Which Cable Makes the Biggest Impact?

I have to agree with Douglas and Tvad that the quality of your system can make evaluating the effect of cables possible or impossible. My own system does a fairly good job but I have heard others do much better.

I have little patience with the skeptical search for a "logical" explanation for the differences cables make, especially power cords. All the jawing in the world won't change reality a bit, it is acrobatics for an audience of one. I remain interested in reading about experiments that start from the position that there is an audible difference rather than the opposite.

Finally, this one is not in the OP's list, but I use a digital interconnect and I have found this cable's length and quality to make a great difference.

"Interesting. Re power cords, how is it that after that electricity is generated at the plant it goes through numerous wires, transformers, taps, circuit breakers, cables, wires, meters, protections devices, etc. before it gets to your house and then somehow a power cord cleans all this up and upgrades the sound?

I'm not denying a power cord makes a difference just trying to understand the rationale. I would believe a power conditioner of some sort would have an effect but a power cord, I just don't see the logic.

regards, David"

Wireless200,

I share your logic, or "logic-gap" on this. My answer is that I think there is something going on in the back of the average stereo system with EMFs set up around our cables and the circuits in our equipment that makes delivery of clean power from the wall or power conditioner, and a clean signal from one box to the other a much bigger challenge than we might at first appreciate.

The better the equipment (larger power supplies, greater current delivery, larger capacitors, higher sampling rates, etc.), the greater the potential EMF "pollution" in the vicinity of our rigs. So it is a catch 22, more powerful and sophisticated gear makes for a more challenging environment for signals to pass into and out of our gear undisturbed, while at the same time providing much greater ability to resolve and detect line hash and other electrical interference in the signal path that can ultimately affect what we hear out of our speakers. Perhaps why the folks with the best equipment report the largest improvements from different power cords.

So after market power cords don't "upgrade the sound", really good ones prevent it from being degraded further in a very challenging EMF environment.

Douglas,

From your post: (and not to get into a pissing match)

"It really does seem counter-intuitive, but I wholeheartedly subscribe to the "Front End Influence" theory that high quality power cords must be used if one is going to have a fighting chance at reaching Hi-Fi."

So, based on that thought, all the tens of thousands of dollars that (we) spend on equipment isn't "reaching Hi-Fi" because we didn't invest money in a 6 foot power cord?

Without good PC's, our equipment isn't much better then Circuit City type of equipment.

That doesn't seem logical to me.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I was hoping that this thread would not turn into one of those battles about how the last six feet of a power cord to a component can possibly make a difference. I'm sure everyone is tired of those threads. Frankly, I don't care about the technical aspects of how a power cable is supposed to make such a big difference, but in my system it does!

I've been at this audio hobby for over 30 years. During that time period, I have had three Ah-ha moments as Tvad suggested; these are those times when you discover something in your system that takes your listening experience to the next level of performance. I was never a believer in interconnects, power cords, or speaker cables. I always upgraded components first. Sure, my system sounded better; with each progressive upgrade in components, I got better sound....tighter bass....cleaner sounding treble...more coherent midrange. I thought my system was sounding pretty darn good. I didn't think that my system could be improved much more without revamping it entirely (and winning the lottery to pay for it!). I was wrong.

My first Ah-ha moment! Upgrading from a Denon transport/Meridian DAC to an Arcam CD92.

My second Ah-ha was buying my first power cord for my Arcam CD92. This one simple step of buying my first used power cord (a Harmonic Technology Pro AC11 for $120) made my speakers disappear.

My third and most recent ah-ha: Upgrading my last power cord to the Purist Audio Dominus Ferrox for the analogue portion of my power conditioner. Wow! More of everything...period!

I agree that one may not hear the improvements that cables can bring about if their components are not at a certain level of performance. All I can say is that if you have not tried an upgraded power cord before, try it. Circuit City to true Hi Fi might be a stretch, but you can move forward one big step in my opinion!

calgarian