how can a line cord affect frequency response ?

For decades I have experimented and listened for changes in my system. Sometimes I hear something, sometimes I don't. When I hear something I am open minded. When I don't I am a naysayer. C'est la vie.

Ronniekoh,

Unlike power cords, speaker and interconnect cabling can "directly" affect inductive speaker loads, or sensitive gain stages. Both cables are in the audio stream, and can affect frequency response by inductance, resistance, and capacitance. The altering or addition of these passive components may/can be proven audibly (pending their values) instantaneously. A power cord's job is to transfer available voltage/current into the components power supply, thus converted to stable, low ripple DC. This DC will be attained no matter what conductor material is sellected to feed it. Silver or gold conductors will merely grant but a few milivolts difference (over a 6 ft length) into the isolation transformer, over copper. The outlet voltage varies far more at any given moment! Whether being fed by 50 Hz or 60Hz, the power supply converts it into DC, and is un-affected by the passive components mentioned earlier.

Besides all the preceeding footage of non-audiophile Romex wiring, what about all the "acclaimed" aftermarket line conditioners being inserted between the outlet and audio components? Lots of passive/active components in direct contact with the AC stream, thus feeding the exact same audio component. All of which would add way more coloration in comparison to ANY power cord related issues. Oh...and yet ANOTHER power cord! Where's all the "frequency" related questions there? It just doesn't apply to power supplies and cords, with regards to limiting a component's output frequncy. Where's all the concern about the isolation transformer's copper wiring, or core composition? Just think about each and every component's internal soldering, for those bringing up that PC-related topic (includes most power, speaker, and IC cables).

For every personal scenerio you've witnessed/debated someone claiming to hear differenses, I can match with ones who have failed during blind testing, whether in their personal environment, or a dealer's. I've been at this HiFi stuff for three decades now, and been through these discussions/testing before.

My problem is that I lack the discipline with not responding to these forums. Seems no one ever seems to sway the other camp, but in my lengthy career of electronics trouble-shooting and personel training, I've observed all kinds of scenerios where work colleagues report having repaired/diagnosed a problem that wasn't even related, but in fact, they reset or disturbed something else in the process. My explanation/advice to them is to re-verify, sabatage, or replace items they've swapped. More than 70% of the time, they didn't truly fix the problem. That's my advice to you readers. Ignore the label ego and bragging rights, and create engineered methods to reconfirm what you're hearing. That's all...

Reb, you stated: The #1 factor by far is the type of conductor material the cord is built of. Everything else is secondary. Well, I agree but only to a certain point. If I compare my current cable, the Pure Note Paragon Enhanced with another less expensive pure silver conductor cable, I hear very audible differences. The Pure Note is detailed (silver effect), has good delineation of space and instruments (silver effect), is fast (silver effect), and has agile bass (silver effect). But it doesn't have the emphazised treble and harsh upper midrange of the typical pure silver cable. So I think it has also to do with the shape of the conductors (ribbon, round or rectangular), the dielectric material and whether the conductors are cryoed or not.

Chris

Don't you notice that it is always the engineering types who feel a need to justify by first principles the sound of his system to others when all he has to do is start the music? or do they think that all that talk before hand is going to make it sound any better? reminds me of the religious types who need to convince others to shore up their weak faith ...
Build your products with your theories, the heart and ears will be the ultimate judge. Theory and execution are two different things, only results matter.

The engineering types are the ones who give you your music Ronniekoh.
The marketing types love your paranoia.