How does power cord affect a digital frontend?

From my experiences, power cords effect digital the most! They need clean, refined power and current isn't as important as it is with amps(and other high current components). Even a basic power cord designed to work on digital will get rid of some of the digititus and smooth things out- i.e. larger soundstage, greater transparency, greater image depth, texture/body, a more palpable presence- basically it makes things MUCH differnt. Most cases that different is better and then different power cords have different strong and weak spots- one may be super transparent at the expense of some body; etc....

In other words try a few and see what you hear, a lot of power cord companies offer in home trials so you have little if anything to lose.

I know it does too, but I don't understand it. What exactly is going on with different powercords? What are the physics behind how a powercord effects a component. Is it simply that it gets the electricity more easily through better powercords, or does each powercord contribute to/detract from the electricity in some way that effects the sound (greater transparency, larger soundstage, etc)? Are there any guidelines for pairing powercords with components or is it trial and error?

I agree with Tireguy. I notice larger improvements on my front end equipment including the pre. and transport.
I think most tweaks are more significant on the front.

I found even more than the powercord was the power itself & undoubtedly you have read about (or have) dedicated lines with high quality outlets. Someone once made the comment that the powercord was not the last 5' of the electrical chain but the first 5' & should be given the requisite attention. OK, I added on that last part but if the AC is not up to par, nothing you do can fix it.

I agree that short of a big power amp being severely choked with a puny cord, digital gear and / or highly advanced preamps seem to be the most sensitive to changes in AC power delivery.

I changed power cords on my Philips SACD 1000 and noticed what i thought was a huge difference. After changing the cords, my Brother looked at me with a smile on his face and said "you know we're not hearing that. It's all psycho-acoustics, right?". Swapping back and forth between the two power cords and charting the system's frequency response using test tones verified that there were not only audible differences, but measurable differences.

The weirdest thing about this is that the only real difference between the two cables is how the ground is implimented. Other than that, the two cables use the same identical geometry and materials. Due to the differences in ground wire configuration, this results in an impedance change along the entire length of the cable. Given the fact that the SACD 1000 has NO ground at the IEC jack from the factory, it is not electrically connected to ground. Just altering the impedance of the AC cord was enough to alter the frequency response of the player. This tells me that this player is WAY under-designed in the power supply. But then again, what digital gear isn't ? Sean
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