How can power cords make a difference?


I am trying to understand why power cords can make a difference.

It makes sense to me that interconnects and speaker cables make a difference. They are dealing with a complex signal that contains numerous frequencies at various phases and amplitudes. Any change in these parameters should affect the sound.

A power cord is ideally dealing with only a single frequency. If the explanation is RF rejection, then an AC regeneration device like PS Audio’s should make these cords unnecessary. I suppose it could be the capacitance of these cables offering some power factor correction since the transformer is an inductive load.

The purpose of my post is not to start a war between the “I hear what I hear so it must be so” camp and the “you’re crazy and wasting your money,” advocates. I am looking for reasons. I am hoping that someone can offer some valid scientific explanations or point me toward sources of this information. Thanks.
bruce1483
I regret that I am limited to only a +2 +2 award for the above post by Jadem6.
J.D. - Your logic about the development of audio is odd. If I understand what you are saying, electronics and acoustics did not exist before advances in audio were made. Theil and Small, for example, made their contributions before the existence of loudspeakers? And they did it by dusting off their high school math books and doing a little figuring. You honestly believe that scientific and engineering ability have only played a minor role in the advancement of audio?

More importantly your post to 702 is rude. It is a personal attack. You deserve a good spanking. It is also poorly constructed. You say,"I understand you have this image of yourself as a great mind in audio". Can you justifiy this statement? You clearly resent that he tries to pass some of the simpler things he understands along, but that does not imply that he thinks he is a great mind in audio. You are just being insulting. Then you say "you have no right to claim your knowledge in home audio brings you any closer to an understanding of components performance than I or others here at AudiogoN do." First, he doesn't say this. Second, if he did, you now need to explain why someone trained in electronics would not have the right to claim more understanding of electronic components than those without training. Your justification for saying this is that YOU have the right to claim to know more because of 40 years of "experience". You accuse him of arrogance and then suggest you are the one who knows the most. "Your delusions of grandeur", do you really believe that he has delusions of grandeur or are you just being deliberately offensive? Now you switch to goobledygook. The meaningless term "reality of audio reproduction" is supposed to be more significant than theory. Did you mean "music" but wanted something that sounded fancy? You finish off with an insult ("come down off your throne"), some nonsense (your ideas are only ideas with not practical application), sarcasm ("Thank you for your attempt to teach us") and some arrogance (he should learn from people who think like you).
Stevemj, I'm sure you know what you mean when you explained to us what you meant to say. That is you explained what 702 meant and that means exactly what you mean too, doesn't it? If you really did not mean what you say you said, and it does not apply to 702, then it is you that needs the spanking, and I will wager that 702 will apply same with some cheap interconnects and power cables. Or is that what you really came here for?
Steve, Thank-you for your fine critique of my writing, it means a lot to me.
In answer to your question, no I believe Science and experimenting from hobbyists worked hand and hand to develop audio to where it is today. I also believe that is how it will grow beyond this point. To bad 702, and a few others choose not to work together with us to move forward, but have taken the tact of blank denial.
As far as the rest of your post...................
.......... any one who must try to pump up his chest feathers by letting us all know of his extensive professional experience so we accept his view, must in deed be a weak player. (Please see the past couple months of Mr. 702 postings This man has too often shoved his "knowledge" and "experience as ..." down my throat that yes, I am choking. The way he has chosen to separate himself from the hobbyist only strengthens my "attack". J.D.
I just want to report I took out all my good power cords and located the power cords supplied by the manufacturer for each piece of gear I had, and put them in. I then let them burn-in for three days. The sound was horrid - excruciating amounts of grain, hardness, thinness. If all you wanted from a high end system was power and attack then you might have liked it. But if you wanted Ella's voice to sound like Ella, you would stop listening and go out and listen to Josephine Bloggs at the local Jazz Joint. I put the good stuff back and there it shall stay. That is my sole contribution to this post. Since the object of our hobby is enjoyment of music, the only meaningful dialogue here for me is how to improve this enjoyment. All else is RHUBARB!