Power Cords Snake Oil ??

Here is another way to look at it. Say you have a high end 100WPC Class A/B amp. It should have shipped with a cable that its manufacturer deems acceptable to enable top performance in all possible configurations for which the amp was designed.

Say this amp maker also manufactures $1000 power cables and $5000 power conditioners.  

Wouldn't that raise a couple of questions? 

1) Would they in good conscience sell me the $1000 power cable knowing that I bought the amp from them and that it came with the power cord they provided? IF so, what would the intended benefit be - electrically speaking? Have they measured for differences on the DC-side of the amp's PS and if so, why don't they  publish them? We all know that a high quality power cable can't clean up dirty power....

2) Then what about their $5000 conditioners? Let's say that I have a situation where my power is so dirty/noisy/out of phase that I need one of these conditioners. So now I have their amp and their conditioner, meaning I have a cord they provided and clean, phase aligned AC power on the AC side of the amp's power supply. Have they measured different DC voltages/currents on the DC side of that amp's PS during use? Why not publish or provide these results in an easy to see graph or description? 

3) If the company's goal is to ensure that I'm "as close to the music as possible" and they believe that their amplifier needs a conditioner and extra heavy duty expensive power cord, why don't they just sell the whole setup the way they think it sounds best, or why don't they just design their amp's power supply to condition or filter the AC power so that the DC power is "better"? 

The whole thing is nonsensical. This is a ploy to extract as much money from you as they can without providing any scientific proof that their system is 1) superior to a standard power cord and isolation transformer/filter or 2) that the added cost and components have measurable differences in audio quality? How many of them would be willing to set up a double blind A/B test or tests (plural) where different power conditions are present? 

ostensible_constituency
No. Not necessarily. It means you’re experiencing the placebo effect. Aspergers (or any other ailment/condition) are still possible, but there is no causative or correlative relationship between that and the fact that you are hearing what you want to hear - and - that you wouldn’t hear or be able to point out more than 50% of the time in a true double blind A/B comparison test.

I should clarify my first post, however, to say that "very wrong" is only in cases where the placebo effect has been ruled out.

>>>>It doesn’t make sense that placebo effect can be used as the reason why power cords sound different. Same with the claim that blind tests would prove there are no differences. If either of those claims were true then anyone could automatically win any audio argument by claiming placebo effect or threatening the dreaded blind test. I hereby declare both of those arguments logical fallacies. 

That makes zero sense whatsoever. Power cords DO NOT sound different in a controlled blind A/B comparison test. PERIOD. You don’t seem to understand what the placebo effect really is.

BTW, power cables are not the same thing as interconnects or speaker cables. Those are actually in the signal path.

You are fooling yourself if you think a power cord improves the sound of your audio system and in a controlled experiment I would wager everything that I own and my kid’s college savings that you could not distinguish the difference between two power cables of equivalent length, same AWG (even "effective AWG") with ALL other variables in the given system controlled - more than 50% of the time. IOW, it would be no better than random guessing.

Something like this test, but with power cords: http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/bas_speaker/abx_testing2.htm

It would be much simpler just switching out power cables.

Oh my...what do you know? Here's a power cable comparison test and guess what.....nobody could do it more than 50% of the time, LOL:

https://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_4/feature-article-blind-test-power-cords-12-2004.html

What is an "audio argument"? How does one "win" such an argument?

The fact is that even companies like Shunyata struggle to demonstrate discernible measurable differences between their expensive power cables and others using sensitive test equipment. Even then, that’s on the AC side of the power supply. So for an amp, as an example, which has a built-in power supply consisting of a transformer, rectifier and filter (which also serves as an energy reserve), nothing you can do to a power cord on the AC side of the equation other than damaging it will affect the DC rail voltage in a meaningful or audible way or the availability of reserve current available to the amplifier circuitry. Even Shunyata and the so-called ’scientific’ cable manufacturers cannot show that their cables measure significantly (or at all in most cases) "better" than a standard UL listed 14 AWG shielded power cable.

That’s why people like you and the companies that sell these cables always fall back on the "but it sounds different" audio argument. As though audio is somehow excluded from the realm of the scientific method or subject to physical phenomena that are not understood or able to be isolated.

I’m going to make this short and sweet. NOBODY can hear the difference between two power cables that are capable of carrying the current required to meet the specifications of an amplifier in an otherwise totally controlled experimental audio setup more than 50% of the time.

At the end of the day, it is indeed the placebo effect and if you have purchased a fancy power cable and THINK it sounds better, that's your business. But there is no objective science or proof nor can what you hear be repeated in a reproducible manner for other people, without also tainting that situation via the placebo effect. 

ostensible_constituency

... Power cords DO NOT sound different in a controlled blind A/B comparison test. PERIOD.

ALL CAPS is shouting and not necessary.
Please tell us about the controlled tests you've performed that leads to this conclusion. Who conducted the test, and who participated? How did you switch between the power cords? What cords did you evaluate?

Or, do you state this based purely on intuition?