Do powercords make a difference in sound?

When and if Liguy performs his power cord test I hope that he will utilize better methodology than in the biwire comparison that is described in the paragraph quoted by Doug. Note that the jaw-dropping difference Liguy found, and attributed to biwiring, was between the performance of the speakers when biwired into his own system in his own room, vs. their performance when single-wired into the dealer's system in the dealer's room.

This was pointed out by several people in the original thread, and only addressed by him experimentally near the end of the thread:

I have, at the prodding of many of you who have posted in this thread, tried putting the jumpers back in and just connecting one set of wires. So here is the verdict. It still sounds great! But not as good as with the speakers fully Biwired. Even though the Martin Logans are not known for their bass, the bass is much, much tighter with the speakers biwired.

I have referred many times in discussions of power cords and various tweaks to how easy it is to be unaware of and fail to control extraneous variables, resulting in misleading or erroneous conclusions. If an EE and skeptic such as Liguy can make such a fundamental error, perhaps I've under-estimated how pervasive an issue that tends to be.

Regards,
-- Al

Al, that's interesting; I assumed Liguy did the comparison between single and biwiring at home as he would have had them on hand, but perhaps not. It would not be a valid comparison to hear them at a dealership and at home and try to draw a conclusion. Good catch. It does seem, however, that he ended up comparing single/biwire in his own rig and his conclusion did not change, which is no surprise to me having obtained similar results universally.

You are right, though, that if people think they can compare across systems at different locations they are out to lunch and need to learn some basics about control for variables. :)

I think you and Tpreaves need to do the power cord comparison! :)

Douglas_schroeder, were this a science there are many factors that would have to be held constant, such as time of day, as electricity demand varies, holding all other things constant, choice of music, etc. But it is not a science; it is a consumer's decision about purchases. If Liguy is satisfied, that is it.

With fewer and fewer dealers and with the proliferation of electronics and speaker manufacturing, even were there many dealers, ones opportunities to listen to comparisons are most limited. Reviews also are of most limited use, as few will have much knowledge of all the elements leading to the reviewer's judgment. A circle of friends whose ears you trust are most vital.

11-17-12: Tbg
But it is not a science; it is a consumer's decision about purchases. If Liguy is satisfied, that is it.

So you do not see anything objectionable about promulgating a conclusion about biwiring to the rest of the world, via an Internet forum, based on a comparison in two completely different rooms between two systems that were completely different aside from the speakers?

Whether or not the poster was satisfied is irrelevant. The issue is that others may be induced to direct their investments of time and money based on conclusions that were reached via methodology that is fundamentally flawed.

Regards,
-- Al

Almarg, I don't think anyone expects you to critique their decisions on wine, women, or song. Frankly, I don't really trust anyones experiences, other than a few friends where my experiences and theirs have corresponded frequently.

Also, I am very distrustful of those who use phrases, such as the laws of physics, etc. If I hear something very striking, as I know that our knowledge is incomplete, I ignore such opinions.

As a retired scientist, I have done my duty to the scientific method in noting research that violates ceteris paribus. I do see no reason for your avoiding pointing this out, however, as long as you know it may be ignored.