Hearing is believing?........power cables.......

Dynaquest4 - WRT 

 audio component manufacturers would surely provide better cables with their equipment

and the same goes for outlets, connectors etc...

However - pretty much all audio components re designed to a "Price Point" and are generally aimed at bettering other components in the same snack bracket.

To include a good Power cable would drive up the cost and ultimately take them out of that snack bracket and lower their competitiveness.

They also realize that people buying their products may also replace that power cable - so why include a good power cable when it will ultimately be discarded. Makes no sense in their eyes.

I actually heard this from one manufacturer - who believe a good power cable was essential to get the best out of their gear

I have conducted many cable upgrades to components priced between $300 and $10.000 and in each case I heard discernible differences.

That does not necessarily mean you would hear those same difference - it meas we all hear things differently - neither one is better - just different. 

e.g. - put me in a room of people and I loose track of the conversation with the person in front of me because of the ambient noise. Whereas my wife can track a single conversation across a full restaurant several tables away - comes in handy at times :-)

We could debate this at length or simply accept, as I do, that there are people that choose to believe cables makes little to no difference and those that do.

I do agree that there is little difference between  many of the cables out there - but some do excel.

Regards - Steve

rodman9999: I agree that phenomena is a more common plural form of the singular  - however, both Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage list the possible plural forms as phenomena when the meaning is an observable fact or event but phenomenons when the meaning is an exceptional, unusual, or abnormal person, things, or occurrences.  Thus my usage.

Steve (williewonka): Nicely written opinion but I do not agree.  If I buy a $2500 stereo power amp and the manufacturer provides me a $9.00 (bulk wholesale) power cord, it is, I believe, because that power cord provides power correctly and accurately.  If he found that a power cord costing 10 times as much provided the "eye-opening, jaw dropping" (or even subtle but definite) improvements as reported by "you guys," he could substantially upgrade the cord and the amp's performance for only a 3.5% increase in the retail cost (assuming he did not mark-up the additional cord cost).  Who would not want their product (in my example a power amp) to perform dramatically better for so relatively little?

Please don't ask what aftermarket power cables I have tried because I have tried none.  My system sounds so good to me, I don't feel a need to spend time and money putzing around trying to increase the "analog-like liquidity" (and all the other voo-doo magic terminology used here) of a perfectly good system.  I have speaker cables by Kimber Kable and Wireworld RCA interconnects. They provided no increase in SQ over Monoprice products.  Is it just me...my ears?  Maybe.  And if so, I am very fortunate.  I can listen to music that sounds incredibly wonderful to me and will never have to spend an additional penny on cables, wire, cords, smoke, butterflies, rainbows and mirrors.

If you haven't even tried, then your criticism holds very little weight. 

Because some reviewers and forum users are prone to hyperbole and can be overly enthusiastic does not mean that there are no valid improvements with PCs.

For my own enlightenment - I would like to understand from members with tube components in their systems...

Have you experienced significant improvements by installing a quality power cables on your tube components - or were the improvements of a more subtle nature ?

I currently have a Solid State rig, but I did own a tube amp a few years ago.
- I do not recall hearing the same level of improvements using that tube amp with a quality power cable that I now hear with my solid state amp.

But then, I did not have the same power cables I have today either. :-)

I'm thinking that perhaps with the higher internal voltages used in Tube gear, the benefits that may be derived from installing a quality of the power cable on solid state components is less of an issue where tubes are concerned? 

Thanks in advance - Steve

I think what Randy and I and other realists are saying is that once some very basic and inexpensive length/guage requirements are met, nothing is to be gained by spending sometimes insane amounts on aftermarket cabling...wasting money on them is ludicrous. If better performing power cables were really necessary, audio component manufacturers would surely provide better cables with their equipment. To not do so would make no sense. I don’t know how many different ways there are to say this..."exotic" cables are designed, marketed and sold to fix problems that do not exist. (quote from dynaquest14).

And this is the exact reason why dynaquest4 and the like will never "get it". The reason why manufacturers don't provide "upmarket power cables" is the same reason why manufacturers don't provide upmarket Interconnects and generally don't provide upmarket tubes. Imagine the added cost to a component. There are hundreds of Interconnect manufacturers and a fair percentage of Power Cable manufacturers. The chief designer says to his R&D team "We're going to supply upmarket Interconnects, Power Cables and Tubes for our components. Now  get to work and find the best matching IC's, PC's, Tubes". R&D come back 12 months later. "Yep we found the right matching cables & tubes". "How much did that cost?" "$200k in component costs for testing all the different cables and $200k in labour for hundreds of hours of listening tests". Said $5K component now costs $9K. Doesn't make economic sense.

Even if they just threw in random $100 cables & $200 of tubes. That $400 by the time it gets to the middleman and then the retailer becomes closer to $1K. Once again makes no economic sense. The majority of passionate audio buyers will want to swap out their own cables, tubes anyway to get their own signature sound and synergy with the rest of their system. Remember one sound doesn't suit all.

A great example of this recently was when I A/B'd two CD Players from the same manufacturer, the Vincent CD-S8 & Vincent CD-S7DAC, both very fine sounding CD Players. I placed some Silver XLR's (which sounded nice on the CD-S8 but sounded "too bright" on the CD-S7DAC).If Vincent included these with all their CD Players, there would be some disappointed CD-S7DAC owners who've paid for a cable that doesn't match well.

Some years ago I purchased a Power Amp which had an upmarket (not expensive but better than the throwaway PC) Power cable hard wired. About four years ago I had the cable replaced with an IEC socket .And guess what, I found a better matching Power Cable which increased the sound quality of the Power Amp.

I've done extensive testing of Power Cables. Some that match well with certain Pre-Amps, don't fare quite as well with certain CD Players and vice-versa. Yep a well made, well engineered, well matched Power Cable accompanied with good Power Treatment/Conditioning will undoubtedly allow good quality Audio Components to perform closer to their potential. Absolutely no question. And it doesn't need to cost a king's ransom.