How can power cords make a difference?

702 makes some valid points in my opinion. I rarely do blind testing, but several days ago I did and was surprised by the results. A friend made two recordings using different cables from the source to the recorder. Then he played the two recordings for me without telling me which was done with which cable. ( A single blind test ).

I found myself trying to guess which was which by paying attention to his non-intentional clues. I also kept changing my mind about how A sounded to me, then about how B sounded to me. Without any reference or the armor of my preconceptions, I felt a bit naked. For the first time I feel like I experienced what the double-blind proponents were talking about.

I finally got my friend to give me the remote and stop giving off any clues. Of course, some "damage" was done by now because he'd given clues already. I continued the test and finally was able to form my opinions of the similarity and difference between A & B. It took longer than a non-blind test normally takes me.

The blind test forced me to rely on different things than I'm used to. I was uncomfortable with the change. I also felt some stress to furnish information without being able to rely on my bias.

My conclusion is that I will use all methods in the future. I will use single and double-blind tests when it's possible to do so, as it takes extra work and people to set up. And, I will do my own sighted listening tests.

I know this is an endless debate and even banned outright to discuss on Audio Asylum, but I really think there's a place for all forms of testing.

Lawyer: I will be doing the very same test that you just performed, in the near future, when I set up a new CDR to record tape (old cassette collection) to digital. I need to know which IC is best for the recording process which may be completely different than their playback ability. Now I regret selling some of my extra IC's as one of them may have been a clear winner for this application.

Yes, we discovered that the IC that sounded best for playback did not sound the same for recording as it did in playback mode. We're still deciding which is "best".

One of the IC's gave less record surface noise on the CDR. The other gave less record surface noise on playback mode?

Good info to have as it will encourage me to play around with it even more. I suspect that the HT Truthlinks, that I sold, would have been nice for the job. Too late now.

Albertporter. I dont know that people who buy Krell or any other super high end componet would have a problem with seeing a nice fat cord included with their hardware. I dont see many people saying that these aftermarket cords "hurt" performance; only that it does nothing, or it sounds better.
The mindset of most consumers is not "oh my god"! "look, I'm paying for this nice looking cord, and I dont need it". I would guess that most consumers would say "cool, look at this nice cord they "included" with my gear"! This is (in my opinion) the response most tech geeks(lovers) have to a product feature.

Or perhaps I'm the only one who feels this way?