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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
fleschler
2,021 posts
 
jea48  The Curl/Parasound incident occurred numerous times.  He designed the equipment and they modified it to a price point which diminished the resulting product sound quality.  

My own PCs are GroverHuffman.com Empress and Pharoahs which are laboriously made as you can read on his site, patented and priced at $400 to $900 1 to 2 meters.  I am the beta tester for his cables for the past several decades.  His PC designs haven't changed much, about a half dozen retailed designs over 15 year period. 

His ICs have had 100 iterations with many retailed designs.  Low voltage signals are very tricky to design. 

His speaker cable also has had maybe four or five retailed designs over 15 years.  No one does what he does to wire such as his embossing and pressure flattening the wire or triple coating his first layer of insulation with nickel, carbon and tungsten powder in a solvent based binder.  His wiring is generally low capacitance.  Just some information why his cables perform so well on a wide range of equipment.
boxer12
8,656 posts
 
analogluvr,
" The nerve of him!  He probably doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about!  And neither do all the science based individuals who study confirmation bias."

I disagree & suspect they are all very smart people, just ignorant in this regard. 

"Just trust your ears 🙄"

Will do / Thanks!
erik_squires
16,234 posts
 
If you visit the Cable Asylum forum you can read where many members build their own DIY power cords. You don't have to spend a fortune for a good power cord.


@jea45
I think if you care, this is a great idea! :)

I move stuff around far too often. I can't see myself making the perfect power cord that I would use for long, but DIY is the smartest approach I think.
erik_squires
16,234 posts
 
I remember reading an article where John Curl said he would spec a certain grade of components, for a piece of Parasound audio equipment he designed, only to be overruled the owners of the company saying it would make the price of the piece of equipment to high and price it out of the market competition.

I have read this before, and I feel it is unnecessary sour grapes.

I mean, sure, we all dream of cost is no object for all the gear we buy, or might envision, but the reality is that all engineers face cost / performance challenges. How they solve them is the mark of the very best engineers.

I like Paraound, I think the Halo line provides excellent value for money. Would I buy an A21 or A23 if it was 2x the cost? Probably not.
What would be interesting to me is to hear the difference. That is, what would a JC spec A21 sound like vs. what was produced. Would we hear it? Would we be willing to pay the price for the differences? That would absolutely be interesting.

Best,
E

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