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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. 
mkgus
phomchick's avatar
phomchick
209 posts
 
Just an observation. Interesting conversation. I started reading it from the beginning but then the same ole pattern was obvious. There are those who have spent the money, did some serious listening, and have drawn some conclusions on if this or that makes a difference in SQ in ones system. Usually these are people who can point to something specific when making such a claim, or explain their observation e.g. better highs, or better bass, or better imaging, etc.. On the other hand there are those who criticize, but only have that criticism with no meat

Those that claim they can hear a difference in power cables provide no more meat than the skeptics. If there is a difference in sound, there must be a difference in the signal going to the speakers. I have never seen any proof of this. 

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
11,226 posts
 
I’m sure there is but do you honestly think that we’re at the height of our ability to measure it or that there will be no more advances in our ability to measure?

Add to that that there’s no doubt that there are differences in say, sound staging ability as we’ve all heard the differences, so what accounts for that and how is it measured?

All the best,
Nonoise
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
phomchick
Those that claim they can hear a difference in power cables provide no more meat than the skeptics. If there is a difference in sound, there must be a difference in the signal going to the speakers. I have never seen any proof of this.

>>>>Well, just a comment, really. If someone did show that there was in fact a measured difference in the signal going to the speakers due to changing power cords it would not be proof. It would be evidence.
spatialking's avatar
spatialking
625 posts
 
Actually, if one had a spectrum analyzer then one could see the improvement since it is easy to measure the power output with and without the new cord for a given piece of music.    Once you have it hooked up, there is a LOT you can measure.  Granted, not every audiophile has an expensive chuck of test equipment lying around.  

I would be most audio companies don't spring for the equipment, though.  Too pricey and it is mostly useful for R&D rather than production.



phomchick's avatar
phomchick
209 posts
 
Actually, if one had a spectrum analyzer then one could see the improvement since it is easy to measure the power output with and without the new cord for a given piece of music.   Once you have it hooked up, there is a LOT you can measure. Granted, not every audiophile has an expensive chuck of test equipment lying around
But cable manufacturers could afford this equipment, and they could use the results (perhaps a reduction in the noise floor) in their marketing materials. But they don't. Why do you suppose that is the case?


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