Blind Power Cord Test & results

The other night I had assumed an expensive power cord was going to be an improvement, so I hooked it up without listening to it and before everyone arrived for the music session.

About an hour into the music I ask one of my group members if he thought things were "off."

He agreed, and I put in the less expensive cord and the system improved drastically.

I have no problem with that, it saves me money every time that happens. I admit I had a prejudice for the premium cord that had proven itself dozens of times in other situations.

Conclusion? I still use the premium cord everywhere it works and NOT where it did not work. The score is two pieces of (newly acquired) gear that did not respond well to the "high priced" version and nine places where the "high priced" cord was the clear winner.

As I stated early on in this thread. You use what you think will work and then test (long term listening) to see what the facts are.

If this test had been done "blind" I could have easily reversed the brands, based on my past experience.

Does this prove ABX is a superior way to determine what brand to use? No, it only proves humans are influenced by what we learn and if your an adult about it, you admit when testing goes against preconceived notions and go with what WORKS.

In addition, many cords do not respond well to short term listening. Some brands change tonal balance simply by plugging and unplugging them from the equipment, this not even taking into effect what powering off does to solid state and tube gear for the first few minutes.

I hesitate to bring that point up, because someone will now argue that the cord does not change if moved and that there is no effect in powering on and off various pieces of gear.

Again, reason to listen long term, if for no other reason than to remove the possibility of those variables.

Again, this test was not about how you decide what works or what you prefer. It was about whether or not you can hear a difference under controlled conditions.

I think we have all preferred the "lesser" product at one time or another. That does not refute the hypothesis that we are influenced by brand, packaging, etc. etc. Price is but one component of brand perception.

Good posts Drubin. The "which is this" task can be difficult. With it, I would not conclude PCs to be snake oil and would have preferred if the experimenters used two groups, instead of one group given two variables - as in "is there a difference between A and B?"

What is always obvious is that audiophiles in general, unlike the professionals (Pabelson), are emotionally and knowledge-wise unfit to conduct blind testing. Its goal is to eliminate just one variable, but you’d think it was a religion. Personally I don't see why people should use it at the level of the individual consumer to decide the worthiness of each component - what a pain!, - at a larger level, however, which testing never has or will attain in audio, it has merit.

Eliminating variables is a good thing, and is practiced too little in audio, especially audiogon where anyone proclaims “truths” with any measure of experience or knowledge-base.

...not even taking into effect what powering off does to solid state and tube gear for the first few minutes...

That *could* be a major compromise in a cord testing situation... unless one listened for a while to each sample under test.

One has to be intimitaly familiar with all of the gear being used and the recording in order to identify if there has been a change made. Picking specific parts of a song to use as a cue tends to work well, but if one wasn't quite familiar with the song or how it was specifically reproduced on the system to begin with, they would be guessing just like anybody else.

As such, short term listening tests when one is not familiar with the system and / or the recording is next to useless, especially when the differences may be quite subtle. Expecting someone to familiarize themselves with both a song and potentially different types of presentations at the same time is too much to ask simultaneously.

As such, these types of tests are basically set up to produce a negative right from the beginning. The one exception is when you get a highly trained listener with excellent hearing acuity. Even then, they are swimming against the current for the above mentioned reasons. Sean
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