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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
mkgus's avatar
mkgus OP
324 posts
 
PS Audio sells “high end” power cords, and even he basically said, in his rebuttal to null tests, that their only real benefit is better shielding for EMI

When and where did Paul state that? I just watched a video of his where he says the gauge of wiring in power cables affects the frequencies: large gauge emphasis bass and small gauge emphasis treble. He said a good power cable uses both small and large gauge. I have found similar results in my experience. When I put a very large gauge power cable upstream of my DAC, I had to turn down the sub because the bass was much greater than with a smaller gauge cable. And if it wasn’t actually greater in quantity, then it did something to the bass that made me want to turn it down because it wasn’t as pleasing. I eventually swapped that cable out because it didn’t improve on what was there before. This experience reflects other comments I’ve read about matching the right cable gauge to the piece of equipment. Larger gauge isn’t necessarily better. 
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mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@mkgus

Gauge only effects wattage loss per distance/impedance and damping factor, being better for different frequencies isn’t true, and doesn’t even make sense.

https://youtu.be/G0ZQHTzYv9I?t=5m13s

Better shielding to EMI, nothing about affecting the sound of the music in regards to tonal quality or quicker transients.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
An observation: anyone having difficulty wrapping his head around power cords is really not going to like the subject of audiophile fuses. Now, coincidentally fuses go into AC circuits just like power cords do, and are widely reported to affect the sound, just like power cords, and share a lot of the same characteristics/variables with power cords like directionality, purity of metals, measurements don’t corroborate listening results, and RF rejection. And many of the arguments are the same, must be a crappy power supply, the power from the wall is clean, AC travels in both directions, if they’re so great why don’t manufacturers routinely put them in their amps, yada yada yada....
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
elizabeth6,206 posts01-13-2019 1:44pmKudos to Enid Lumley who ’discovered’ lifting cables made an improvement.

>>>>>Actually her cable tunnels not only isolated cables from the deleterious effects of the floor or carpet in terms of vibration but the wood tunnels that supported the cables with rubber bands or string were treated to reduce static electrical charge effects. When I was at CES with Pierre of Mapleshade we supported all cabling from the ceiling using eye hooks and fishing line. That was 1997.

When she brought that discovery to the World via The Absolute Sound.. she was run out of town on a rail, figuratively
Sad.. I

>>>>>>You have to be tough, tough, tough. It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken 🐔
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