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
Jcbtubes: Who are the losers musically speaking? That's a boastful claim to make about people you know nothing about.

Jadem6: The true pioneers in audio design made a point of understanding electronics, acoustics, music, and psychoacoustics. Without knowing these, you can't know what to do, why to do it, what to improve, and what the difference is between real and imagined. True audio pioneers learn the strengths and weaknesses of components, test equipment, and yes, the human ear. True audio pioneers aren't guys who got their hands on some fancy braided copper wire and simply proclaimed it "better" without any knowledge. True audio pioneers aren't guys who come up with flaky New-Age pseudoscience like power cords resonating and thereby altering room acoustics or strangling the bass and stuff like that.

Frap: Many people do like the distortion and coloration that tubes impart to the audio. That's your preference, and there's nothing wrong with that. My own playback preference is to be able to reproduce the recording as accurately as possible, with any intentional distortions left to the recording side because that is part of the creative process, where IMHO all's fair if it gets the artist and producer what they want.
702,I mostly agree with your last paragraph to me, regarding the "creative process" and older tube cicuits. There is a falacy existant that in MODERN circuits,there still is this cookbook recipie, that tubes produce coloration and sweetness and SS cicuits produce accuracy and extention at frequency extremes. Tube circuitry today can achieve sonic nuetrality should the designer wish it that way. The human voice is the most difficult thing to accurately reproduce. I have yet to hear a SS circuit (amp or preamp) get the voice as accurate as the Tube units. How do I know? We used to do live vs. recorded tests on the Ampex ATR-100 . We used flamenco guitar and voice.
The musicians themselves (amatuer) would always say when the ARC tube amps were in the chain, "Thats us". When Phase Linear, Stax, and Bryston were used (late 70s), the remarks were "thats not us anymore". Now I realize the gap has narrowed today, but not sure if it will ever be closed.And BTW, there were 3 different types of loudspeakers in the room. The results were consistant on all three.
Regarding great audio pioneers, who in your mind were they?
702, are you not also making a boastful claim when you are telling others that PCs do not make a difference. Thats a boastful claim to make about others that you know nothing about. I have no idea why one PC can sound different than another PC because unlike you I am technicality ignorant.
Do you believe that Jcbtubes, myself and others are hearing things that are not really there? Do you believe that we like spending this kind of money for PCs that are no better than a standard Beldon PC? Am I really fooling myself? I would offer you a PC that IMO makes a huge difference but I get the feeling you have a need to be right more than a need to make your system sound better. If I am wrong just let me know and I will loan you a FIM PC for two weeks. BTW 702, I picked up a couple of CDs that you recommended. They were very good, thanks.

Come on 702, the true pioneers in audio design "defined and created" electronics, acoustics, music, and psycho acoustics. For you to twist that fact and have these pioneers designing only after they learned yet undiscovered areas of electronics is, well just plan silly.
I understand you have this image of yourself as a great mind in audio, that's fine we all have our delusions. But you have no right to claim your knowledge in home audio brings you any closer to an understanding of components performance than I or others here at AudiogoN do. It sounds to me that in my 40 years I've learned more with real life practical experience than your commercial experience has taught you regarding home audio. Your delusion of grandeur over this topic is sadly misplaced, if you for one moment would open your mind to the reality of audio reproduction rather than the theory, I think you would make a great addition to this discussion. Until you are able to come down off your throne and walk with us peasants, your ideas are just that, ideas with no practical application. Thank-you for your attempts to teach us, but maybe the teachers are the masses here, maybe the student should sit down and start to listen. J.D.
I regret that I am limited to only a +2 +2 award for the above post by Jadem6.