Are manufacturer AC cables good enough?

dowjones wrote:

" Electricity runs for miles through steel/aluminum wire hits the transformer for your house steps down and comes through the meter, panel, feet of regular copper wire, receptacle then gets to the magical power cord that changes something or the other then goes through a filter in the amp, another transformer, regular 12 or 14 gauge wire in the amp but through this whole thing it’s that few feet of magic wire that adds those wonderful inky black background, open soundstage , voices floating in front of the speakers and pianos beside your couch"

I couldn't agree more. If your system has the resolution & your hearing is at least average, a high end aftermarket power cord can greatly improve the sound quality.   

Pretty sure that "electricity runs for miles.... then gets to the magical power cord..." is his sarcastic way of trying to say something without ever having to, you know, come out and say it. 

Since he's afraid, or more likely simply hasn't thought it through, what he's trying to say is those last few feet can't possibly matter. Or the other way he might like to put it, if he would actually put it instead of sniping, you'd have to replace all the wire to the dam. Both of which seem to have a grain of truth even though they are ultimately misleading.

Its true every foot matters. Might even go all the way back to the dam for all I know. It certainly goes as far as the drop line. And according to a couple very reliable listeners it goes as far out as the neighborhood transformer. 

Of course the 5 ft of power cord matters. There's nothing magical about it at all. Its simply that some amount of degradation happens every inch of the way. Minimizing it for 5 ft is an improvement. I've done that in stages all the way back to the step down transformer, then to the panel, then the panel itself, and the meter. Others like I've said have gone even further. For every foot you do the sound improves.

People wonder and get triggered and argue when I say how fantastic it sounds. But you know what? Its only the people who haven't tried these things that get all worked up. The ones who've done it, we all know. 

Interesting. What would be the shortest power cable length that matters?

Depends on your equipment and ears, for me myself I have heard a phenomenal increase in sound quality using various models of cables by Mad Scientist Audio(New Zealand) and their prices aren’t in the stratospheric range as some are.

Of course aftermarket power cords matter.

They matter to those who sell them and those, like myself, who have spent good money on them.

Yes, they also make a significant difference to the sound. Or at least I thought they did after initially plugging them in. Heck, I even went to the great trouble of rewiring my Sony MiniDisc player.

After years of being taken in (and scammed) I'd now say they make bugger all difference to stock leads.

The relationship between vision and audio (or any) expectation is well known. For example I tried listening to two identical pieces of music - one with some visual stimulus eg an LP/CD/album art/ video and the other without.

Every time I did this I felt a strong compulsion to prefer the one accompanied by visual stimulus. I'd recommend anyone trying this for themselves just to familiarise themselves with this strange phenomena.

This, despite what they might say, is the main reason blind testing is so frowned upon by those marketing such products.

A similar thing happens if you clean all the contacts in your audio chain. Initially you will 'hear' improved clarity but very soon after this newfound clarity tends to strangely evaporate. Expectation bias, a likely cousin of the placebo effect, definitely exists.

Tricks of perception have been documented for decades and used in marketing for much much longer.

As Cain said to Abel....