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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
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@gpgr4blu

Are you claiming you are impervious to placebo? If so, you probably are the only such person alive.

Measurements go out the window once you know what product you are listening to (wether it be the brand, looks, price, or all three).

I can tell you the Dutch & Dutch 8C is a state of the art speaker (besting probably most <$20,000 even passive), and you may agree if you listened double-blind, but then if you didn’t like it when sighted, there’s no point.

I can also tell you that pretty much no person can tell the difference between 320Kbps MP3 and CD or higher, as studies have been done in treated rooms with expensive gear, and the confidence ratings were all 40%-60%. However, you may think you can.

I can’t tell you what speakers/DAC/amps you’ll like in your home, I can tell you with a high degree of certainty of what you’d like during a double-blind study though.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Uh, nobody is saying there’s no such thing as psychological bias, or whatever, but it’s silly to say those effects are always present. The same skeptics who claim it’s all psychological are the same ones who claim double blind tests will eliminate psychological bias and reveal the TRUTH. 😬
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Jitter
Geoff, thank you for establishing that the magnetism is not part of the functioning mechanism of the mat, we were all wondering about that. Just so we do not need to go back and reread 15 pages to find it, would you please refresh our memories on what is the part of the mat that creates its sonic benefits?

>>>>>The non magnetic part. I’m a little surprised you didn’t think of that.

Jitter
Also, which part of the mat reduces electrical usage when placed on an electrical appliance and that also by placing it on a fuse box can improve the functioning of all electrical apparatus including television sets? I think I read it a while ago but it must have slipped from memory.

>>>>>I don’t know. I was kind of hoping you could tell me.


mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@geoffkait  
 
Bias is always present for everyone regarding evaluating speakers/DACs/etc., it’s just unavoidable. People claim benefits in going 24/192 over 16/44.1, and the only reason is because you think it’s better, the simple factual truth is 44.1kHz is enough unless your DACs filter is garbage, and 16Bit is enough as it’s almost always a lower noise floor than what you can hear. Same reason DSD has no benefits, and MQA is worse than CD (it’s half lossy by definition). 
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