The Truth About Power Cords and there "Real" Price to Performance

OK, so to respond to my post, I simply threw it out there, you may do with it what you want, but I am not afraid to double blind my cables. I dont think I have all the answers, I am not a scientist , I do believe there are things we experience as humans that can NOT be measured with any existing thingamajigger the physicists and scientists may have, even if it does go PING. The funny part is everyone is so stuck here. Its a phenomenon to me . Like we made a stick line in the dirt and put the chickens beak in it. The whole 50 miles of crap wire with noise, can easily be summed up so everyone can understand how a power cord could make a difference, in two words. . Filtering Cable. um....., is that so hard to imagine.. ? now depending on how much noise a filtering cable can remove will also affect the amount of noise on the ground plane of a piece of gear., this is because the safety ground is tied to the signal ground plane in 90% of pieces. Silly idea if you ask me , but I love differential design. Power supply noise gets on the ground plane from leakage current as well. This is why the more expensive gear where they have spent much time and effort at creating a low leakage, therefore low noise Psup , sound better and get less of a benefit from a filtering power cord. Ive decided to start really getting down to the nitty gritty if we want to talk cables. If people dont believe cables work, lets start with the microphone cable. to test this area, I recenty purchased a matched set of very flat measuremant microphones and a high fallotin mic pre. What I did not realize is that most if not all vocal mics have a rising frequency response in the higher frequency. Very simply put, the "coloration" starts with the microphone. .. this is a whole other discussion , but I ran recording tests this weekend with Mogami and My pure silver foil as a microphone cable . The difference is not subtle. Im also thinking a good way to prove the power cord thing is for me to make a power cord that will collapse your soundstage , in other words if power cords can change the sound of a rig, which they can. I should also be able to make one that degrades your sonic as well , right ? Yes , I can , through my trial and error proces, I know some things that will inherently degrade the sonic, collapse the soundstage roll off highs, kill dynamics, etc.. This may be easier for people to hear since it sits in the glass half empty arena and it seems some minds stay there.. So anyways , have a great Sunday and happy listening !

I should also be able to make one that degrades your sonic as well , right ? Yes , I can , through my trial and error process, I know some things that will inherently degrade the sonic, collapse the soundstage roll off highs, kill dynamics, etc.. This may be easier for people to hear since it sits in the glass half empty arena and it seems some minds stay there..

Perfect. +1 mikepowellaudio

mikepowellaudio,

Making a power cable that is able to degrade sound does not prove that an audiophile-grade power cable will improve sound compared to a generic one of equal gauge. The only thing you proved is that you know how to make a bad power cable.

blumartini

What I can say is that Jay Luong's 27 Best Audiophile Power Cables has been one of the best if not the best attempt to put things somewhat into perspective in regards to the manufactures, models, and prices as well as what to expect at there particular value proposition.

Well, if you think tests done with an utter lack of rigor or controls for his own imagination are "the best..."

..then I've got some magic health crystals to sell you .  They are evaluated the same way.

blumartini, have you ever tried to blind test between audiophile cables and a "normal" competently designed cables? (E.g. correct gauge for equipment etc).  I have.  It was very enlightening.  When I knew which cable was in use I was sure the sound OBVIOUSLY changed.   But when I didn't know which was being used, funny how those OBVIOUS ANYONE COULD HEAR IT changes vanished.  Human perception and cognitive biases are pretty wild.   The stance "If I heard it then it's true and my ears can't be wrong!" is a popular one among audiophiles.   But it's up to you if you want to treat audio in essentially a form of religion or not.

If so, have fun discussing how many thousands of dollars to spend on AC cables.

prof, I suspect your results were because you didn’t implement the proper rigor and controls. Hel-loo!