Why Power Cables Affect Sound


I just bought a new CD player and was underwhelmed with it compared to my cheaper, lower quality CD player. That’s when it hit me that my cheaper CD player is using an upgraded power cable. When I put an upgraded power cable on my new CD player, the sound was instantly transformed: the treble was tamed, the music was more dynamic and lifelike, and overall more musical. 

This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:

I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe. 

That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter. 

If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please. 
128x128mkgus
kosst, I make points often, that not everything will show up in measurements, such as this power cord thing. Comparing 2 12 gauge pcs from different manufactures, I hear differences. I have built cables, using the same wire, but different connectors, and I hear differences. The opposite is true, too, same connectors but different wire. Before I determine which is better ( which would be up to me anyway ), I listen for the differences, and they do exist (just like the M&Ms guy and Santa, in the commercial, lol ? I am not sure measurements can reflect these differences. I changed similar values of storage capacitors in an amplifier recently, and I heard differences, and the amp was not that old where the caps needed to be changed. I spent money to upgrade. Before I ever determined which capacitors I preferred, I concentrated on listening to the differences, with my test music. And then there was the " break in " period, which we disagree on as well. I do not know if these capacitors would show differences when being measured. Measurements are necessary, but, in the end, it is listening that's matters most. Peace and joy to all.  Enjoy ! MrD.

I think the first cable referencing sessions I was ever involved in (professionally) would have been Criteria Studios and some of the other private studios, halls and churches in south Florida in the late 1970's. The art of cable making was fairly fundamental back then, and yes, all the cable sounded different and the only debate was what to use where for the best or desired results. Again in the early 1980-87 I was involved in the same sessions at MGAudio, In Touch and Fox Theatre (Atlanta), including the local audiophile clubs. I can remember making power cables for guitar amps for the original "Guitar Works" in Atlanta (not the now school). And, working with audiophile designers on some of our pet projects in the 80's.

I started designing audio cable while still in my Atlanta stores and around that time the cable craze had been in swing for a good ten years, both pro & home. I don't remember the "If" cables made a difference was even an issue back then. It was weird to see HEA audiophiles on the internet, years later, create these threads about "If" but it's just as weird to see so many talk without doing any real research on their own. The communities of pro & home listeners of the 80's were far more advanced in the art of testing vs today. Today there are revolving door debates instead of real life testing, it's strange. Issues in audio that have been settled many years ago are brought up today in ignorance and often. People shouting "proof" about things that were common knowledge and common practice, before the amp of the month club and plug & play "discrete" systems became the norm, somehow loosing the intellect.

As I have suggested here before the talkers will be identified as talkers and the exploring audiophiles will move on to real pastures or separate themselves from those who have nothing better to do then make noise.

My hats off again to the Mods of Agon.

Michael Green

Very well said, Michael.  A lot of this stuff was supposedly settled a long time ago, or so I thought (as well).

And as you said, thanks to the mods of A'gon as they've had a rather Herculean task as of late (or was is Ulysses?). 🤔 Anyway, it ranks right up there with slaying something. 🗡

All the best,
Nonoise
Can somebody just please mail the non believers a spare power cord they have lying around . Kostt , You are a stand up guy , just return it after you are done . Let's put an end to this nonsense that they all sound the same once and for all !
"Can somebody just please mail the non believers a spare power cord they have lying around ."
Could you include "undecided due to no experience"?