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.
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.
