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How can power cords make a difference?

I am trying to understand why power cords can make a difference.

It makes sense to me that interconnects and speaker cables make a difference. They are dealing with a complex signal that contains numerous frequencies at various phases and amplitudes. Any change in these parameters should affect the sound.

A power cord is ideally dealing with only a single frequency. If the explanation is RF rejection, then an AC regeneration device like PS Audio’s should make these cords unnecessary. I suppose it could be the capacitance of these cables offering some power factor correction since the transformer is an inductive load.

The purpose of my post is not to start a war between the “I hear what I hear so it must be so” camp and the “you’re crazy and wasting your money,” advocates. I am looking for reasons. I am hoping that someone can offer some valid scientific explanations or point me toward sources of this information. Thanks.
bruce1483
frap
213 posts
 
Dekay is correct that measured distortion has nothing to do with the changes you will or wont hear. I did the experiments 20 years ago before exotic PCs existed. Back then all we had were cords by giant commercial cable companys,(like Belden, Columbia, Woods etc.) Even with the off the shelf wire, some large gains were made by trial and error. Also different solid core lines from the breaker to the outlet made dramatic differences. Blindfolding is nonsense. The truth of the matter is evident with living with the changes you have made. If your change was positive, you will know it as you listen. If negative, you will want to turn the whole thing off, as fatigue sets in.
I do not think the whole ABX crowd is really in tune with listening to music over extended periods, because there is little doubt in the changes being real once you listen long and hard.....Frank
sedond
1,387 posts
 
stevemj, i'm sure all here will be innerested in yer li'l test. re: science, i'm not arguing that it hasn't gotten us this far, all i'm saying is it's *only* gotten us this far. it obviously hasn't gotten us far enuff to explain differences heard in cabling.

myself, i also don't have fancy powercords, except for the two that came w/my vansevers unlimiters, one currently (ha-ha!) used for my amps, the other for my sources. not that i don't tink fancy cords wood help my system, but it's not in my budget. until i get the other components where i want 'em (gettin' real close, now), i've felt i shoodn't spend the bucks on powercords. but, stimulated to do cable research, based upon the hoopla over the relatively cheap absolute powercord, i've recently come up w/the source of cabling that tek line uses (http://www.teklineaudio.com/). their powercords, which, at ~$400 retail for a 6' cord, are supposed to be excellent at the price, in their own right. well, i can buy the cabling @ $3.55/ft, get hospital-grade plugs-n-iec's for ~$10-$15 apiece, so i tink isle roll my own for my amps, pre, tuna, & fono-stage. if there's no earth-shattering improvement, i'm not gonna be upset about the minimal inwestment...

regards, doug s.

stevemj
129 posts
 
Frap and Dekay - The system distortion has to have something to do with the ability to hear the contribution of line cord doesn't it? I mean, if you put a killer line cord on a boom box, would that gain you something? Maybe I have it upside down. I used to manufacture power inverters. Most of them put out a modified squarewave - lots of harmonics. Cheap equipment would buzz. Good gear sounded OK.

Doug - Makes sense to me. Nothing wrong with well put together line cords.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,628 posts
 
Steven: I cannot see that it does with my setup. I do not have the spec's for my amp, but have to guess that the distortion is fairly high considering the output tubes used and the sensativity of the speakers. With the right tubes the 300B amp also offers more detail (except in the bass) than my Musical Fidelity amp which is solid state. This again seems to go against the grain. The distortion spec's on the Musical Fidelity amp are outstanding as far as spec's go.
frap
213 posts
 
Steve, The boombox example does not apply here. We are dealing with the top 3% of the market here. My amp distortion could approach 1 percent, and these differences will still be clearly audible. Ran old McIntosh MC-60s and PILOT tube gear from the 50s with distortion levels that were sky high. Same result.
BTW. I have never said that expensive meant better, just that a change in sonic character occurs. As far as the 50 or 100 foot extention cord idea, get ready for huge losses in resolution and dynamics.
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