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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
prof
3,474 posts
 
"Has anyone done an ABX test of power cords and seen a positive result?"


Not that I’ve ever read.

But FWIW.....


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

There are some forms of doing a blind test, even without an ABX box, that seem to me viable. E.g. if you could get two units of the same CD player or DAC, use a stock cable on one, after market cable on the other, run them through a pre-amp that can switch between them, and set up a blind test.   There's a post, or blog out there somewhere that I read, where a guy in pro audio did just that, as he ended up being sent two of the same DAC, which made it easy to do the after market AC cable test.  Results were negative for detecting sonic differences.

(I did something similar with CD players and DACs, though one DAC had a volume control which made it particularly good for matching levels. I easily identified differences between them in those blind tests btw...which goes to show it’s not the case that all blind tests reult in negative findings or "blind testing by nature erases audible differences" or whatever).

I’d do it myself if I had two identical DACs. I actually have the Benchmark 1 and the Benchmark 2 DAC. But as they are not strictly identical units, the claim could always be made that this presents another variable.

I haven’t actually set up the Benchmark 2 DAC yet, so maybe if I can pull off a blind test between it and the DAC 1 that might be interesting. (And if I can’t detect a sonic difference between them, in principle that would be a baseline for an AC cable test...hmm.....)



boxer12
8,656 posts
 
prof " Why don’t you take their tone to task, I wonder?"

Because they are not " derailing the conversation with antagonism", as the OP requested
prof
3,474 posts
 

boxer12,

So you fall in to the "If I just repeat the same criticism without any more evidence, and without addressing the other person’s points, that will do."

That doesn’t exactly elevate the conversation here.


In fact it seems rather...antagonistic.


Look at my first post - it’s not antagonistic, it’s civil and simply presents another alternative, including that I am not claiming to be "right" and others are "wrong." I’ve kept that stance through the whole thread, even in fhe face of actual antagonism.


I’ve simply expressed my reasons for not jumping on the aftermarket AC cable bandwagon - including how my own experience with AC cables helped form my stance. Where the AC cable supporters declare from their own experience "AC CABLES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!" I have been more cautious, saying I WASN’T going to claim from my own negative experience that AC cables don’t make a difference.

If you refuse to notice this imbalance in how views have been presented, and can only interpret the presentation of the alternative viewpoint as "antagonism" that’s frankly where the problem lies.
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
prof,
I have no doubt you’re a smart guy, just read the last two sentences of the OP’s original post. He wasn’t looking for an alternative viewpoint
prof
3,474 posts
 

I understood his last two sentences to mean that if one is skeptical, not to be antagonistic. Which I abided by.
Now, if the OP meant that ANY suggestion of skepticism was by nature "antagonistic" then that I think is unwarranted. There’s no reason differing views between mature adults should be rejected as "antagonistic" simply because "it’s different from what I believe, and I don’t want to have to deal with alternative viewpoints."

However, IF the OP had written something clear such as "This thread is based on the assumption after market AC cables can alter the sound of a system: if you are skeptical about this, please do not bring that to this thread, as I wish to discuss purely the ideas of how AC cables could alter the sound of a system. Thank you."

If it had been clear like that, I would completely understand and wouldn’t have entered this thread with another skeptical view of "why power cables affect sound."
Anyway....having made my case I'll refrain from posting more in this thread.  (Unless possibly baited to, or unless someone is actually interested in my responding).


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