Power Cords Snake Oil ??

"Audioengr stated that from his experience, correct design or modification of power supplies greatly reduces power cord colorations"

I think that most people who examine the SimAudio P-5 power supply would consider it a state of the art piece, housed within it's own chassis, connected to the line stage itself by a balanced cable. And yet, as well designed as this pre-amp is, when I replaced the stock power cord with a Sahuaro Ampthrilla, the change in sonics, soundstage depth and width, and overall tonal details, all increased when the Sahuaro power cord was put on, and decreased when the stock cord went back on. Don't know about other brands, but from repeated use with various components, Sahuaro ain't no snake oil :) Of course it could all be in my head, but you know what, it still gives me the same results everytime so...if it takes buying some snake oil to make the magic happen, yabba dabba do :)

JB, be sure to keep track of the distinction between a marketing angle that impresses as 'snake oil', and the entirely separate issue of whether the product itself might be described as such.

In my own system, when I got my Levinson 380S preamp - which is not entirely friendly to aftermarket PC's due to its requirement for a right-angle IEC plug, connected on the unit's underside - I asked some dealers who handled the line whether in their experience the piece responded to upgraded PC's. Several sources opined that the internal power supply was so good that no improvement would be heard, and not to worry about a PC change. I wondered if this was a position taken as much out of convenience as of conviction or experimentation, so I persisted until I got another dealer to admit that, yes, it could make a small but worthwhile improvement, but since telling a customer so just created a dissatisfaction that wasn't easily addressed, the other story prevailed. (In fact, the story I heard from all the others was so consistent that I began to suspect that maybe ML reps had hipped them to it as a method of deflecting a predictable objection.) So I decided to prop up my 380S on top of some temporary improvised supports which would allow a straight-plugged cord room to exit without excessive bending and listen for myself. Sure enough, just as I've found with all my other gear, a better cord did indeed make a difference, though in this case the improvement was definitely toward the lesser end of the scale. I think better-designed power supplies can help avoid excessively bad effects from using stock PC's, but I'm not sure it's possible in electronic gear to design-out upgrade-PC benefits completely.

Zaikesman:
The central issues are:
1. Is resonance the fundamental essence or energy of the universe?
2. Does the alteration of resonance create a change in energy?
After many years of testing we came to the conclusion the answer is “yes” to both questions.
Thereafter we discovered that “String Theory” encompassed the same ideas.

Audio Application:
All electromagnetic phenomenons are based on resonance; change resonance and energy is transformed.

The units of energy (Joule) are Kg-m x m per second x second, where kg is mass, m is distance, and seconds are unit of time. Thus, the (only) factors that can be involved in changing energy (decreasing or increasing it) are mass, distance and time. Since resonance (cycles per second) is not a term in the expression for energy, energy must be independent from resonance. Anyone agree or disagree?

Ok, let's get simple here and assume that resonance control is the next big thing, and that part of it involves the total length (organ pipe) primary resonance. How do you individually tune out this resonance for EACH different length of PC? Are you going to use a different construction according to the length of PC ordered, or vary the thickness/length ratio to arrive at a preferred (set of) null(s)? Just a thought. Maybe with 45 secret ingredients there's a recipe for building each different length of cable? Wow. And is the design goal to completely neutralize PC involvement, mimicking a zero-length PC? If not, then are we to assume that your PC somehow magically IMPROVES upon no PC? How? By "unvibrating" or "counter-vibrating" the universe?...or at least the AC presented at a duplex outlet? Phew. Hope it's not just spectral tilt, lumpiness, top-octave rolling or weird phasiness effects like so many others. Tell us HOW it sounds "different", and more importantly, why that's better, if you could. And please, why it should cost more than $250....
My product-evolution direction has combined an antiresonance construction (certainly rudimentary compared to string theory!) using among previous aspects a huge non-magnetic, compact heat-sinking "bath" that simply reduces the need (perceived or real) for huge conductors, as subtle temperature-rise is believed to be detrimental to audio performance. I posited these anri-rez arguments to a guitar and piezo-pickup manufacturer friend of mine. He laughed, recounting stories about some of the string-makers tricks, including playing with cryo years back (didn't work). I'm going to give him a couple of my PCs to try on his products, knowing full well the corporate heart is behind getting DSPs built into pickups so that a guitar-player can simply push a button and mimic ANY guitar string or manufacturer/model sound at will. We laughed that it could be done for loudspeakers, too. Imagine buying a "universal" speaker that you could punch in spectral and phase info into to choose among a bunch of favorites? Anathema to us 'philes, but believe me that's the direction even in upscale pro-music audio....