Power cord? Why?

Viridian - the point is that if you cannot measure anything, then your mind may be playing trick on you or you have not gotten to the root-cause of the sonic change. At least if there are measurements that coincide with sonic changes, then theories as to why the changes happen are more feasible. It provides some basis for explanation.

Batteries, like AC power sources have impedance. Some batteries will have lower internal impedance than others. Some will work well during transient current demands and others will not work as well to provide the transient current. There is no surprise here.

But Twl, what about the cases where science CAN explain things, but audiophiles refuse to acknowledge that an explanation exists? I'm alternately amused and offended by people who want to lecture me about what science SHOULD do, while refusing to accept what it has already done.

Bomarc, I have no problem with science explaining things. I like that. What I repeatedly hear, though, is that either there is no scientific reason for cables sounding different, or that we are all imagining it, or both. If there is some other scientific reason that you are alluding to, I am all ears. I have no quarrel with anyone who can show that there is some difference in inductance or capacitance or whatever, and if that is verifiable and useful, then I am all for it. I only say that I hear differences and am willing to use the product that sounds best to me. If I can gain information that will help me to make decisions in bettering my system, I will welcome that. However, I do feel frustrated, as you seem to be. I am frequently under attack for believing something that I can hear making an improvement in my system. Personally, I really don't care if there is some kind of magic dust in there or something. All I care about is that it makes my system sound better. To me, technology is a means to an end, and not an end unto itself. I don't make cables, I listen to them in my system. The details can be up to the manufacturers. What I want is a good sounding system. And whatever it takes to do that, is what I want.

While we frequently disagree on this subject on this forum, I have no quarrel with you personally. I would like to reach some kind of common ground that we could agree on, and maybe that would yield some good. I have a very simple goal, and that is a good sounding system. I assembled a variety of things that sounded good to me, and that is what counted for me. If technical-type people want to boil all the nuts and bolts down to some kind of essence that will help us all understand and decide, that's great. The only part that irritates me is the part where people tell me I can't hear something that I clearly hear, and claim that some "fact" means that I can't be hearing it. If I am misunderstanding your position, then I apologize. It is also frustrating to be on this side, and commonly be told that I am in some sort of "delusion world".

Fair enough, Twl. First of all, let me say that you are not under attack, and that I think you should be free to decide on whatever products you want to buy based on whatever comparisons you choose to make.

Second, let's be clear about what science is, and is not. No one claims it to be the final truth. It is no more than the best explanation for something, based on everything we know to date.

Third, there are a number of different sciences at play here. Yes there's electrical engineering, and the physics that underlies it. There's also biology (since part of your "system" is your ears) and experimental psychology, which is also a science and operates under the same empirical rules as physics.

I don't know enough EE to say for certain that power cords can never affect the sound. I suspect, but cannot prove, that when they do, there is probably something wrong somewhere else in the system, since it's not terribly difficult or expensive to build a power supply that can handle the normal quirks of residential electric service.

No one claims that, "If we can't measure it, it must be your imagination." But the tendency of people to hear differences between things which are demonstrably identical is a scientifically validated phenomenon. So if you compare two power cords (without the kinds of scientific controls that those who study human hearing use) and conclude that they sound different, the best you can say scientifically is that there MIGHT be an electrical reason, or you MIGHT be falling victim to this "placebo effect."

Of course, the more plausible the electrical explanation you have for something, the less likely it's the placebo effect. The lack of a good electrical explanation (absent, say, some known problem with a power supply) is what leads some of us to suspect that the placebo effect is at work here.

Finally, let me say that "falling victim to the placebo effect" is not a bad thing. It's normal, and no one is immune. (Including me. I once witnessed a demonstration of the infamous green pen effect, and damned if I didn't hear a difference. But under the circumstances in which I heard it, the placebo effect--or a judicious nudge of the volume knob by the salesman who was doing the demonstration--was the most plausible explanation.)

I don't expect you to agree with everything I've written here, so I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. But I hope I've made it a little clearer where I and some others are coming from, and maybe that'll help keep the sniping to a minimum, which is something we can all agree on.