2. cables
  3. 1313300093

Do powercords make a difference in sound?

Do they make a difference by upgrading stock power cords in amps, ect versus aftermarket power cords? If so, can anyone advise a good bang for the buck upgrade?
chad329
rwwear
2,889 posts
 
You may take it as you may. If you have compared dozens upon dozens of cables I submit your judgement will become convoluted very easily after just a few. Unless you have a number of folks doing blind listening without outside influence and being sure to take notes, it would be in the least very difficult to believe your claims by me. I'm not insulting your methods, they are just hearsay if using a scientific approach. I have heard so many claims that just don't hold up under scrutiny that I have to have irrefutable evidence before I will begin to believe unlikely statements such as being able to hear the difference between copper and silver power cables. I am not saying you can't. I am just very skeptical.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
we live in a stochastic world. there is a probability that power cords make a difference.

in the broader scheme of things it doesn't matter if there is a disagreement on this subject. if a consumer believes and hears a difference, that is all that matters.oo
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Rwwear, skepticism is allowed.

Does a conductor's judgment become convoluted by hearing dozens of symphonies?

Does a circuit designer's judgment become convoluted by designing dozens of circuits?

Your argument that the more experience I have makes me less of a good judge of a phenomenon is weak.

I used to be every bit as skeptical, until I got over it (i.e. put my pride aside and actually compared).

BTW, I don't disagree that humans are horrible at double blind listening tests. However, I also insist that humans have phenomenal capacity to hear distinctions in sound/music. The rub is that I believe we have poor acoustic memory, which makes us poor at the testing. So, both are true; there are differences in sound which are easily heard, but we are poor at matching/identifying precisely sound snippets under tightly controlled conditions.

Based on studies about recall and the human mind (i.e. how poor people are at describing/recalling details to police what they saw as an eyewitness) I think I have pretty good ground to stand on for my position. :)
rwwear
2,889 posts
 
Your arguments for are much the same as my arguments against.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Mapman, I only alluded to NASA because of this trite phrase, not rocket science. I do know a guy that used to be in NASA who got surplus electrical wire, he prefers newer stuff. He assured me that current capacity was not their only concern.
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