Power Cord Revelation

Jylee - Interesting story. I guess the thing that makes me a believer is I've been piecing my audio system together for the past five years. I've done this in a very logical way, starting at the source and moving downstream. Over the years my ability to hear small changes has gotten much better. Some of the tweaks have had minimal impact on the sound. I've learned not to expect much change, just fine tuning and subtleties. Sometimes the change is so subtle that I question whether it even exists.

My guess is that tweaks and system changes can be synergistically applied and may have an exponentially cumulative effect. In other words, you may have a "bottle neck" somewhere that is inhibiting the audio system. Once the kink in the system is addressed, other tweaks may reach their full potential. This could explain why one single change (power cord) can transform the sound of the entire system.

Is there any scientific merit to my assumption?

jylee, consider yourself lucky that you do not have to spend money on power cords!!!! Thats what makes this hobby so fun/frustrating. There is no formula or right or wrong. For me, I was not a power cord believer until recently. From my experiences, power cords make the biggest difference on the source, but I think this is dependent on the source. In my system, power cords made a big difference on my Esoteric cdp. I have found power cords to make less of am impact on my Pass amps. I will audition the SR Precision Ref and Hologram A on my amps though just to verify that I do not hear much if any difference. The same with my previous preamp, Audio Research Ref 3. The stock cords sounded best.

But as mootsdude pointed all, power cords (and everything in this hobby) is dependent on synergy as well as a myriad of other factors and variables. If the right mix of variables allows power cords to make a positive difference great. If not, consider yourself lucky!

Tboooe, you sold your ARC Ref 3? Was it the looks that bothered you? What are you planning to use now?

Cheers,
John

I just put the new bpt L10 --has new oyaide plugs with the same material as my ri oyaide outlets --20a ded line into furman ref 15 IT--took the old L10 and put it on my sub --bass has tightened and bass speed on the sub is better and now is more seemless with my stats-- the first L10 I put on the furman was nothing short of spectacular --great bargain--fast and dynamic --have them on my stats and cdp--will eventually put them on my other furman and amps

i hear difference among all my cables - both ICs and PCs. i think for some i would have no problem telling the two apart, whether in a blind test or otherwise. for example, for a while i used a pair of signal cable silver resolution XLRs. they were fast but had an unmistakable lean sound to them which, although may be beneficial on some systems, was not entirely to my liking. i then purchased and now use a pair of audio quest jaguars. the sound of these cables could not be more different - very warm and full sounding. i think in a blind A/B i would have little difficulty telling the two apart. but that in my experience is not the norm. generally differences are more subtle than that - although still important in terms of overall sound quality, and doing an A/B, as mentioned, often does not show anything other than this - that differences in audio are not and generally never night and day. although i doubt i would be able to pass most blind tests with my cables, i still believe that i can pick out differences - meaningful ones - among and between them.

to further my point. imagine a blind test between two drinks. in the first test, one is milk and the other is water. i guarantee that 100 times out of 100, people will be able to correctly identify which is which, because the differences between the two are so stark. but this is not audio. audio is a blind test between coke and pepsi. although there are clear differences between the two, if a person does many A/Bs back and forth and back and forth, the traits that made each stand out individually start to blur because the two although different are also by their very nature similar.

this is my take on cables and most audio equipment in general.