Upgrading wall outlets

Coming up on 50 years in audio, I wish I had written down every time an engineer, usually not one in audio, has explained how some effect could not possibly exist. I am sure a chemist could prove by analysis that there is no significant difference between wines and those who claim the opposite are fooling themselves. As for me I agree with Ivor Tifenbrun that " If you haven't heard it you don't have an opinion".

Br3098,

Some of the high end audio equipment is so unreliable that almost anything can cause a change in response. In fact some equipment probably never sounds the same twice ever anyway. In this case, every change including the material used in the cover plate on the wall socket to the minutest change in listening position ,volume level etc. will make an audible difference, sounding slightly different every time a critical observation is made.

As you correctly point out, some types of equipment are specificially designed (manufacturers go to great lengths) to ensure they are largely immune and largely robust to significant changes in the operating environment.

So it really depends what equipment you are referring to or what you prefer to use. Some folks will shun robust equipment as being unresolving and favor something that is highly setup dependent (resolving). For some, setup sensitivity to a variety of factors is good proof that the equipment is highly resolving. (If a mere wall socket changes the response then said equipment must surely be able to pick up even finer details in the music than most)

It is a difference of philosophy.

Stanwal, if you knew me better you would understand that:

1. I haven't learned how to hear what doesn't exist, and
2. I always have an opinion

Cheers,

"I am sure a chemist could prove by analysis that there is no significant difference between wines and those who claim the opposite are fooling themselves."- Stanwal

Robert Parker has a working memory of hundreds of wines, and he can identify them in blind tastings, and has done so, thus refuting your hypothetical--and in fact, unlikely--scientist. A moderately skilled oenophile, far below Robert Parker, can at least distinguish wines--if not name them--in blind tastings.

Cable, cord, and socket connoisseurs, on the other hand, reject blind tests, b/c blind tests never show that they hear what they say--and indeed believe--they can hear. That said, some of my best friends are cable freaks.

Shadorne, thank you for your careful explanation. But what, exactly, constitues this "unreliability" of high end audio power supplies that you mention? And how would simlpy changing a household power outlet cause a significant change to the sound (via a change in output to the speakers) from said high end audio equipment?

I'm not saying that no one ever heard a real difference after changing out an outlet. I'm simply suggesting that the real reason for the change is most likely not (as in almost certainly not) the reason that several of you have stated. Bad contacts, yes. Dirty, oxidzed or corroded connections, yes. Magical power genies, no.