constructing a high quality audiophile wire. There are MANY issues, some very complex - to address.
Back to my original post:
Technically, how does a power cord provide pure power? Explaining the many parts of a well designed and constructed power cord requires a good technical understanding of electricity, metallurgy, dielectrics, electro-magnetics and physics. Power cord design and construction become critical for premium performance - which are topics for other discussions.
So when someone asks why power cords sound different, you now have a conceptual understanding of why - and can realize it’s not "snake oil." I hope I’ve allowed everyone to realize why power cords make a difference.
Music is a profound part of my life, and I’ve been involved in our audiophile industry for more than 20 years, and I’m involved in it solely for the love of music.
