Why Power Cables Affect Sound


I just bought a new CD player and was underwhelmed with it compared to my cheaper, lower quality CD player. That’s when it hit me that my cheaper CD player is using an upgraded power cable. When I put an upgraded power cable on my new CD player, the sound was instantly transformed: the treble was tamed, the music was more dynamic and lifelike, and overall more musical. 

This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:

I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe. 

That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter. 

If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please. 
128x128mkgus

Showing 13 responses by celander

I would add to Geoff’s list and suggest the solid vs. fluid nature of the conductor. Teo_Audio, where are your liquid metal fluid power cables?
Can’t let Geoff have the last word on this one.
+1, to markalarsen

I’d go further and suggest all cables are influenced by EMI. And some cables don’t have a shield. Just saying that as a matter of fact, not preference or argument. But arguably, some unshielded cables are highly regarded among those cables having the best SQ, including power cables.


mkgus 12/19/2018 4:59pm post. I think you are looking at this wrong. The electricity coming through a power cable isn’t divided into discrete frequency components.
I see the post police are active tonight. Maybe I should sneak off to the insider site to really cause hell.
kosst, And a lot of incoming AC sucks, too. Not saying that is due to lack of shielding though.
mkgus, Perhaps the simplest answer to your query is the differences in conditioning of the power cable you used on your older player versus your newer player. Cable conditioning is arguably as important as quality of the cable used.
OP. The reason why your power cords differ in sound not knowing anything more about their brand is likely attributed to conditioning. There are a lot of threads devoted to conditioning cables. 
Why do I get the impression that Kosst and Geoff are the same person? Anyone else notice they always show up on the same threads? 
Geoff/Kosst, split personality. There are treatments available.  Just saying...
OP, there are a lot of threads about breaking in cables, including power cables. Your power cable attached to your player was broken in through use (called burn-in or conditioning), whereas your cable that came with your new player was not. Your player will benifit from a burn-in period, too. Do a search on burning in cables, breaking in cables or conditioning cables in the forum and you will get a lot of hits. Here is an example:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/cable-cooking-burnin