hospital grade or commercial grade receptacles ?

This "hobby" of ours can certainly be mysterious. I still remember the first set of speaker cables I tried to replace my zip cord. I was skeptical! Both were the same guage, which I thought was the MOST important thing but the comparison between the two cables was NO CONTEST. I bought the better cables.
A few years later I was interested in an upsampler for my DAC. "Jitter" was the buzzword at the time and lower was considered better. Audio Alchemy had just come out with the DTI-PRO (not the Pro32). I worked at an AV store at the time and when one was shipped to us I begged to take it home and try it out in my system. They let me and I fell in love with what it did for the sound. I remember many a "spec" person later telling me I had to be smoking crack in preferring the sound with the DTI-PRO in the chain because of the HUGE amount of jitter it flooded to the DAC. While I understood the argument, I didn't experience the "negative" impact on the sound others believed I should hear. I though it was a huge improvement!
A couple of years ago I posted (or added to one) that I swore my system sounds better in the winter than the summer! Is it less humidity in the air (I'm inside)? Is there less power being consumed and that is somehow effecting the power to my house? Good eggnog?
There will always be those who want to know why things are and those that appereciate what is. They are not mutually exclusive but too often the emphasis is placed on one or the other. The last "poll" of the american public showed more than 80% of the population believed in God. Not bad considering God can't be "measured".

Tony

Eldartford: Let's really take a hard look at what's going on here in this and all the similar threads like this that inevitably break down this way.

I'll give you credit: you took the scientific road and tested out the receptacles I sent to you and heard no difference. Just as easily as you say above: "When the dog barks the guy hears something else, because he wants to.", I can say to you that you heard no difference because you wanted to hear no difference. So what? You heard no difference in your "highly controlled" receptacle experiment, but you can send your Denon 2900 away for mods because, from an "engineering standpoint", the mods make sense to you (search your comments in the archives) and you can receive it back 2-3 weeks later and notice an improvement? The only logical conclusions I can draw are that 1) you are afflicted with the same disease you accuse those of hearing differences in receptacles and/or power cords because they "want to" or conversely "don't want to" or 2) that your hearing is not particularly great.

Now let's be "scientific" about it. Of the people that respond to these threads, those that have tried/experimented with power cords/receptacles, etc. and have heard differences probably outnumber those that have tried/experimented and heard no differences by ten to one or more in these threads. Not conclusive, but certainly a reasonable sampling by any scientific standard, as Narchy has so succinctly pointed out above.

On the other hand, the naysayers seem to exist in an inverse proportion to those with experience: that is to say, approximately 90% of them have absolutely no experience in experimenting, yet they have no qualms about doling out their definitive advice to people here seeking input. Irvrobinson is simply one example of that, extolling that there are no differences in "measurement" when there clearly are, then admitting, when pressed, that he has never done any measuring. As someone who has learned a great deal from the experience of others on this site (and Audioasylum as well) and managed to greatly improve my system and the appreciation for the music played on it as a result of that improvement, I feel compelled to respond to these threads every once in a while.

As to "wanting to hear things" to justify expenditures, as I have pointed out before, I don't belong to that camp. While certain people here may find it amusing, I have gone from a $1000 digital front end in the past 3-4 years to one which I have approximately $70 invested in (it has been cryoed, by the way) and sounds much better than the audiophile approved megabuck version which I was quite happy to sell. More money does not always equate with better sound, but ignoring power cords, receptacles, cabling, etc. is a sure way to not realize what any decent equipment is really capable of.

You and Irv are certainly welcome to respond, but I'll sign off on this thread at this time. Happy listening and enjoy the music!

To anyone who claims that I'm hearing only what I want to hear, I assure you that this is not the case. Because what I really want to hear is a $59.95 boombox that sounds like my $9K stereo. And I want my $800 power cord to sound the same as the $60 version that I was previously using. That way, I would save a lot of money to get the same sound. Unfortunately, my plans were foiled.

Regardless of what I want to see, taste, hear or feel, I simply cannot get Top Ramen to taste like sushi, or get my '99 Altima to drive as well as my wife's new Volvo wagon. If I could, I'd have a lot more money in the bank. But I like nice things, and as a professional musician for over a decade, I developed quite an addiction to good sound. Therefore, the $800 PC stays.

Eldartford, which outlet does the dog recommend?

This thread has gotten pretty boring. I also noticed a few of my responses are missing. (Sorry, Albert. I know you look so forward to them.)

Frankly, I'm going to miss you guys. One thing that might interest you though, my wife, a relatively accomplished musician, wants me to demo some power cables for her. She wants to see what all of the fuss is about. So I'm going to talk to some dealers and see if I can get a couple loaners for the amps. We're not going to be home together for a few weeks, so this'll take a while. But if I can get the loaners I'll post and let you know what she thinks. When we do the test I'll blindfold her so at least she won't know what she's listening to. It ain't double-blind, but we can't have my skeptical looks influencing her.

Have a great holiday.